MULTI TABLE POKER TOURNAMENTS

Submitted by Erik Smith on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 13:21

Cash-game poker is considered more hardcore than tournament poker. Recreational players stand a better chance of getting a good result in a tournament as opposed to a cash game since the latter is most often being dominated by cash-game specialists playing for a living.

When you enter a tournament you pay a fixed fee thereby knowing how much you can lose. With this type of poker game you do not run the risk of your gambling getting out of hand in the same way cash-games sometimes do. If you tilt during a cash-game you risk losing your entire bankroll in a very short amount of time.

A BROAD APPEAL

Tournaments have a broader appeal to the masses hence making them more popular. Tournament poker is more comparable to a random video game and it is played with virtual chips. Poker tournaments also resemble a lottery type of game since a small buyin can turn into a fortune if you are lucky enough to win.

A WAITING GAME

Tournament poker is more of a waiting game. Here you are often rewarded for folding because when you fold you do not risk your chips and tournament life. Multi table tournaments are usually played as full ring games meaning that 9-10 players are at the table. Online cash games are generally played at 6max tables forcing players to be active and creative to avoid getting grinded down.

The reason why you often gain more value by folding in tournaments is that while you are not in the hand other players are being eliminated from the tournament moving you closer to the prize money or up the prize ladder if you are already "in the money".

Patience pays off in tournaments which is quite different from cash-games where there is hardly any value in being passive. If your stack is slowly being grinded down in a cash game you are not gaining value - in fact you are losing money and wasting time. In tournaments it is hard to extract value from a tight player if the blind structure allows you to be patient. This being said it does not mean that the best tournament play is to wait for a monster hand by being passive. What is written here is simply an explanation as to why not playing a hand can be profitable.

Tournaments online last many hours and bigger events last several days. Tournament poker resembles regular sports to a greater extend - with winners and losers, ranking lists, defending champions, villains and heroes etc. making it easy for the general public to relate to this type of game. Sports and lottery are huge worldwide making tournament poker a great success. Cash games are more complicated attracting the hardcore poker players and a limited amount of degenerative gamblers hoping to make money fastly.