Differences between cash games and tourneys

So you've been playing poker for a while, either online, offline or both, and you are trying to decide where you should concentrate most of your effort - cash games or tournament games.  However is there really a need to choose between the two?

It's a good question, as both cash and tournament games require a different approach and each have their pros and cons.  Let's take a quick look at the differences and see if there really is a need to make a choice between two.

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Cash games, also called ring games, are usually defined by a limit such as $1/$2.  With these games you typically buy-in with the minimum amount of chips, or the maximum, but you can add chips at any time as long as your money doesn't run out. Cash games hold the most risk in terms of losing money and - simply because of that - are considered more of a "gambling game" than a tournament.

The upside to cash games is that there is no limit to the amount of money you can win outside of how much money the other players have in their pockets and are willing to risk.  The downside is that the limit to how much you can lose - you can lose everything if you are playing poorly, your luck is against you, and you have bad bankroll management skills.

Tournament games come in a variety of shapes and sizes, such as the single table "sit and go" versus multi-table tournaments. In a tournament game the only amount of money you are putting at risk, outside of rebuys and add-ons, is your buy-in. Payouts are either 'winner take all' or based on a matrix where the entire prize pool is split on a sliding scale among the top finishers.

Tournaments are generally safer to play in for new poker players who are leery of putting a lot of money at risk. However if you play brilliantly in the first half of the tournament and then hit a bad run of luck and exit before the money you walk away with zero. In cash game if you're playing brilliantly and you notice your luck start to turn you can always click exit and walk away with a profit.

Generally it's a good idea to start with low buy-in tournaments if you're just starting out and as you gain more skills and confidence – especially with your bankroll management – move onto low-level cash games before working your way up.

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