Joined: Feb '08
Location: United States
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Why is it that I always hear people say that they can play very well in tournaments, but when they sit at a cash game table they do terrible. The reason I am wondering is I am also one of them. I have nights were I will do ok at cash but not consistently. Any comments?
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Brazil
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Posted by jack37: Why is it that I always hear people say that they can play very well in tournaments, but when they sit at a cash game table they do terrible. The reason I am wondering is I am also one of them. I have nights were I will do ok at cash but not consistently. Any comments?
I believe it's becouse, we people, becomes pot comited and trys to double up our initial stack, what is wrong, and at a tournament this double up thing works better..... and a think a cash game bankroll requires more money to stay stable
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Bulgaria
Age: 45 (M)
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Yeah you`re very right KozaKBR. The people need a good bankroll. But when they win some money at freerolls they think that the play is the same. They play it like a freeroll much time, because they think that this is better chance to double up on lower pairs and after they lose a couple of hands like this they are tilt.
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Denmark
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Also I think it depends of what you play mostly, when I started playing poker some years ago I always played tournaments and became a pretty decent tournament player finished in the money 3 out of 5 tours. a shame it only was freerolls and micro tours. so not alot of bennefit there only a few bucks, then I got away from poker for about a half a year and started playing Cash Games and SnG´s instead, and now I really suck big time playing tournaments, can´t finish in the money at all, I make way too many mistakes, so I guess alot of it depends of what you play most... As you know some people just rock at tournament play others rock at cash games, and the third rocks at SnG´s - I really like to play a good tour. sometimes but I just can´t finish in the money anymore, only in SnG´s...
Joined: Dec '07
Location: Slovakia
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Well iam pretty same ... or i was its mostly becouse i disliked that mono blinds and that you have to have a lot of patience in cash game , in tournaments too but thats a lot more enjoyeble
Joined: Dec '07
Location: United Kingdom
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yeah i understand what your saying, i have made most of my profit online from cash tables although i have had a couple of decent online tourny wins also. I think its the fact that a cash game is fast and consistent mostly where as in a tournement you have to bide your time and be patient which is something i just dont have very much of lol. I enjoy playing tournements more but as i said i just dont have the patience to fold for half an hour at a time and wait for that doible hand, im getting better at doing this but for now im much better cash game player
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Ireland
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The main difference is obv the deeper stacks in cash games, and the escalating blinds in tournaments. This means that blind stealing and restealing play less of a part in cash games. Also, there is very little emphasis on turn and river play in tournaments, whereas this is where most of the money goes in in cash games.
Whenever I see tourney players in my cash game I'm happy. They stack off much too easily with one pair.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United States
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I think it just varys on how much expierience a certain person has. I started playing just sngs 4 years ago. Now Im al cash games and if I play sngs I usally money 1/2 time ( making no profit or losing ). So I stick with the cash now. I Wont even touch a mtt usually because I just cant play them. But when it comes to cash games I almost always end up leaving in a profit
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United States
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I think you might be right about the deeper stacks. I do play some decent tournaments $24 buy ins and do pretty well. But when I play cash games ill go to a table that is $.50-1 nl and sit down with $25. I guess I might do better with a bigger stack on my cash games. I actually play tighter at cash but dont do very well.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United States
Age: 54 (M)
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what about your game did you change in order to play better in cash games? Did you loosen up on your game or are you playing much tighter? Or any other changes you have made that might help me.
the tables that i find the most profitable are often the ones that are limp happy, if their are lots of limpers you can either tighten up or loosen your game. If you tighten up and only play those big hands like AK AA KK then when you get them you can raise more (if your lucky enough to be in late position) just because your raise to 6 BB will only be a pot bet after a whole bunch of limpers. Or if you want to you can loosen up your game and limp in turn, wait to hit two pair and then play it strong
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United States
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I was listening to a phil Ivey interview , were he said that he likes to change his game up. If he is at a table were the people are playing loose he will play very tight and vice versa.
i think, that is becaust the tournaments are so differetns, the increase of the blinds, the stack size and all other thing's, in tounrmanent's U NEED to protect ur blinds, in cash, the blinds never get up, so u can play quite in the blinds, in tournaments, a bad move get out of the tournament and u lose ur buy-in , a bad move in cash and u lose your bankroll
... or i was its mostly becouse i disliked that mono blinds and that you have to have a lot of patience in cash game , in tournaments too but thats a lot more enjoyeble 
