World Poker Forums

When I play hold`em, I can win some money at sit`n go`s only to blast it all, at the cash games later. Any thoughts?

Different skill sets. Maybe you know about bubble play, when to shove and fold, like you need in SnG. Those skills don't translate to the cash games.

Tourneys you have blinds that raise as time goes by forcing you to get aggresive at the end. So you probably sit around and do little until forced, by then some of the players are gone.My guess is you are playing too tight. My guess is you may make the money in SnGs but seldom win without a major suckout when you are nearly blinded out.Cash games have a fixed blind and a rake is pulled. If you sit around and only play premium hands everyone will see you are tight and fold to you aggression thus cutting your winnings on those hands. You have to play a mixture of ways on a table where people have a chance to study your play.They call it changing speeds.On a low limit ring game I will see the flop for the blind (minimum) on about anything from late position.In a tourney, I don't even play quality cards unless they are late position, early in the tourney. Playing too fast too early is the best way to get chopped by the donkeys drawing to crap there is.

the strategies are completely different. in cash games, you are sitting back, waiting to cash in on your big hands. in tourney's, the money has to keep coming in ahead of the blinds.I tried this experiment the other day: If i waited for a monster hand in a turbo game, how many hands could I wait? The answer is about 40. Then, I tried to check how many hands I needed to win to finish top 7 in a 45 player sng: the answer is around 4 double ups. However, in the sng's I've won, the stats are something like this:120 hands played10 hands won at showdown (usually with a 90% or higher win rate)20 hands won without showdown.Therefore, the key to tournament poker is forcing people to fold while you hold garbage (which I'm sure you are familiar with if you are successful) while in cash games, you are looking only for monster hands without the extra income from forcing people to fold.if you are good at one, you should stick to it.

Maybe it is because with tournaments you have already invested your money, as well as everyone else. It most likely helps relax to know that you can just play and enjoy it rather then knowing in cash, one bad pot can sink you and affect your style of play at any point. I guess this would only be the case if you are like me and you can't afford to buy in to anything more then a 2-4 crap shoot!