Cash vs Poker Tournament Strategy
The UK Poker sites listed offer a huge number of poker tournaments at a range of buy-in levels, game types and field sizes. Poker tournaments offer online poker players the chance to turn a small investment into a very big payday. However, for those players used to cash (or ring) game poker there are several strategic adjustments which need to be made to help you succeed in the tournament setting.
This article looks at some of these strategy adjustments from the perspective of an online cash game poker player. These adjustments will cover the different stages of an online poker tournament, including the early stages, short-stacked mid-game play, the bubble and the ‘in-the-money’ stage.
Perhaps the biggest single difference between cash game and tournament poker is the nature of the payouts. Cash game poker requires taking calculated risks in situations where you have the ‘best of it’. Tournament poker rewards only those players left standing late in the game – with a bias towards the last few paying positions.
This general observation affects your strategy in a number of ways throughout the game. Just getting into the money in an online poker tournament is rarely worth the time and effort – after all those hours spent playing could be more profitably used in a cash game.
The early stages of an online poker tournament highlight a strategic dilemma. The number of bad players involved will never be higher, and so the potential to accumulate chips is large. However as any experienced poker player will know, playing a table of inexperienced opponents can be a hazard. It is difficult to put these opponents on a hand, and even more difficult to estimate what weak holdings they are prepared to call large bets with.
The dilemma is that if you do not make an effort to win the chips from the weak players early in an online poker tournament, then your opponents will. This in turn has the potential to leave you short-stacked during the crucial middle stages. Since your objective is to reach the final table – and not just to cash – then the accumulation of chips should be the important factor here.
Players who are experienced in online cash game poker have an advantage when the stacks are deep compared to the blinds in the early stages. However if you are used to playing with 100 big-blind stacks then the strategic adjustments for shorter-stack play need to be accounted for as the online poker tournament progresses.
With a stack of 15 to 20 times the big blind you will find that certain hands start to become unplayable. For example suited connectors, which require higher implied odds. As the blinds increase further small pairs will need to be mucked and high-card hands increase in value, especially from late position.
There are many times when you will find yourself with only 10 or 12 big blinds. At this point in a poker tournament any raise you make is likely to commit you to a pot. A significant strategy adjustment for cash game players is to learn the ‘hot-and-cold’ (all in pre-flop) strength of hands when short stacked and to make good decisions based on this information.
Opponent’s stack sizes also become a significant strategic consideration during the shorter-stacked middle stages of an online poker tournament. Opponents with large stacks and those with short-stacks are far more likely to call (or re-raise) you than opponents with ‘comfortable’ stacks. The flexibility of your own stack changes too, for example you have less room to raise with a 15 big blind stack yet this is an ideal size to re-raise an opponent with – especially when you consider there to be a wide margin between the hands that they will open raise with and those they would call an all-in re-raise with.
As the paying places approach there will be a number of adjustments your opponents will make. Some opponents will tighten up considerably until they are safely in the money. Others will look to use ‘the bubble’ as an opportunity to pick up pots. While much of your strategy at the bubble will depend on your stack-size, you have an opportunity here to increase your chances of reaching the final table.
The idea here is that you consider the payout structure of the tournament in conjunction with your opponent’s strategy adjustments. For every time you reach the final table you are potentially winning 10 or even 50 times the cash prize for sneaking into the money. Taking some risk when you have even a small edge at the bubble will pay off over time – even tough you might cash less often overall.
An example of such a strategy adjustment is when a big-stacked opponent is pushing the table around. You are aware that he is capable of doing this with a very wide range of hands. Your opponents will be folding medium strength hands at this point in order to reach the money. A more suitable strategy adjustment may be to see this as an excellent opportunity to double your chips by taking a positive expectation risk. For every time you are knocked out and miss the minimum payout your will increase your chances of making the final table considerably on the rest of the occasions.
Once the bubble bursts and the money places are reached many players who previously folded all but the best hands will now loosen up. Expect to see fast and wild action as the small stacks desperately try to accumulate chips. At this stage of an online poker tournament you will be presented with many opportunities to increase your stack. As a cash game player the adjustment here is awareness of the strength of hands all-in pre-flop and the ability to combine this with the pot-odds on offer.
Reaching the final table you will usually see a wide range of stack-sizes compared to the blinds and antes. The gaps between the payouts are now large. At this stage of an online poker tournament your main strategy considerations are your stack size, you opponent’s stack sizes and your impression of what those opponents are trying to do.
For example you may see several small stacks playing very tight, waiting for each other to bust out in order to move up the payout ladder. With a medium or large stack you can take advantage of this tight play by raising these players often. Conversely, you may be a small stack. In this case whether your larger-stacked opponents are likely to knock each other out becomes important to you.
To summarize, there are many adjustments a cash game poker player needs to make in order to succeed in online poker tournaments. These involve adjusting to the changing stack sizes, to the bubble and to the stack-size dynamic of the final table. Whichever of the excellent poker sites listed that you choose to play online poker tournaments at, your objective should be to reach the last few payouts – even if this means missing out on the occasional small cashes to do so.