Cash games and tournaments are like apples and oranges. In cash games you play each hand for the value of that hand alone. In a cash game, if you have a hand in which you like your odds, you’re willing to go for it with all your chips.

In a tournament, in the same situation, it’s completely different, because if you’re wrong, you lose everything. If you have a healthy stack of 100,000 chips and you run into a guy with 90,000, you don’t want to play a coin flip for all your chips, because at this stage in the game they can be better used to take advantage of smaller stacks.

In a side game, if there are 20,000 chips in the pot and your opponent bets your last 60,000, and you feel you’re at least forty-something percent to win, it’s just a straight math problem. And if you lose the pot, you just reach into your pocket and buy more chips, because if you’re a good cash game player, you’re properly financed for the game you’re playing.

Moreover, if you do well at the beginning of a ring game and run badly at the end, you’ll probably come out even. In a tournament, you can do great at the beginning, but towards the end (when they raise the blinds and a bet and a call costs as much as you made the whole of Day 1), you lose two hands and you’re finished.

The good thing about tournaments is that if you lose a string of pots, then you’re out. If this happens in a cash game, you’re likely to start steaming and can end up burning up a lot of money. “I can’t keep running bad”, you say to yourself, and, before you know it, you’ve lost your whole gambling bankroll.

A lot of these strong, super-aggressive tournament players are no good in side games, because when things go against them, they play terribly. Usually they’d just bust out of the tournament, so no one would notice – the ‘steam factor’ goes out the window. The best cash game players, therefore, are resilient; they can take a hell of a beating and just bounce back.

Good tournament play is a difficult skill to master, and tournament players deserve credit for their achievements, but the best poker players in the world are the high stakes cash game players.
David Gray

Here’s a link to the latest Online Poker Room Review Directory from the crew down the road at Gooners Guide to Gambling. (PS: A Gooner is an Arsenal Football Club supporter… derived from “Gunner”, but these guys are really just online gambling fans with a minor bias towards the red and white).

1. Pot size management – control the pot size, play big pots with hands that warrant a big pot, and keep the pot small when you think your opponent may have a good read on your hand.
2. Position – I can’t say it loud enough, when big pots come about, be sure that you are in position.
3. Don’t overplay your premium hands. I see players lose tons of money with “good hands”, don’t be that guy. AAxx is only a slight favorite over 4 random cards, keep that in mind when you are playing a deep stack.
4. Don’t be afraid to get in there and gamble. Omaha is a gambling game and is very risk/reward oriented.
5. Always think one street ahead. This is one of the most important things and it ties together with pot size management. When you are facing a bet on the turn, try to run through your mind what the action on the river will be before you decide on what to do.
6. Always be aware of your opponent’s stack size. Think of your possible win if you make your hand, and remember it’s real hard to bluff a short stack, so be sure you are paying attention.
7. A very popular play in PLO is the naked ace flush bluff (bluffing like you have the nut flush since you have the ace of that suit and know no one else can have the nuts). FORGET IT! Take it out of your repertoire; it’s worthless because very few people lay down flushes unless the game is real big. If you decide to use it, be sure to have a back up plan (such as a gut straight draw or something like that).
8. Don’t play short money at the table. It’s always an extremely powerful tool for me to have as much as possible on the table at all times. No one is scared of a short stack and people love taking their four hole cards to the river. Don’t give your opponents the chance to take advantage of your short stack.
9. Don’t go on tilt. In Omaha there are TONS of bad beats, the fact that everyone has four cards contributes greatly to that. Keep your composure and expect a beat or two along the way. Lots of Omaha games have great action for this reason alone. Someone will take what they think is a bad beat and they will torque the rest of their chips off. Don’t be that guy.
10. The last tip is mainly focused on ring games. Don’t draw at flushes unless they are nut flushes, don’t draw at straights unless you have a wrap, and don’t mess with bottom two pair. All of the following hands are in trouble in ring game situations. You can throw all that stuff out the window when playing short handed though. When playing short handed, be the aggressor and do your best to have the action occur around you.

Good luck at the tables.

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In major tournaments, people are surprised by the amount of ‘big name’ professionals busting out early, but it’s really not as strange as you might think. Good tournament players don’t simply try to make it through the first day, their overall aim is to get to the money and the final table with a lot of chips. So it’s an all or nothing situation. They’re not going to avoid risk in an attempt to simply make it through the first day. That’s what amateurs do,

Poker is always a minefield, whether because of unpredictable players or unpredictable cards.

The skills are the same, whether you’re playing in a big tournament or a small tournament: you’re trying to figure out who you can bluff and who you can value bet against. You can pick up a lot of information before a hand of poker has even been played – such as who will play weak and who will play aggressive – and from the early stages of the game, you should have a good idea of who you can bluff, who you can value bet, and by how much. However, just because you can value bet someone doesn’t mean you’re not going to get sucked out. You can’t avoid getting all-in as a 3:1 favorite; you have to – and you’ll probably win a lot of chips, but there’s also a 1:3 chance you’ll end up with nothing. It happens.

Given the choice of ending the day with 10,000, or having a 50% chance of ending the day with 50,000 or nothing, all pros, with the exception, perhaps of Phil Hellmuth, would take the 50:50 shot. If you double up once, that makes you a favorite to double up again, because you have all that extra equity. You have to take those calculated risks if you want to stand a chance of getting ahead of the field. Sometimes you’re just not going to hit them, but that’s poker!

You can play 24 hours of poker and not make the money. I’d much rather get it all in early, which gives me a good chance of doubling up or going broke, rather than spend long, fruitless hours chasing the middle of the pack.

If you’re USA-based, like Phil, you can play some great online at Bookmaker Poker or BetOnline Poker.