Basic Poker Strategy - Changing Goals in Online Poker

So you have been doing well playing online poker. Your bankroll is up, you are consistently cashing in the Sit and Go games you like to play, and you are going deep in the multi-table tournaments. You decided to change your game a bit and sit down at a cash game… and two hours later you are broke. What happened? Why did it happen? How can you avoid it happening again? By remembering to apply this basic poker strategy when you change your game – you change your goals as well.

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Tournament poker and cash game poker are two different animals. They may both look like a horse, but if you look closer the tourney horse is tied to the fence, and the cash game horse has chewed through his halter and is ready to take you for a wild ride. You may be able to handle a bucking bronco, but not if you are caught unawares – in that case you are going to get tossed from the saddle.

When you sit down to a cash game your goal has to change from going deep, from surviving, from collecting a bigger chip stack than your opponents, to making more correct decisions than anyone else at the table.

Wait, isn't it always a good idea to make the correct decision? Yes… and no.

In a tournament game you will find yourself making the wrong choice that, based on circumstances, is actually the right move. If you are short stack, want to cash and are two off the bubble, for example, you are going to fold pocket aces when asked to commit all your chips. This would be a bad play in a cash game, but in a tourney it could be the right play.

The ironic thing is that long before there were poker tournaments, everyone who was successful at poker built up a habit of making the right decision, because they knew that over time they would be rewarded. Tournament play calls for creative plays that would be technically "wrong" but do the job, and thus bad habits for cash game players are formed.

You know how to play tournament poker, and you know how to play cash game poker – just make sure you consciously change your goals when you sit down to a ring game if you want to be the one riding your horse, and not the other way around.

Try your newly learned strategy at Paddy Power Poker and win a seat to the Irish Poker Open!