Are you, by any chance, tired of MTTs and SnGs?

I have noticed a trend recently on the online sites. The sit-and-go tournaments are tightening up. The level of play seems to be moving in one direction - up. Players are reading, learning, practicing for free, reading some more, and employing all sorts of technological do-dads to track and monitor every conceivable factor in a tournament. What this adds up to is an environment requiring pitch-perfect decision making throughout a tournament in order to even have a shot. Pre-flop hand selection becomes a simple mathematical formula. Weak players are spotted quickly and taken out just as quickly. The strongest players lie in wait until the structure of the game takes over and again decisions are binary.

When you play at a table of "perfect" tournament specialist you are left with very little room for creativity. Turbo tournaments are even worse. Not only do they allow for no creativity (unless you gather a big stack, then creativity is reduced to liberal and ample bluff opportunities) but automatic shove or fold decisions are upon you before you even get your mouse warmed up.

Enter the cash game. Once dismissed (by me at least) as a really boring form of the game - "What? The blinds never go up? Yikes!" - I've come to appreciate just what the game has to offer. Let me explain.

High Stakes

If you really like poker shows on TV you have most likely watched GSN's program High Stakes Poker. If you haven't, whip out your Tivo remote and get that Season Pass set up now. What this show did for me was to reveal just how magnificent "real" poker can be. With nothing to lose but your buy-in and no pressure to play any hand ever, the entire dynamic and subtlety of the game emerges.

One thing this show also illuminated for me was just how important live play (versus online) can be. I think the reason cash games are so boring online is that you cannot truly get a read on your opponent without seeing their hands shake, that glance at the chips, or the distracted auto-call while texting their friends.

So, with that one caveat - "live" cash games - here are some of the things you've been missing if you and your friends have only been playing freeze-outs.

Why Cash Games are Sweet

* Playing the Person
When you are on the fourth level of a tournament and the person in the cutoff raises three times the big blind on the short stack after it's folded to him....what does that mean? The fact that you can even start to formulate an answer shows just how stifling the tournament structure is. He's most likely stealing by the way. What does this tell you about the person? One thing really: they are a good tournament player that knows that stealing from late position is the only way to stay alive. Once the levels go up they will be dead in the water and looking to shove.

Now, contrast that situation to this one: the blinds are $1/$2 (and have been all night). It's folded to the cut-off. Their stack is down to $25 and they raise the pot to $6. What does that mean? Uh...don't know. And that's the point. This person is voluntarily deciding to put 25% of their money into the pot in late position. What would they do that with? I don't know. Are they tight by nature? That would be important to know. Have they lost a bigger stack recently? That's important. If you go over the top will they likely go away to protect their shrinking stack or will you be re-raised all in? Again, all of these questions lurk for one simple reason: there are hundreds of reasons why a person would play a pot when they don't have to. Thus, cash games require you play the person a lot more than the situation.

Tournament play is often boiled down to mathematical considerations. Cash games are often a matter of psychological considerations - and those are MUCH tougher to make.

Example from High Stakes Poker
Brad Booth had bought in for $1 million. Phil Ivey had $350,000. Brad raises it up to $2,400 with 24 of spades, Phil re-raises to $10,000 with KK. Brad calls. The flop is 369 rainbow. Phil bets $13,000. Brad goes all in. Phil folds after a long think. Imagine if this hand had happened in a tournament. Hey, if I see this board, I'm taking my Kings all the way. It's not likely they would call my re-raise with anything close to those rags on the board. So, if my opponent hit a miracle set, God bless 'em. But in a cash game, Phil is risking $320,000 in real money. What in the world would Brad go all in on? Two pair? A set? Just about any legitimate hand for an all in has Phil beat and drawing to a two-outer. Hell, I might have called here, but Brad wasn't playing me. He was playing Phil. And for Phil Ivey in this spot, he knew what Phil had and what type of bet would get him to fold.

* Varying Your Play
In a tournament you are constantly faced with whether to continue a hand for fear of being knocked out. Calling a flop bet in order to steal on the turn or river can work in a tournament but you are taking a huge risk to the game. However, if you are the gambling sort, calling to steal in a deep-stacked cash game against just the right tight player can be a fun little diversion. And hey, if you get caught, well, it's just another buy in. It's not like you will be shooting darts for the next 45 minutes until the game is over.

Calling large bets with unlikely hands, raising pots out of position with rags, slow playing aces with 5 other players, among other bad ideas in tournament play become potentially very profitable plays in the context of a ring game.

One concept of no-limit hold'em that is very important is trading small mistakes for large ones. Calling a re-raise with a pair of 4's hoping to catch your set is a mistake - but if you know the person re-raising you won't be able to lay down an over-pair if you catch your set, you are trading a relatively small mistake for the larger mistake of their future call. These small-mistake bets are often cost-prohibitive in a tournament. In a ring game they are a matter of your gambling instinct.

* Reading the Streets
Now, let's take the above two advantages to their logical conclusion. Unlike in a tournament where consistent betting on each street usually means some type of value from your opponent, you cannot be nearly as sure in a cash game what an opponent is firing at the pot with. If a player could play any pot at any time with any cards, your ability to read their hand becomes much more difficult. Can it be done? Absolutely. But, with less precision. It's this lack of precision that amplifies the need to understand who is making the bet as much as how much they are betting.

Just try it once
I'm not saying tournaments aren't a good thing. Of course they are. There are many strategic and tactical decisions to be made, and certainly you must play each opponent in a specific way during a tournament. The thing is, most home-game tournaments are not what you would call deep-stack games. That is, usually the game is sitting 8 to 10 people with an M around 20 or 30 (to start!) and is over in a couple hours.

Maybe you want to open up your next poker night with a rousing low-stakes ring game. Don't make the blinds too big so everyone feels they can play without risking the mortgage. You may be surprised at the closet maniac sitting to your left.

Have fun everyone!