Cash game theory

So lets try to Cliff-notes the difference in theory between tournaments and cash games:

Tournaments. Most people start tournaments by playing tight while the blinds are small and just trying to survive and slowly chip up until the latter stages. As the blinds and antes rise and become a bigger percentage of your stack you get more aggressive.  When you have less than 10BB you get very aggressive. A large part of most online tournaments is played with average stacks of 10-30BB. Most pots seem to be won with starting hands that are pairs or high cards (AK, AQ etc). When you lose in a tournament your fun is over, so most people do not want to gamble unless they have a made hand or great pot odds. 

Cash games: Cash games are often played with very large stacks (100 or more BBs) and if you lose your stack you can easily rebuy. So there is no fear of ending your fun. If you have a draw and reasonably good odds you go chase those cards.  When you hit the pot tends to be huge. Therefore starting hands in cash games are often small cards and connectors or 1-gappers (9-8, 7-6, 10-9 etc). In fact AA, AK and KK are often cracked by 2 pair, sets and straights or flushes. These large hands need to be played quickly in cash games to stop people drawing out on you.  Position is really important in cash games. You really want to be the guy to act last. And mistakes (yours or someone elses) are massively important. You can play a cash game for hours patiently chipping up and then lose your whole stack with one bad mistake.  Good players are extremely patient as they know they make most of their money on a few big pots that only come around once in a long while. Good players also practice hand reading. It is extremely important in cash games to be able to get away from a second best hand - you can only do this by putting your opponents on a range of hands and trying to determine which is the most likely one they are betting with.  This is a big skill and a key part of being a good cash player.  You also need to be able to counter other cash players from reading your hand by being deceptive - making your set of 8s look like top pair top kicker.  

So there you go. Nothing to it. Except that even when you think you have it figured out, it still does not work........

I will detail some of the strategies Ive been using in future posts. I am trying to find the right mix of patience, aggression, bluffing and skill.  While I am searching for this mix, I will bleed money out of my bankroll. I will lose, lose and lose some more. I am philosophical about this - eventually I will win, win and win some more.   I hope!

FTOPS and cash games

So February is all about playing some FTOPS events and re-visiting cash games.  The FTOPS is a twice yearly online tournament hosted by Full Tilt with large guarantees.  Each time it is on I try to win entries into a couple of the events via the satellites Full Tilt put on.  Normally I burn a huge amount of my bankroll when FTOPS is on and this month will probably be no exception.

So why do it? This is my chance to take a shot at some bigger tournaments.  Normally I play$11 and $26 tournaments so my average buy-in is $15.  Even with last months 161% ROI (which is quite an impressive number) I only win less than $4000.  To win the really big money you have to take a shot at larger tournaments and FTOPS is one time I take my shot. Some of the FTOPS tournaments pay 400 or 500 thousand dollars for first place. Can you imagine that return from one tournament.  The top players sure can.

Cash games. I flirt on and off with cash games online and rarely make much headway. I have focused my poker training on tournament and SnG play and mostly skipped the sections on cash games. But I think I need to learn to make me a better all round player.  I know you can win and lose a LOT more money in cash games so I need to figure them out for long term poker success 

Most poker newbies do not understand why cash games are so different that tournament play. They also might be surprised that cash game play is so complex.  I must admit I have never mastered the complexities yet and February is going to be dedicated to that goal.

So for February, forget the ROI (it will probably be skewed because of FTOPS anyhow) and forget the attempt to make $100 per day profit. My main goal in February is to understand the ebb and flow of cash games and figure out how to play them consistently. FYI, I will be reading and re-reading the cash sections of the followign books:

Harrington on Cash games volume 1 and 2

Supersystem 1 and Supersystem 2 by Doyle Brunson

Sklansky = Theory of Poker

Sklansky and Ed Miller - No Limit Holdem Theory and Practice

I will also be scouring the pokerXfactor forums and training videos for everything on cash games. I will be searching google and pokertube for training material and articles. I will be reading poker forums at 2+2 and pocketfives and anywhere else where I might get some knowledge.

Yes, I am on a quest.....it all sounds like bloody hard work!

January Summary

A good start to the year.  This is the first month I have passed my target of $100 profit per day. Obviously I would like this to continue. 

SUMMARY - Jan 2009

         FTilt  PStars   Live  Total   Profit

                                          0

01/01     20       2      0      22      22

01/02   -118    -  1      0    -119    - 97

01/03   - 90    - 40      0    -130    -227

01/04     23       0      0      23    -204

01/05   - 91       0      0    - 91    -295

01/06     80    - 23      0      57    -238

01/07   - 79      35      0    - 44    -282

01/08   - 93      32      0    - 61    -343

01/09   - 64    - 22      0    - 86    -429

01/10   - 13       0      0    - 13    -442

01/11   - 18       0      0    - 18    -460

01/12   2895    - 23      0    2872    2412      

01/13   -109    - 10      0    -119    2293      

01/14   - 25    - 10      0    - 35    2258      

01/15   - 74    - 15      0    - 89    2169      

01/16    155       0      0     155    2324      

01/17      0       0      0       0    2324      

01/18      0       0      0       0    2324      

01/19   - 31       0      0       0    2324      

01/20   - 95    - 29      0    -124    2200  

01/21   - 92    - 51      0    -143    2057      

01/22    795    - 17      0     778    2835      

01/23    547    - 62      0     485    3320      

01/24   -118    - 29      0    -147    3173      

01/25      0       0      0       0    3173      

01/26   - 54    - 44      0    - 98    3075      

01/27    216      23      0     239    3314

01/28    595    - 76      0     519    3833

01/29     46    -  7      0      39    3872      

01/30   -174       0      0    -174    3698      

01/31    148      15      0     163    3861   

Some things stand out when you look at the numbers. Why am I winning on Full Tilt this month and yet cannot win a thing on Pokerstars. I have stepped down limits to as far as $1 sitngos and still lose all the time. If I have aces, the other guy gets a flush. If I have kings or AK the other guy has aces.  I recorded a number of my tournament exits where I got all my chips in with the best hand but got unlucky....time after time.

I still cannot explain how or why the 2 sites are so different.  Maybe FullTilt is being kind to me this month and hitting my drawing hands more often that it should and that's why I am winning. Or maybe Pokerstars is being unkind to me.  I know last year I had a spell where the opposite was true and FullTilt would not win a thing for me. Maybe this is all psychological and I am causing my own problems.

So notwithstanding the puzzle above I am reasonably pleased with this months results and want to try to meet my target again in February. I am going to take a shot at a couple of larger tournaments - one good cash in one of these should improve my results but a few losses will make it very hard to meet my target.

Onwards......