Tournament to Cash game? What changes?

[AceofSpades]

Any suggestions on what changes I should be making for going from tournaments to cash games?

[Vitaliy]

No pressure of raising blinds should make you avoid moves you are forced to do in tournaments when your stack is crippled.
I think otherwise playing your normal tourney style while your stack is not corrupted yet would be the best approach.

[Lucky]

Play in cash games is slightly looser than you'd play at beginning of tourney, although much tighter than you'll play at later stages.

Basically, most tourney players are fish in cash games cuz they play like gus hansen at final table. Cash players cant wait for some tourney clown to jam JJ preflop with 200 bb stacks and then curse his luck when shown AA.

[afreeman]

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Any suggestions on what changes I should be making for going from tournaments to cash games?

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Probably the biggest general difference is that the range of long-term viable strategies is somewhat smaller in cash games than in tournaments.

Some people approach tourneys with a really loose-aggressive style from the start in an attempt to either build a stack quickly or bust out. Others play fairly tight until they start to approach the bubble.

If you're one of the rare tight players, then it will be a fairly straightforward change: just play as if you're in the opening rounds.

However, if you're one of the more common LAG players, then you'll probably need to tighten up your starting hand requirements quite a bit or you'll be bleeding money over the long run unless you're very good at reading your opponents.

[AceofSpades]

Yeah I'm definately one of the more LAG tournament players.

In tournaments the main chip winner is top pair usually, and sometimes a set.

How much do you value top pair in a cash game? Do you normally try to make a fair amount of money with it, call raises with it etc or do you try to play a small pot with it, and are the other hands the money makers?

[Homesig]

Switching from Tournments to NL Cash can be a very very difficult. I remember when I switched from $20-$30 sit and go to 50nl and 100nl I constantly overplayed my hands and couldn't laydown TPTK, ie.. AK and AQ. I quickly won $500, however later that week I lost all of that plus 500 in nl100. In tournies I would just push when I made those hands off the flop, however in cash games folding ak,aq,aa,kk,qq needs to be done to a very sucessful players. Also paying attention to your opponents at the table can very +EV, at 20 sit ang gos you can just fold until your 4-5 handed.

[The_Bends]

I'd define the difference like this.

In a tournament you hold AK, raise before the flop and the flop comes As 8s 7d. You bet and get called. In the vast majority of situations all you're looking for is how to best get the money in against a weaker Ace. Yes A7 might be beating you but you don't have time to find out.

In a cash game you hold AK, raise before the flop and the flop comes As 8s 7d. You bet and get called. Now you have to think about how your going to play the hand in light of the fact that you will be putting the vast majority of your stack in on the turn and river. Avoiding A7 becomes possible, simply extracting from AQ becomes more difficult.

All round you need to be much tighter, much more warey of traps and much more able to read your opponents. They'll be at the table for longer so you have more time to pick your players.

1) They're just chips.

2) Remember, people want to give their money away.

3) Always be willing to be the one to take that money.

4) Aggression, Aggression, Aggression.

5) Position.


I simply don't understand the advice of "play tight, play a waiting game." That's fine, if that's what you want.

The alternative is to play a little bit looser, and be quite aggressive post flop. If you play intelligently you'll avoid paying off monsters because people will try to "trap" you, but they'll never give you credit for your monsters and you'll get paid.

Again, this is just my advice. I'm a newbie to this forum, and I'm obviously different from a healthy chunk of posters here who seem to advocate a style of play that I find simply too conservative.

[AceofSpades]

By "quite aggressive post flop" what do you mean? Can you give me some examples?

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By "quite aggressive post flop" what do you mean? Can you give me some examples?

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I mean I am always willing to bet to take pots that no one seems interested in. If a flop comes down that doesn't seem as if it could have helped my opponent, I will bet to take it. If I have a solid read on my opponent (i.e. I've been at the table with him for a while) and sense weakness, I will raise him off the pot.

On occasion I will be wrong, and will pay the price of the bet or the raise. This is more than offset by the number of times I am right, and take countless unclaimed pots.

I play my strong hands this same way. Because I am very active, I do not get credit for such a powerful hand, and I may get all of my opponent's chips.


One of the things you should always look for in an opponent is an announcement of a high pair. Players do this, though they may not realize it. If that is the case, and you have a small pair or an excellent drawing hand, get in there with him.

It's worth noting that if a player has made this announcement and I don't hit, I'm not going to try to make him fold. He won't. I'm not going to waste chips trying to bluff him off KK or AA.

I will warn, this is a difficult style to learn. To an inexperienced player it often results in overplaying hands. It is higher variance than other styles, particularly when your timing is off for a week at a time (it happens). However, when properly executed, it works wonderfully.