You may be watching tournaments and looking up to the pros, but perhaps it isn’t apparent to you what is the big difference between poker tournaments and cash games. If you’re just getting started, it’s a good idea to play cash games, but it’s always good to keep in mind what the differences are, so when you’re ready to make a switch, it will be easier than ever.

Like cash games, poker tournaments are played with the same fifty two card deck and the same general rules. However, how the players play — their style and strategy — can be dramatically different.

One of the biggest differences is that you don’t have an endless amount of chips to play with. While in cash games you have the option to continue to buy your way in the game, with poker tournaments, when you’re chips are gone, you’re out of the game and can’t play any longer.

Since you can’t buy your way into the game, it’s important that you play with a different strategy. The stakes are clearly higher because at any point you can be out of the game, so you need to be very careful when choosing your plays and be sure to count every chip and think about every play.

In addition, in comparison to cash games, poker tournaments force you to be a very careful and thoughtful player. There is no room for error or else you’re going to find yourself out of the game. When you start playing poker tournaments, make sure that you’re ready to keep your eyes on your chips and the other players moves.

When playing in poker tournaments you can also employ a strategy called steaming poker blinds. While this also occurs in cash games, in cash games the gain is only marginal. However, in poker tournaments, you can gain up t ten percent on your stack or more if you steal the blinds effectively.

When you’re trying to make a decision about whether to steal a blind or not, you’ll want to consider your position in the play and the strength of your hand. The best steals usually take place when you are late in the game because there are less players for you to compete with. You’ll also want to steal the hands that are valuable after a player flops.

In order to make your stack the most powerful that it can be, you’ll need to time your steals very well. So make sure that you practice your timing and view other players and how they execute steals and execute their hands. You’ll also be able to tell when other players are stealing hands, which will be a good indicator that their hands are weak and that they might be bluffing. When you find these kind of players at the table, it’s probably a good idea to raise and to try to get them to fold, leaving you in an even stronger position than you were in before.

Taking Home Your Money

Unlike cash games, where you can leave the table at any time and take your money home, tournaments are structured so that you have to be the last player at the table in order to take home the cash. This means you need to be extremely careful when playing tournaments and be sure that you have the strength to make it until the end.

The payout is also different in tournaments. For example, most of the players go home empty handed or with 10% of the pot, while the last player, the winner of the tournament takes home 30 – 50% of all of the money.

When you have the confidence to move from cash games to tournaments, you’ll be surprised how much money that you can win. While the stakes are higher, the gain is as well and tournaments provide much more opportunities for you to establish yourself as a top level poker player and win big cash prizes. With no risk there is no gain — so jump in and start working your way to the top.

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