Five Major Differences between Tournament and Cash Game Play

I have heard the phrase Poker is Poker repeated many times.  While it is quite true that there is no difference in the 52 cards used in a poker deck, the relative value of hands from Royal Flush through just holding a high card do not change, there are significant differences in strategic decision making between tournaments and cash games.  From hand selection and bet sizing to acceptable risks and potential payouts the fact is that tournaments do not play like cash games and cash games do not play like tournaments.

There are five major differences I want to explore in this post:

1. Length of Play
2. Reloading
3. Blinds
4. Payout and Risk
5. Stacks

Length of Play

Tournament play lasts until one of two things occurs, you go broke or you win all the available chips in play.  Breaks are scheduled and even if you leave your seat you will not escape blinds or antes as they will be posted for you.  In small tournaments, under 90 players, the game can last from four to six hours.  In larger tournaments the play can go on for days with 10 to 12 hour sessions scheduled.  Because of this, tournament play requires stamina, focus over a long period of time, the ability to control one’s emotional responses thereby controlling tilt and it requires constant adjustment to changing conditions like increasing blinds and antes at new levels, being moved to a new table and reading opponents as they change up their game.

Cash game play lasts as long as you want it to last.  If you are having a great day and everything seems to be going your way then it is likely that you will remain in your seat and play.  If you feel yourself going on tilt you can simply get up and walk around a bit to regroup.  You cannot be gone forever because if you miss too many blinds your seat will be vacated and given to another player.  Rules on this vary from casino to casino but generally if you miss between 2 and four blinds your seat will be given away.  If you are having a rotten day you can just give up and go home.  Start and stop when you will, you are in complete control of the length of the game.

Reloading

In tournament play, unless you are in a rebuy tournament, you never have the option to reload.  You pay your entry fee and you get a stack of chips.  You play with that stack until you go broke or you win all the chips.  Stack size is far more important in tournament play and is measured by the number of big blinds remaining or by “M,” the measure of how much a round of poker will cost you divided into your total stack.  M is a more accurate measure of your ability to take risks in tournament play.  Rebuy tournaments allow you to reload during a fixed period of time if you go broke but, in the end, your risk is fixed as it is in all tournament play.

Cash games, on the other hand, let you reach into your pocket and reload at any time.  If you go broke you can always buy more chips.

Blinds

In tournament play the blinds and antes increase at fixed times.  In early stages of tournaments blinds are generally small relative to stack size and there are no antes.  Levels last a fixed length of time and at the beginning of each new level the blinds double and antes are introduced and double as well at a fixed point.  As the blinds increase there is an incentive to steal the blinds.  As the blinds go up your M tends to go down thereby increasing your tolerance for taking risks to increase your stack.  Tournament play in the very late stages of the event often favors aggression.

In cash games you can choose the level at which you want to play and the blinds and antes simply never go up.  If you are playing in a $1/$2 game the blinds are always steady at $1 for the small blind and $2 for the big blind.  Steady blinds present much less of an incentive to steal the blinds from your opponents.  Additionally, because the blinds are steady, there is a greater incentive to let hands go and play a more conservative game.

Payout and Risk

In tournament play you risk your buyin…PERIOD!  Whatever the buyin is, that money is already spent.  In most tournaments about 10% of the entrants get paid, the other 90% simply lose their buyin.  Some tournaments, online SNGs for example, pay around a third of the entrants making them less risky over time.  The payout in a tournament for the winner provides one with a huge return on investment.

In cash games, on the other hand, the payout/loss potential is dollar for dollar what you invest.  If you play in a $5/$10 no-limit game and you buyin for 100 times the big blind or $1000 it is that thousand dollars that you are risking…No more and no less.  Most poker rooms have a limit on buyin (both minimum and maximum) and if you are winning and have more than the maximum buyin on the table you cannot buy more chips.  If you fall below the maximum, however, you may add chips to get to the max.  At any given moment, however, your risk is measurable by the size of your stack.

Stacks

Tournaments begin with everyone having equal stacks.  You will receive a specific number of chips with which to play and everyone entering the tournament will have the same number of chips.  Some tournaments are deep stack tournaments while some are short stack.  Average tournaments, however, generally provide every player with an M of right around 100.  Many online tournaments provide an M of 50 making play riskier early on.  As time and play goes by the stacks are becoming more varied as some players are accumulating chips while others are losing chips.  It is important to pay close attention to the average chip stack and your position relative to that number.  You can generally be more aggressive and take fewer risks when your stack is above the average than when you are below.

In cash games, unless you are starting a new table where all the players buyin for the maximum allowed, you sit down to play in a game with wildly varying chip stacks.  Many times your stack size will be somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Stack size in cash games is far less important than it is in tournament play for two reasons.  First, cash game play should be more conservative than tournament play.  Secondly, because you are risking dollar for dollar your stack management requirements are far more conservative than in the fixed risk tournament situation.

Final Thoughts

Sure, Poker is Poker, but how you play poker differs from tournaments to cash games.  I tend to think of ALL tournament play as a freeroll.  Sure, I have money invested, but that money no longer belongs to me, rather, it belongs to the prize pool.  I am playing to compete, to win if possible, but I am now playing for free.  I am playing in a game where aggression pays big dividends and well timed aggression wins tournaments.  Because my risk is limited I play a looser game.

Cash game play, on the other hand, makes one’s risk more visible.  Because of the dollar for dollar risk, the variance in stack size takes on a far more real quality than does the relative size of tournament chips.  I tend to play tighter in cash games than I do in tournaments, timing my aggression with solid hands.  I want to create a tight-aggressive image while carefully managing my stack.

Playing poker is a challenge of strategic thinking and one must adjust to the particular circumstances of the game in which one finds one’s self.

About the Author

Roger Fischel began playing poker with his friends in high school.  Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw were the games of choice back then.  Over the years, Roger turned to Texas Hold ‘em as his game of choice.  He plays both limit and no-limit hold ‘em regularly.  During a long career as a teacher, Roger learned the value of sharing what he knows with others as a way to give back to the community in which he shares, thus, Rags to the River Poker was born.  Roger recommends online poker tracking software for improving one’s game.  He also offers a listing of online poker sites which welcome US players.

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