When I played poker as a pastime I would dabble in both tournaments and cash games, particularly live. I would bust out of a tournament and ten minutes later you would find me sitting in a Hold 'Em or Dealer's Choice cash game, carrying on where I thought I had left off. I didn’t think any more of it, a game was a game and that was that.However, when my motivations for playing poker changed and my hours at the table increased, especially online, I went through an at times painful adjustment process and learnt that the disciplines required for tournaments and cash games were very different and, for a while, found that something had to give. In my case, my tournament game suffered and I was able to grind along in my cash games making acceptable returns but spoilt by moments where I would revert to tournament style play and gamble unneccessarily. I set about thinking what I needed to do to make both disciplines work, preferably in tandem.
I concluded that I was falling between two stools. My tournament game had atrophied. Sitting there rock like I would invariably be semi short stacked and relying on winning an inevitable race to get me into contention. If I was to hit a final it was only to go out 8th or 9th and I never had enough chips to be in contention at the business end of competitions or merely to adopt an aggressive style in the middle game. I had become a good short-stack player, something that will always come in useful but not exactly guaranteed to pay the bills.
Meanwhile, although cash games were more successful, I was prone to a little over-aggression, sometimes risking a buy in on a coin flip for example, as if compensating for my dissatisfaction with my tournament game. In pondering what I needed to do I considered both the techniques required for tournament and cash and the mental adjustments required. My approaches had to work in my regular live tournament games and in my $2-4 and under online cash games.
I deliberately limit my comments to the lower levels. I tried $5-10 and up on various sites and found that I both needed to make moves and recognize moves to succeed. I also felt I played a bit scared, not so much of the impact of losing a buy-in which my personal circumstances could handle but because I was obsessed about putting a + figure for each session in the relevant columns of my then newly constructed and elaborate excel spreadsheets. Nowadays I take a longer term perspective but still remember with unease how far out of my comfort zone I found myself at the higher levels.
The mistake I was making was a cash game mistake that many tournament players make, playing too aggressively too often. I tended to bluff more often than my opponents, trying to use the same relentless aggression that I believed worked in tournaments and which I thought I was lacking. That style of play simply isn’t necessary in cash games where the blinds stay at the same level and no one is worried about being knocked out. Nowadays I tend to play more aggressively and bluff more often in tournaments where I think the conditions suggest it is likely to have a positive outcome because my opponents tend to still believe I’m a tightie and are willing to let go of their hands. Veteran cash game specialists can simply wait for a premium hand or trap their opponents when they have the best of it. You don’t need to play a lot of hands and combat the blinds in a cash game. In extreme circumstances playing, and winning, one big pot with pocket Aces can make you a winner for the session. The great part about playing online is that no one will give you the evil eye when you double-up and promptly leave the table.
Also, tournament style game play has become common in online no-limit cash games. Many inexperienced players have an all-in mentality that stems from loose tournament play. You’ll see hands like AK vs. JJ or AQ vs. 66 where all the money goes in pre-flop. This is simply unnecessary and a sign of impatience. None of these hands are a big favourite, which means that these players are willing to risk their entire stack on a coin flip, as I once did. This type of play makes sense in a tournament setting where you are continually battling the blinds, you may be short-stacked and need to double-up, or you’re just looking to put the maximum amount of pressure on your opponents. In a cash game, why not wait for a better spot before getting in all of your money? Instead of going all-in and chasing out worse hands when you’ve Aces or risk going broke when you’ve got Jacks, why not make a standard raise of 3 or 4 times the big blind and re-evaluate the situation on the flop? Patience is rewarded in no-limit cash games and you’re under no pressure to accumulate chips.
I also analysed with great care statistics from sources such as Pokertracker and eliminated some leaks from my game… AQ to a raise from certain types of player? No thanks. Raise with suited connectors for deception?…well ok. Can’t give away the real tips though! Add this to assiduous player notes and I began to notice my results were more consistent and variance reduced. As my confidence increased I added a table or two to the routine I adopted.
The downside of all the above was the boredom factor. I live alone and some days I would look up out of my study window and be surprised it was dark… the whole day had passed without me knowing. So I began to play in two hour stints and then consciously go and do something different. I would also follow a golden rule of at least three hours between playing cash and playing a tournament, whether online or live. This worked for me. I know some play both simultaneously but it blurred the boundaries for me. Rare is the day now when I play a casino tournament and then dive straight into the cash..
At the same time as I was tightening up my cash game I was loosening up my tournament game but this could only work for me by setting clear demarcations between both types of game. My answer to this was leaving time between playing one game and moving to another and teaching myself, Pavlovian style, to alter my character and temperament for tournaments. This will probably sound stupid but I have trained myself to do this. Five minutes before the start of every live tournament I lock myself in the gents. The ipod goes on and at full volume I play two of the following songs:
She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult
American Idiot by Green Day
Going Underground by The Jam
These get the adrenalin pumping and away we go!
To conclude, unlike in a tournament, you don’t have to play in a cash game until you either go broke or gain every chip on the table. The blinds are the cost of doing business at the table – not an ever-increasing chip monster dictating your actions. Separating your cash game strategy from you tournament strategy can do wonders for your bankroll, its begun to do so for mine. Playing a straightforward, dull, and consistent game is often the best strategy to crush lowish level no-limit online cash games. Remembering to completely forget this in tournaments is crucial too.