cash VS tournament : the difference.

[kikdapoor]

tournaments are my favorite just because you can be patient and still take it down.. while cash on the other hand you have to stay aggressive because just waiting for a good hand wont be enough to keep you alive!

[Detroitjunky]

tournaments are my favorite just because you can be patient and still take it down.. while cash on the other hand you have to stay aggressive because just waiting for a good hand wont be enough to keep you alive!

I disagree here (I wonder if kikdapoor accidentally listed advice backwards) and no else is addressing the issue- the style of play between the two is very different. Cash games you can be tighter because you can wait for a hand - the blinds are not eating you up that much - a trick to understanding this (I read in a magazine) is to sit at a cash table and dont play any hand for an hour - see how much of your roll goes away - not very much at all is the answer. If you have $10 in your account and want to grow it play low level cash. On BCP you can play .01/.02 and have 20 buy ins - you will see about 40-60 hands an hour if the table isnt super slow - at that rate you can fold every hand you get for a whole hour and only be down .18 on average - 36% of your stack - not very much for seeing 50 hands. Now assume you win ONE hand each hour and take down a pot of .20 then you are up .02 each hour. May not seem like much but cash game results are defined by how many BB you can win in an hour - and 1BBPH isnt a bad result if you do the scaling - if this is a $10/$20 game, then 1BBPH is $20 an hour pay rate which is more than most people make. Now not many people play 10/20 so you have to skew the results a little - say you win 2 hands an hour at .15 each - now you are up .12 at the end of the hour and that is 6BBPH rate (at the 10/20 you are now making $120/hour pay and that is incredible-even at 1/2 you are making $12 and hour and that is livable pay in most cities)

[Detroitjunky]

Now on the flip side if you only win 2 out of every 50 hands in a tournament - unless they are double ups each hand then you will bust out VERY EARLY! This is the main reason cash and tourneys are different - you have to win more hands (or very big pots) in a tourney making your reads on your opponents more important, position more important, moves more important, and terms like EV and GAP CONCEPT very important - learn those terms - and another important item in tourneys is that unlike in cash - if you bust you are out and can not return making outdraws very damaging.

[Detroitjunky]

all in all i think cash games are easier to play because you can let your hands to the work for you - and as you get to be a better player and understand your opponents you can begin to up your BBPH rate and really make some money. They are slightly more boring than tourneys but winning money should never be boring - and if you want more fun realize that will will probably end up paying for it in the end - my advice is to play cash games to fund your tourneys - (on BCP) if you have $10 - play .01/.02 until you get to 11.65 - then use that 1.65 to play in a sng, if you cash in it play more sngs until you have enough to play in a bigger sng or mtt tourney- if you dont go back to cash and make another 1.65 and start over. this way you can control your bankroll more efficiently and will be on your way to making some big bucks

[Detroitjunky]

now with this there is the idea that no one seems to discuss on this site is how the game changes as your games go up in price - game play in both cash and tourneys changes dramatically as you go up in levels (from .01/.02 to .1/.2 is even a big change in style of play) - a good idea is to play .01/.02 and watch .02/.05 and .05/.1 games to learn how the style is different and what to expect when you get there - same with sngs - watch a few higher priced ones every now and then and see what is different - dont just think that if u are crushing one level you can immediately go and crush the next level up - you will most likely be wrong