Back in the day –and by back in the day I’m only talking as recently 15 years ago– poker tournaments, including US poker tournaments, were seen as little more that a way to attract new players with some new money [read as: recreational players] to poker rooms, and were really only played by poker pros who were taking a shot at a big score when there wasn’t any cash game action.
The prevailing thought of the day was that recreational players who took the time to come to the tournament and busted early would be dissatisfied with the amount of poker they got to play and wander into the cash game area to get their fix. Even better would be if the winners got a little too big for their britches and took their newfound winnings into a cash game that was way above their usual pay grade.
There used to be more money in cash games
Before ESPN and the hole card camera made tournament poker cool, outside of major events (which were far less common 15+ years ago) most of the pros simply waited at the cash game tables for the tournament players to bust, they weren’t interested in playing a $500 tournament against 100 other players where they had a 25% ROI –keep in mind things like chip equity and ICM were unknown at this time other than in abstract forms, which is why you only saw three and four betting with premium hands.
Tournaments were seen as a driving force for the cash games and at best a way to create a supplemental revenue stream or perhaps give your bankroll a sudden jolt. Even if you had a decent edge the field sizes and buy-in amounts weren’t going to make you rich — not like tournaments of today.
The thinking was that there wasn’t a lot of ROI in tournaments so if you did play you were just hoping for a good score if you made a deep run; if not you simply went back to the cash game tables waiting for all of the other busted entrants in the tournament to come by.
However, starting in about the 1990’s a new breed of players emerged, players that focused on tournaments only (and worked on tournament specific strategies), and over the years (especially since the onset of Internet poker) the ranks of tournament pros have gotten much better, more specialized and have grown exponentially.
You can make a living playing exclusively in live tournaments in the modern poker world, but it’s a hard life… which could be eased by spending some time mastering cash games.
The myth of successful tournament players
Without being a complete wet blanket, for the overwhelming majority of players the only time playing live tournament poker has been a profitable pursuit was during the peak years of the Poker Boom. During this period there was just so much dead money and such an influx of new players that ROI’s skyrocketed and variance was no longer the bankroll killer it had once been.
But prior to the Boom, and now, as the Poker Boom’s peak has come and gone, it’s imperative for players who are regulars in live tournaments to learn to play cash games as well, even if it’s for modest stakes.
In today’s poker world the very best tournament players can still do very well playing live events, but it requires a massive bankroll (and quite often staking deals) and for you to be at the very top of the tournament food chain –most of the players who are often tagged as tournament poker pros are struggling to even get by, and have small percentages of themselves and/or are in makeup to their backers.
So if you’re not a regular online tournament player (online tournaments are far more profitable than live events, but that is a discussion for another day) you’re going to need to be able to play cash games, or you’re setting yourself up for a tough life full of variance.
Here’s what being able to play cash games can do for you.
You’ll have more consistency in your results
Cash games provide a far more stable source of income than the wild variance of playing live tournament poker day in and day out. Don’t misunderstand me, cash games are not without variance, but you’ll find them far less swingy than tournaments, especially at low to medium stakes.
A lot of this can be seen in what is considered a “bad run.”
Even for a top tournament player a six-month long bad run in tournaments means severe losses. You’re down the buy-in plus all your travel expenses and you have literally zero money coming in outside of a min-cash here and there; it’s all going out while you hope for that one big score to right your ship before your bankroll goes kablooey.
On the other hand a bad six-month run at the cash game tables for a top player usually means breaking even. I don’t know any $10/$20 winning limit player or $2/$5 No Limit player who sustains heavy losses over a prolonged period of time: The variance simply isn’t as pronounced in cash games.
Furthermore, if you’re running poorly in tournaments you might be running ok or good in cash games or vice versa, and able to keep your head above water so to speak.
Think of it like a slot machine: The more coin you put in the higher the likelihood you hit the jackpot. The trick to slots is getting as many spins as you can for the same amount of money. This is why a slot machine that pays out 99% is so much better than a machine that pays out 95%.
Similarly, if you can pad your tournament bankroll with cash game winnings you are simply giving yourself more chances to bink a big tournament score.
Being able to compete in both tournaments and cash games can also keep your confidence high when you hit a bad stretch in one or the other. “I may be making crap decisions in every tournament, but at least I’m still doing ok at the cash game tables.”
It gives you something to do when you bust
If you’re a semi-professional or professional player (or have designs on being one) you need to put in the hours. A lot of people think poker requires skill (which it does) but it also requires a serious work ethic, and you simply can’t put in the hours you need to when you bust in Level 2 of a tournament and call it a day.
BUT, if you can also play cash games, you can still get your hours in.
the softest cash games happen at major tournaments
Another terrific reason to learn to play cash games if you are a live tournament player is that the best action always occurs during major tournament series.
When the WSOPC or WPT or HPT rolls into town you can expect the stakes in the cash game area to jump AND the play to be worse than it usually is. So you get higher stakes and worse play at the same time!
For instance, when I was a regular (and even to this day) the regular Omaha 8 or better game at Foxwoods was $5/$10 with a full Kill at $100 (a Kill is where the stakes double so in this case it would be $10/$20 on any scooped pot over $100). During WPT and other major tournaments the same players I was beating in that game could be found sitting in the $20/$40 Omaha 8 game with a half Kill (so $30/$60 stakes on Kill pots), or even higher.
Players who were typically $5/$10 – $10/$20 players (and losing at those stakes) were now willing to play $20/$40-$30/$60, and the only reason was the hustle and bustle of the tournament and the influx of new players.
It won’t be hard to learn to play well enough to win
If you’re already a decent tournament player transitioning to cash games isn’t all that hard, and since cash games is not your bread & butter source of income you don’t have to play exceedingly high. Just getting in 10 hours a week of $2/$5 NLHE or $10/$20 limit Holdem can earn you a few hundred dollars every week.
You don’t have to be a world beater, all you’re trying to do is reduce your variance.