With the recent launch of the World Series Of Poker Academy’s Cash Game Edition, and all the buzz that has created, I am often being asked what are the differences between playing a No-Limit Hold’em tournament and a No-Limit Hold’em cash game. Here, I will briefly discuss the fundamental differences and how one might want to adjust their play accordingly.

Blinds. The blinds (and antes if applicable) go up during the course of a tournament, so that it doesn’t last forever. In cash games, the blinds and antes never go up. Thus, in a tournament you may be forced to play certain hands, because otherwise, the blinds and antes will eat up your stack. In cash games, that kind of pressure doesn’t exist. Accordingly, you never need to “make a move” in cash games. You can sit there and wait for premium opportunities without suffering much stack deterioration. The phrase “tight is right” is very applicable to cash game strategy for the most part.

Stack Sizes. Most tournaments mandate that each player start with the same amount in chips, and with the exception of rebuy tournaments, you can not add to your stack during the course of the tournament. In most cash games, you can determine how much you buy in for, and whether and how much to add to your stack as you play. Also, and quite importantly, most cash games play with much deeper stacks than tournaments. Deep stack play is very different than short stack play. Typically, you’ll find in deep stack play, the majority of the chips go in on the turn and river as opposed to pre-flop and on the flop. Thus, in order to master cash games you will have to learn the intricacies of playing deeper into hands where there is more information available to you and your opponents, specifically, the board will be more complete.

Correct Pot odds. In a tournament, you may find yourself in a situation where you are getting the correct pot odds to make a call, but you must also consider and factor in, how such a move may impact whether you are eliminated from the tournament, in other words, your tournament life has to be factored in. Thus, you may be getting the right price to call with your flush draw, but you might still have to fold because if you don’t complete your flush, you will be eliminated. This should never be the case in a cash game. As long as you are playing within your bankroll, you should take any edge being offered to you, every time! Even very small edges add up big over the course of your entire cash game poker career. Remember though, the key here is to play within your bankroll so that you don’t risk going broke.

Chip Values. In cash games the chips are like cash. In tournaments, the value of chips depends on the stage of the tournament and the payout structure. If you triple your stack in a tournament during the first hour you can’t cash out for triple your buy-in. In fact, you can’t cash out at all, until you are in the money.

Time. You can play as little or as long as you like in a cash game, that is not true in a tournament. The tournament structure will dictate how much time you’ll have to put in each day, if you are lucky enough to survive.

Coin Flips. In tournaments, especially in the later stages, you are likely to be involved in some coin flips wherein you and your opponent are all-in, pre-flop with no real edge for either side. Coin flips are quite rare in cash games because of the deeper stacks.

These are just a few of the basic differences between No-Limit Hold’em tournament and cash game play. There are more. The WSOP Academy (wsopacademy.com) now offers a Cash Game Edition that does an excellent job of flushing out the differences between tournament and cash play in detail, over the course of two days. Both types of No-Limit Hold’em are extremely fun and can be quite profitable. But, you have to adjust your decision-making to fit the game you are playing.

Now go kick some aces!

– Mark A. Seif

This past weekend I was the lead instructor at the second ever WSOP Cash Academy. What a great weekend! There was a huge turnout and the students scored high on their poker IQ tests.

Jeff Haney from the Las Vegas Sun attended the two day event and wrote about his experience in this article Like war games, but for poker.

In the dealer’s perch for once, rather than in his familiar position in a player’s seat, Mark Seif was shuffling a deck of cards and holding court at a poker table in a Caesars Palace ballroom.

One of the participants in last weekend’s World Series of Poker Academy, a two-day instructional camp focusing on no-limit Texas hold ’em cash games, had just asked about the possibility of learning optimal strategy through a chart listing which starting hands to play from various positions.

The essence of Seif’s reply: It wouldn’t work in no-limit hold ’em. Although such charts are commonly used in teaching limit hold ’em, the no-limit version of the game contains many more nuances, rendering the by-the-number, chart-based approach ineffective.

Here’s a more powerful technique, Seif explained as he dealt the next hand. The “live hand demonstration” portion of the poker academy allows the participants to play out sample hands just as they would in a live cash game, and provides for a dissection of the action afterward that touches on important facets of poker theory.

Seif was one of four poker professionals serving as instructors for the latest World Series of Poker Academy, along with Alex Outhred, Mark Gregorich and Michael Gracz. This was only the second camp — and the first in Las Vegas — to focus on Texas hold ’em cash games rather than tournaments, and it drew more than 50 participants. The cost was $1,899 — typical for the seminars, which regularly sell out.

The students arrived with varying levels of talent and experience but with a similar goal: to sharpen their skills and ultimately make more money in no-limit cash poker games.

In the ensuing sample hand dealt by Seif, the flop revealed two 3s and a 10. Two players went to war, and it turned out one guy was holding pocket aces against his opponent’s pocket 4s.

Seif’s postmortem of the hand was illuminating. He had no problem with the pocket 4s raising the aces’ postflop bet. After all, that flop probably missed a lot of hands. But Seif did take issue with the 4s calling after the guy with aces thought about it for half a second before re-raising all-in.

One table over, Outhred was analyzing a hand he had just dealt. It was fine for a limper to enter the pot with pocket 6s, although a case could also be made for raising in that spot. Raising from the position of one behind the button with king-8 suited? Well, it’s not a play Outhred would normally make, though he seemed satisfied with the player’s explanation that she sensed weakness from her opponent and figured she could take the pot down right there. Calling that raise on the button with ace-5 offsuit, however, was a mistake, Outhred said. It’s a hand that can run into all sorts of trouble if an ace happens to flop.

“It’s OK,” Outhred said. “That’s why we’re here, to talk about this stuff.”

Sunday’s session concluded with a discussion of all 30 hands in a tough test of no-limit hold ’em play all of the participants took on a computer. The pro instructors as well as the students often disagreed among themselves on the correct course of action on certain hands. Seif, a former prosecutor for the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles, demanded logically coherent explanations rather than just “right” answers to the problems.

Overall, the participants’ scores on the test were substantially higher here at Caesars than they were at the first cash game academy last month in Atlantic City, Seif said.

In fact, in Seif’s estimation at the conclusion of the camp, 90 percent of those in the room were already better than 90 percent of the players in a typical $2-$5 no-limit hold ’em game on the Strip.

After two days of detailed, hard-core poker teaching, Seif and his colleagues wrapped up the camp with some more far-reaching advice.

“Always be a student,” he said. “The game is changing at this moment.”

How you act at a poker table, Outhred said, can be seen as a microcosm of how you deal with other people in society at large.

“The better you get, the more ‘bad beats’ you’re going to take,” Outhred said. “There’s no point in getting grumpy. Don’t let that happen to you. Enjoy yourself, challenge yourself. If you enjoy this game and you enjoy making the best decisions you can, the ‘bad beats’ and the ugly stuff won’t really matter.”

The WSOP Academy recently launched it’s newest poker training event - WSOP Cash Academy. The first cash game event took place in Atlantic City  a couple of weeks ago (I’ll write more about that a little later). To sum it up the cash game academy was a huge success and received a flurry of attendee praise. 

The next one takes place this coming weekend at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

The WSOP Academy Cash Camp is featured in the Las Vegas Sun today in an article titled A poker survival skill: Cash game play by Jeff Haney. 

Lots of inquiries regarding two matters.  The WSOP Advanced Academy recently held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and as to whether I am “Buster Love” on Full Tilt Poker.  The WSOP Advanced Academy was awesome.  Phil Gordon, Paul Wasicka, Alex Outhred, Joe Navarro, Sam Chahaun, and Charley Swayne kicked ass!

With respect to the Buster Love thing, the answer is I can not disclose my screen name/online identity at any poker sites I am not officially affiliated with for contractual reasons, and therefore, as a matter policy, can not cofirm or deny any screen names used on any sites.  Sorry, for the weak answer. Dang lawyers :)

– Mark

I’m busy preparing my presentation (last minute of course) for the upcoming 2 day Advanced WSOP Academy at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  Joining me will be Phil Gordon, Paul Wasicka, Joe Navarro, Alex Outhred & Prof. Charley Swayne. The Advanced Academy teaching strategies including The advanced math of poker, winning cash game strategy, advanced tournament strategy, pre-flop and post-flop strategy, decoding poker tells and much more! I believe that there are a few spots left - Check it out at the WSOP Academy to learn more and sign-up for this awesome event.

Now I need to get back to work

– Mark