Why cash games are better than tournaments – Part I
Here’s a real-life hand that I had the privilege to witness recently. This was from my last session of play on my recent Vegas trip; I was playing 10/20 NLHE. I wasn’t involved in this hand at all, having mucked pre-flop. However, it does demonstrate just how bad the players are (and therefore, how good the game can be), even in a reasonably high-limit game:
Somebody had stuck in some kind of pot-sweetener bet, and there were three players to the flop. Let’s say the pot was about $200 or so. The board was A-9-9. Everyone checked. The turn card was a Queen. Player #1 bet out, some normal, ¾ pot-size bet or so. Player #2 cold-called. Player #3, sitting directly on my right also called. Figure there was now about $650 or so in the pot
The river card brought an 8. No flush was possible. Player #1 led out again, for about $400. Player #2 called. Player #3 raised an additional $1500. Player #1 called. Player #2 now raised another $6000!
Let’s stop and think this over a moment: Player #2 checked the flop, smooth-called the turn, smooth-called the river, apparently somehow anticipating a reraise behind him, and possibly a cold-call in front of him. What do you think Player #2 had?
While you’re thinking that over: Player #3 was (naturally) shocked over this turn of events. He thought for a very long time, and flashed me his cards: He had a JT, for a straight. He had (reasonably enough) called the turn bet, figuring he was getting a decent price to draw to his hand. Now he was facing a massive reraise, with one player still to act after him. Would you call in this situation?
Player #3 took the only sane action possible here, and folded. Now back to Player #1. He also stewed for a very long time, and finally said, “Ok, I’ll pay you off.” He turned over J9. Player #2 turned over 97. They split the pot with their trip nines, having gotten the straight to fold.
I know what you’re thinking. Player #1 and #2 were playing partners or some such. Nope, no way. Player #2 had been playing in this wacky, randomly aggressive style all night, and was clearly on a suicide run, just looking to play until he “managed to lose these last chips”. Player #1 is a known quantity to me also, normally a fairly solid player, but in this case he had been losing and was obviously on tilt.
Look at how much money Players 1 and 2 had to put at risk, on pretty cheesy hands, just in order to get the best hand to fold. By the way, Player #2, needless to say, busted out about half an hour later—he stuck in the FIFTH raise pre-flop with JJ vs another player’s KK.
Some of you are thinking that stuff like this can’t possibly happen in a high-limit game. In fact, this sort of thing happens all the time. The games really are that juicy. Needless to say, in a game like this, you don’t need to do anything fancy to win the money. Just sit there, be patient, and wait for people to lose their minds—because they will.
This is just one example of why I prefer cash games. When weird things like this happen in a tournament, you can’t do much about it, other than enter the next tournament. In a cash game, you can go to your wallet, reload a bit, and wait for the bad players to blow off their chips. It always happens. You just have to keep yourself in the game long enough to get to that spot.
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Isaac Haxton recently claimed that 5/10 NLHE online plays like 50/100 live. I know in my $2/5 games play like this is not uncommon and players of this caliber regularly fill the $5/10 game in my casino as well. I also hate playing tourneys, the variance is not worth it when you can make steady profit through cash.