In No Limit Hold’em, you have two simple categories of game types to play: cash games and tournaments. The general rules of the game are the same, but each is played in a distinctly different way and you will come across players who invest 100% of their playing time and bankroll in one of the two and 0% on the other.
Tournaments
If you’ve ever seen PokerStars’ live or online poker coverage, there’s a strong chance that you’ve seen tournaments play before. Events such as European Poker Tour (EPT), PokerStars Players’ Championship (PSPC) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) focus on tournaments with major prizes and glory going to the winner.
TThe biggest success in poker history dates back to a tournament held in 2003, where Chris Moneymaker qualified to the WSOP Main Event for just $86 and went on to win the event for a cool $2.5 million.
Tournaments are scheduled with a stated buy-in, start time, a prize structure and starting stack (the chips you can play with). Your buy-in will consist of a contribution towards the prize pool and a small fee to the casino or poker site.
The goal of playing in a poker tournament is to be the last player remaining in the field, but once you lose your chips – and if there is no opportunity to rebuy – then your tournament is over.
At regular intervals, the mandatory blind levels will rise, which means the minimum bet-size increases and players will have to continuously spin up their stack to be safe from elimination. These intervals are determined by the “speed” of the tournament. Also, after a set number of blind levels, antes are introduced – this means every player starts to pay a fraction of the big blind towards the pot in every hand.
You may have heard of the popular Sit & Go and Spin & Go games, which are also types of tournaments. These are not conventional tournaments, as they start as soon as the predetermined number of players is reached and in single table tournaments they will be over much quicker than a scheduled tournament. Players buy in a certain amount and receive the same amount of chips to work their way through the competition.
There are certain nuances to poker tournament play that will make you adapt the way you play. Here are some examples:
- Freezeout tournaments: You only have one buy-in, so make it count.
- Rebuy tournaments: Everyone has at least one more chance to enter in case you bust, so players can be more aggressive from the start.
- Knockout tournaments: You will receive a cash prize for eliminating other players, so look for those opportunities.
- Satellite tournaments: The prizes are an entry into a larger tournament. If the top prize is the same for a number of players, focus less on being 1st and concentrate on surviving those prize spots.
Cash games
Cash games are the purest form of poker. It is the game commonly seen in movies where the hero sits down at a game already in progress and starts playing. This happens because, unlike tournaments, cash games do not have a natural start or end time – if there’s a seat open, you can play and you can leave whenever you want. Unlike tournaments, you don’t have to wait for a certain number of players to buy-in or for the start time to come around.
You can buy in any amount between the lower and upper limits of the table. This is where the fiction of movies diverges from reality, you can’t throw your car keys into the pot – you can only use what you have bought and have in front of you. Nor can you use stacks of cash – the money you use to buy in is exchanged for chips worth the corresponding cash value.
Unlike tournaments, busting in a hand does not necessarily mean the end of your game. If you can afford it, you only have to pay for a new stack. Similarly, blind levels will not change from the level of the table you are sitting at and you’ll be able to continue playing for however long you like, as long as you still have chips to play with.
Cash games also have their own types of games. Not as varied, because cash game is a standard that is difficult to disrupt, but, for instance there are Zoom games on PokerStars where you are moved to a completely new table with a new starting hand as soon as you fold. There are also differences in sizes between the tables; you can play at tables with 6 players, tables with as many as 9 or 10 players, or heads-up against just one other player.
Which one should you play?
This question is up to you – which game sounds like the most fun to you? Better yet, try out each of the games with play money on PokerStars and see which one suits you better.
There are other bankroll and playing time considerations – which we will cover in What is the Best Poker Game For You? – but the most important aspect to deal with right now is making sure the game of poker is fun for those playing it.
