Cash Game Play for Tournaments

Posted 8 years ago

I've just been thinking about this for a while and wanted to see what other people thought.

I've hear a lot of banter about people saying a lot of tournament players don't have that great of a game compared to cash game players who maybe have spent more hours looking at certain spots in detail. I mean spots within hands themselves. The general thought may be that many tournament players have learnt how to play their stack well and know all the spots to do what with what ranges, e.g. shoving ranges, and M Zone etc.

But my main question is, if a good cash game player who has studied really well comes into a good deep stacked tournament, do you think they would have an edge over the general population of tournament players? obviously after making sure they are aware of stack play when short-stacked etc.

Just wanted to know how people thought about this.
Grocker6

Last Post 8 years ago by

Grocker6

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Posted 8 years ago
@Jon-PokerVIP I'll tag you in this as I know you've done your fair share of tournies, and maybe you can tag some others you think can answer this well.
Posted 8 years ago
Well like everything you need to adjust and it is not just a super simple transition but in theory yes we should be way better when it comes to deepstack poker. HOWEVER there really is no such thing as a deep stacked tournament as although it may start that way you will probably never find yourself with 100bb+ a few levels in. Then the deepstack just becomes a 30-60bb game rather than a usual 10-30bb game.

Posted 8 years ago
You definitely will have an edge in the early rounds, the problem is the short stack push/fold time is where tournaments are really won and lost.

Maybe there's more to it than that though. One of the reason cash game players are seen as more sophisticated is their imagination in how they can manoeuvre their opponents stack into the middle should they desire it. This doesn't always have to be a deep stack situation, you can still use your experience of a longer list of possible lines than an average tourney will be aware of, but generally there is always going to be less scope for outplaying opponents post flop than in a cash game, it's just how it is, even in deep stack events.
Posted 8 years ago
Well I just felt that maybe a lot of the tournament players may have great understanding of SPRs etc and when to make moves, but in the earlier rounds if a cash game experienced guy plays, they could build up more of a buffer in a lot of spots and take the edge that the other guys might miss. And some bluff spots etc that maybe not be thought of from some other guys. I dunno. I just think I've learnt a good few things and wonder how they would translate. I'm not really intending to play many tournaments but I hear things said about them. And wonder how soft they really are.