This article gives the chance to get a first vision of the new paradigm to be adopted in reference to live tournaments, as well as perspective founder of the Skill Poker Index.
Substantial difference between cash games and tournaments in Texas Hold’em poker
As I anticipated in the previous article, professional and amateur players apply strategies that, while in poker cash games are fundamental, in tournaments are totally useless. An example is the popular “theft of the blinds”, the steal. For a cash game pro player the use of the blind theft strategy is vital. This type of action makes perfect sense in a cash game session, in fact the win rate is calculated from the ratio of the big blinds won every hundred hands (BB/100). The pre-flop compulsory bets are, therefore, cold hard money for the players, with which to pay the bills. The same move, played in the tournament, is practically useless. The win rate of a professional tournament player, both live and online, is calculated by the ratio of the number of cashes to the number of events played in a specific period.
Strategic value in poker tournaments
In a poker tournament it is necessary to get placed in the ranking prize area in order to claim to have registered a potential profit on the trip. Getting the fold of the opponents you get a momentary gain of a blind and a half that, from the strategic point of view, does not produce any influence. The only useful feature, which unlike the cash game must be used more sparingly and intelligently, lies in the construction of their own metagame, however, playing a marginal role.
Blinds theft is just one of the countless examples of gross errors that emerge during a live tournament session.
Go to the next article to not miss the thread of the Skill Poker Index speech, or go to the first article of the series to resume it.
Pietro Semeraro
Transl. by Margherita Basile
