Archive for the ‘Tournament Poker’ Category

The Blossoming Appreciation of Games of Cash and No-Limit Tournaments

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Among the variations of poker games, no-Limit tournament has far more popular appeal than either cash or limit poker games.  Tournament holdem and its variations is the game of choice among 75% of online players.  No-limit is the go-to game of all cash games and those who have a great deal of experience with tournament games will find the transition takes little effort.

Because the tournaments have gotten so much exposure, the new and naïve players flock to this arena where they are easily taken advantage of by their more experienced opponents.  Free-roll tournaments abound because they demand no deposit for the wary beginner to try his hand and maybe with a few passes from lady luck, the novice may find a new career or at least an addictive pastime.

Cash games are far more stressful than the sit-and-go games often found at tournaments.  In sit-and-go, the player forks over a fixed amount of deposit and then plays the ensuing hands for chips only, making for a relaxed game among friends.  One can easily find access to a tournament game as they are well advertised and may even lure in some players seeking a certain amount of celebrity status.

The frequent and rapid-paced SnG (sit-and-go) tournaments must be distinguished from the less accessible MTT (multi table tournament) games.  The most important distinction being that in the MTT, every game has the potential of going on forever and a player cannot depart the table without kissing his entire investment goodbye.  Add to that the length of time and the difficulty of the play that must be endured.  The players must be absolutely aware of these factors, else he may sink into despair, become too inert to leave, and lack the high-level of concentration necessary for skilled play.  Of course, those who can take the heat will wind up with quite a haul.

MTTs are also inaccessible even in the online situation.  Depending upon where you are playing (which country) you may find yourself able to locate such a game only in the wee small hours.  Add to that the fact that little is written about tournament and no-limit games, and the literature that does exist is mostly geared toward psychological strategy rather than strategies of technique.

It is not that difficult to transition from cash to MTT.  There is a close resemblance between them  Actually, there are less drawbacks to cash games than to MTT.  Lots of players are of the opinion that no-limit cash games offer more capability to foresee results than in any of the other online games.  It is in any case the easiest form of the cash game to find on the net with an abundance of players on fire to join a game and come out as huge winners.  Because there is so little written about it, there is ample opportunity for the talented player to use their skills of perception to successfully manipulate their less talented opponents.

On the other hand, literature on cash games is booming, but even the good stuff is fuzzy on teaching technique and concrete guidelines.  It relies rather on gleaning the expertise of the  human potential of ones individual opponents.  The only way to become a master at no-limit cash games is to practice, practice, practice and become very sensitive to the ways of ones opponents, thus building a vast memory bank to draw upon whenever one becomes involved in future and equally unpredictable games.

Dispersion rears its ugliest head in no-limit games which puts even the best players in serious jeopardy of losing many buy-ins in just one session.  In sum, the game is not cheap and not for the weak.

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The Growing Popularity of No-Limit Tournaments and Cash Games

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

No limit tournament poker is far more popular than cash-games in general and limit-games in particular. As many as 75% of the players online, at any given time, may be engaged in tournament holdem of some variety. Having played enough tournaments, it is easier to make the shift into the no-limit world. No-limit is the most popular of all cash games.

Thanks to media exposure, it is tournaments that inexperienced and naïve players often choose to join and where they are easy to sportively exploit. You can find free-roll tournaments at almost any time, which makes them convenient for cautious novices to try a few games without deposit and perhaps make a few lucky wins to support the beginning of their poker careers.

Tournaments, especially sit-and-go games, are usually much less stressful than cash games: the player makes a fixed entry deposit and thereafter play for chips, not dollars, which makes for a more relaxed game. Tournaments are widely accessible offline and, being often well covered by the media, offer players the possibility of becoming something of a celebrity.

However, it is important to distinguish frequent and quick SnG tournaments and the rarer MTT where each game may take a stressfully long time. During an MTT, a player cannot leave without loosing everything he has invested; which means the necessity to endure long hours of difficult play. Such games take determination and endurance; otherwise, it is easy to lapse into despair, unwilling to leave, yet unable to concentrate and play well. Matters are complicated by high dispersion, though the final three players at the table have a lot going for them.

Moreover, MTTs are not available at just any given time and depending on the country you are playing online in, you may have to play late at night. There is much less literature on tournaments and no-limit games in general; while that which is available tends to be more subjective and psychologically oriented, lacking much of the precision of limit lit.

In most cases it is easy to make the transition between cash and MTT. No-limit cash games in a sense closely resemble MTT, but lack some of the typical MTT drawbacks. Many think that no-limit cash is the most prospective of all online games. No-limit is likewise by far the most widespread form of cash games, may be found anywhere, anytime, with a multitude of eager players not all of whom know better than to just “try their luck”  in winning a big buck. The game is less precisely documented and determined, which offers good chances for talented players good at psychological manipulation. Lacking that particular talent, it is easy to loose much and quickly.

The literature on cash games appears to grow in quantity, but even when it is of good quality, it is imprecise, lacks concrete universal guidelines, heavily dependent on the specific assortment of individual human potential at any given table. There is no way to “master” no-limit cash games without playing a lot and taking care to study your opponents meticulously every time, accumulating a wealth of memory (if not of cash) from which to draw creatively (i.e. without much certainty of success) in unpredictable future games.

Dispersion is most vicious in no-limit games and even good players may loose as many as half a dozen buy-ins in one session – not something just anybody can easily bare or afford.

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