Switching from Cash Games to Tournaments

The following article is brought to you by Absolute Poker and Matt Vengrin

So you decided to stop playing cash games, and move to tournaments? I say you’re crazy; it takes a specific individual to deal with the swings in tournaments, so if you don’t think you are that person, please stop now and do not read on!

I remember I was almost strictly a tournament player until one day, I decided to take a break from tournaments and play nothing but 6 max NLH for a month straight. I was sick of the swings in tournaments, but also wanted to learn to play better post flop. I ended up winning over the course of 35k hands. Right after my month, I went to finish 2nd in the Sunday million, 1st in the 200r, and cashed deep in the 25k Bellagio WPT championship. Was this a coincidence? Definitely not. I believe cash games helped me tremendously to become a better tournament player, so if you have a background in cash, you have a great shot at becoming a good tournament player.

So you can play post flop? Cool, that’s only a bit of the battle. As I mentioned before one of the biggest things about switching from cash games to tournaments is being able to deal with the swings. You are probably used to downswings at cash games, but those downswings typically last a day, a few days or a week at the most. In tournaments, you can go on severe downswings. I remember before this rush, I was on a 5-6 mo downswing, which caused me to switch to cash games and ultimately hit a run which made up for my downswing plus a lot more.

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