Generally, cash games and limit games are far less popular than no-limit tournament poker. At any point in time, there may be 75% of online players indulging in some variation of tournament holdem poker. Those who have played many tournaments can more easily make the trade to the world of no-limit poker. Of all cash games, no-limit is the most-played variation of poker.

Thanks to media exposure, it is tournaments that inexperienced and nave 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.

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 importance of distinguishing between the oft-played and fast paced SnG tournaments and the less readily available MTT where the games go on stressfully forever, cannot be overstated. A player taking part in an MTT will not be able to leave the table without losing his investment.. This requires that the player must have the endurance for endless hours of complicated play. These games require tenacity and a marathon-like endurance to avoid lapsing into a depression, becoming too inert to get up and leave, and yet too unfocused to play one’s A game. Add to this high dispersion, even though the final three remaining at the table stand to gain a lot.

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.

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.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Aced Poker Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Poker Nordica.

Tags: Poker

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