Transition to cash games

MoogPoo

hi there. Been playing tourneys a while, doing well enough overall. Wanted to learn to play cash games more though as they seem more fun with more skill and things. Any good books or advice. Just ordered harrington on cash games but got mixed reviews and another cash game book. What are they like in comparison to tourneys? Are they far more difficult?

Also would like to know if more skill is required than tourneys and what skills. I just realised how bad I am post flop and in poker in general... used to all the shoving Oh, and is having a HUD essential. Can't afford atm but would I be at a complete disadvantage without the HUD. I know some books talk about how to use a HUD as a major part of online play so I'll probably have to get one soon.

Any comments/advice appreciated. Thanks

Jul3s

MoogPoo wrote: »

hi there. Been playing tourneys a while, doing well enough overall. Wanted to learn to play cash games more though as they seem more fun with more skill and things. Any good books or advice. Just ordered harrington on cash games but got mixed reviews and another cash game book. What are they like in comparison to tourneys? Are they far more difficult?

Also would like to know if more skill is required than tourneys and what skills. I just realised how bad I am post flop and in poker in general... used to all the shoving Oh, and is having a HUD essential. Can't afford atm but would I be at a complete disadvantage without the HUD. I know some books talk about how to use a HUD as a major part of online play so I'll probably have to get one soon.

Any comments/advice appreciated. Thanks

Ask yourself why exactly you want to change from tournies to cash, imo cash may seem "sexier" on the face of it, but soon turns into a long boring grind and without a substantial rakeback deal and putting in huge daily/monthly volume of hands, you'll do well to breakeven.
There're far more recreational players playing tournies and this is where the value lies, stay with tournies is my advice and occasionally dable in cash if you must.

Dr Turk Turkelton

Also I would avoid the ipoker sites if u are going to play small stakes cash as they seem to be full of bots and ipoker don't care as they make loads from raking these.
Unfortunately this is going to bring you to playing cash games on pokerstars where having a weak post flop game is not a good thing.
The players at 5/10 cent games here are like 5/10 dollar pro's in Vegas!

In summary like the above poster said stick to the tourneys and keep studying and perhaps read the strategy forums on twoplustwo for another while and build up a good bankroll so u are way overstaked when you do move on to cash.

Best of luck.

shangri la

Difference in skill is huge from playing a 20bb stack with 3 minute blinds to playing 100-200bb deep cash games.

bad players can profit at tournaments, they will be broken quickly in cash.

MoogPoo

thanks guys, I only play recreationally just never gave cash games a serious go. Might play the odd bit in micro just to practice and see what its like.

Samba

MoogPoo wrote: »

hi there. Been playing tourneys a while, doing well enough overall. Wanted to learn to play cash games more though as they seem more fun with more skill and things. Any good books or advice. Just ordered harrington on cash games but got mixed reviews and another cash game book. What are they like in comparison to tourneys? Are they far more difficult?

Also would like to know if more skill is required than tourneys and what skills. I just realised how bad I am post flop and in poker in general... used to all the shoving Oh, and is having a HUD essential. Can't afford atm but would I be at a complete disadvantage without the HUD. I know some books talk about how to use a HUD as a major part of online play so I'll probably have to get one soon.

Any comments/advice appreciated. Thanks

Learning to play poker is a bit like learning to drive a car, if you don't do it with the right teacher, you develop lots of unwanted bad habits.

Tracking software is an absolute must if you want to play cash games online, they all come with free integrated HUDs, you can acquire free copies of the the software by completing promos on certain rooms found on the PT3 or HEM2 home pages, make sure you don't do it on a room you want to get rakeback on at a later date. Then you need to learn how to read and interpret stats.

I'd suggest getting a training site subscription to start, most offer a free 7 day trial that you can cancel if you're not happy with it, deucescracked.com is a good place to start, and they have an excellent beginner series, it touches on tracking software etc.

After training sites, there's no better substitute than hiring your own personal coach, rates can vary anywhere from $50-$500 and upwards per session.

Whatever you do, don't just take money to the tables in hope you magically adjust your game and become a winning 6max player over night, firstly i'd concentrate on identifying and plugging as many leaks as possible before setting out to play.

Best of luck

Treehouse72

MoogPoo wrote: »

I just realised how bad I am post flop

Cash is all about post flop. I don't play tourneys any more, but from memory there was basically no meaningful post-flop play. A bit, but in comparison to cash games, essentially none. This is by far the biggest difference. Once you play cash you'll come to understand that most tourney poker isn't poker at all.

NamedUser

post in live low stakes nl on 2+2.
find casino that offers a good rakeback deal.
start on first date of said rakeback deal / cash league commencing.
put in 20 hrs Fri + Sat
just play nuts in position.

??????

profit

shangri la

Probably wants to enjoy poker not clicking on 16 tables like a zombie for 20 hours of his weekend.

premierstone

MoogPoo wrote: »

Also would like to know if more skill is required than tourneys and what skills.

shangri la wrote: »

Difference in skill is huge from playing a 20bb stack with 3 minute blinds to playing 100-200bb deep cash games.

bad players can profit at tournaments, they will be broken quickly in cash.

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Cash is all about post flop. I don't play tourneys any more, but from memory there was basically no meaningful post-flop play. A bit, but in comparison to cash games, essentially none. This is by far the biggest difference. Once you play cash you'll come to understand that most tourney poker isn't poker at all.

The above comments are way off tbh, yes Cash and Tournament poker are very very different, but cash is not 'more' skillfull than tournament poker, it just requires a different set of skills. The way some are describing it here they seem to think anyone can be a profitable Tournament player.

Smoores

Samba wrote: »

Learning to play poker is a bit like learning to drive a car, if you don't do it with the right teacher, you develop lots of unwanted bad habits.

Tracking software is an absolute must if you want to play cash games online, they all come with free integrated HUDs, you can acquire free copies of the the software by completing promos on certain rooms found on the PT3 or HEM2 home pages, make sure you don't do it on a room you want to get rakeback on at a later date. Then you need to learn how to read and interpret stats.

I'd suggest getting a training site subscription to start, most offer a free 7 day trial that you can cancel if you're not happy with it, deucescracked.com is a good place to start, and they have an excellent beginner series, it touches on tracking software etc.

After training sites, there's no better substitute than hiring your own personal coach, rates can vary anywhere from $50-$500 and upwards per session.

Whatever you do, don't just take money to the tables in hope you magically adjust your game and become a winning 6max player over night, firstly i'd concentrate on identifying and plugging as many leaks as possible before setting out to play.

Best of luck

This is a great post and I agree with it 99%. Training sites are a great tool and I think are wayyyyyyyyyy better than books, so I would definitely start with a free trial to each of the major sites (bluefirepoker, Deucescracked, cardrunners, etc). See which one suits your game the most and go with it! The part I disagree with is I wouldn't even think about hiring a personal coach at this point, though. These days a lot of the personal coaches are guys not making $ online like they once were, and many of them don't even play online anymore! fwiw my favorite training site is bluefire! glgl mate

Samba

premierstone wrote: »

The above comments are way off tbh, yes Cash and Tournament poker are very very different, but cash is not 'more' skillfull than tournament poker, it just requires a different set of skills. The way some are describing it here they seem to think anyone can be a profitable Tournament player.

No they're not, they're accurate comments, they may be different skills, but you need far more of them to consistently beat cash games, so they do require more skill.

Smoores wrote: »

These days a lot of the personal coaches are guys not making $ online like they once were, and many of them don't even play online anymore!

Good point, but I wouldn't let that discourage you from coaching , there's only so much you can learn on your own and through training sites imo, a good personal coach can drastically help you improve your overall win rate, it all depends on the coach though, you just have to do your research and make sure you're not getting coaching from a donkey claiming to be a thoroughbred

Formation

There is a requirement for a wider skill set for cash games. Thats clear as day.

depending on field size in tournaments you are eventually going to have to take a coinflip, probably numerous times to get to the FT. The skill in tournaments is getting to the soft money early and restealing late and hoping the lad doesnt have a hand good enough to call you with this time.