Head Games: Common Mistakes Tournament Pros Make When Transitioning to Cash Games

Craig Tapscott: Can you share some of what you have learned over the years that is essential for a player to understand regarding the types of boards on the flop?

Greg Merson: Three biggest mistakes would be overplaying A-K and K-K (these are common hands to get in from basically all positions in a multi-table tournament (MTT), but change drastically when you’re more than 300 big-binds (BBs) deep). Secondly, I believe tournament players normally don’t have the patience to grind, therefore, I think if they have that issue then it’s probably better to play online, where the pace of play is faster. Third, I think they have major tilt issues when they are stuck. Since the blinds don’t go up and it’s harder to get your chips back as fast, I tend to see a lot of them sort of lose their mind on tilt.

Trevor Pope: The biggest mistake people make in cash games is calling three-bets out of position, because people just assume since they are deep, it’s fine to call three-bets constantly. It is so tough to win a pot when calling a three-bet and, when you add being out of position, it makes it that much worse. Even with good hands like A-J and 9-9, it’s hard to show a profit calling out of position.

Another big mistake is I see are people calling four-bets as well. Poker is a much easier game when you have the lead in the pot, unless you are obviously slowplaying someone that continues to three-bet and barrel. I think calling three-bets in live poker is actually a bit better than calling three-bets online, because you can make a lot of live reads based on body reactions. Online it’s tough to gauge people’s range over a small sample, so I just play it safe and typically fold to a lot of three-bets and adjust my opening ranges. 

Melanie Weisner: Bet sizing: This is the number-one error I see tournament professionals make in cash games, and often in just one hand I can tell if a player comes from a MTT background. Because tournaments have so much built-in pressure and stacks are shallower, opening and post flop sizes are much smaller and pressure is able to be applied since ranges are narrower.

In cash games, players are often 300 big blinds deep. So folding to three-bets is not nearly as common as in tournaments, or post-flop, as much wider ranges are willing to continue in the pot.

Oftentimes players will fail to three-bet an appropriate size and be confused when they get five callers, and the same errors are found with post-flop betting, most commonly erring on the side of too small. Sizing is crucial, as missing value in a cash game is a huge detriment to your hourly win rate, and is compounded over multiple streets. The best adjustment is to size much bigger percentages of the pot in order to appropriately apply pressure in certain situations, thin the number of opponents preflop, and ensure that the maximum is extracted from your value hands. Many hands in cash are one or two street pots, but should the hand warrant it, it’s tough to get an opponent’s entire 300 big-blind stack in the middle when you are betting a quarter pot on the flop.

Going hand in hand with sizing, range construction and range evaluation is another area where tournament players often fail to adjust. A bluffing range in tournaments might consist of hands like offsuit Broadways, as you have blockers to good hands opening and post-flop pots are rarely multi-way. But in deep-stacked cash, you might want to construct a range that fares better in multi-way pots, and narrow your bluffing range, as in cash, people don’t like to fold and therefore you are often making the majority of your money by simply correctly value-betting vs. your opponent.

Preflop three-, four-, and five-betting wars are rare in cash, as ranges to go all in so deep preflop are usually only A-A or K-K. So, while you can comfortably get all the chips in preflop with hands like J-J, Q-Q, A-K in tournaments, these hands don’t necessarily become mandatory three- and four-bets in cash games. Ranges are often not “capped” the way you may normally assume, since calling strong non-aces hands is prevalent in cash.

It’s also important to realize that opening ranges, while wide, are unlikely to be pure steals that are willing to give up to further pressure as the blinds are almost irrelevant and there are no antes in the pot. Because ranges are wider “playable” hands preflop, post-flop hand reading is often informed by this knowledge. Thin value can be hard to judge when people can have so many combinations of strong hands that they wouldn’t have in a tournament, and a competent opponent can put a tournament player in a very tough spot when they recognize that their opponent is attempting this. 

Understanding ranges is crucial to another important aspect in cash games. Unlike tournaments, cash games are almost entirely about post-flop play. Amateur players are unlikely to fold hands preflop, and since pots will often be multi-way post-flop, navigating textures, action, and relative hand strength is paramount. Tournament players should pay close attention to the hands that get shown down at their table and use that information to get a better idea of where to range opponents in different situations, and then formulate strategy based on those ranges.

Craig Tapscott: What are a few of the skills a tournament pro brings into cash games that they can use to their advantage and why?

Greg Merson: A few tournament pro skills that can be used to compete at a high level in cash are endurance and understanding variance. Every tournament pro that’s been around long enough knows how tough the swings are in that format of poker, however, cash games have much less swing to them and are more consistent. The endurance factor is huge. MTT players are used to 12-hour days like it is nothing. This will cross over well to the cash game format of games that will occasionally run for more than 24 hours straight.

Trevor Pope:  In my humble opinion, tournament players are pretty bad when it comes to cash games and online primarily is where I think this comes into play the most. Live poker players can still use their reading capabilities, which can be very beneficial. I think a tournament pro could bring short-stack skills to cash games since they are used to 20-50 big blind stacks and most likely know those ranges quite well; although if you do short stack you are potentially missing out on a lot of value vs. certain opponents that are 100 big blinds deep. 

Melanie Weisner: Reading players. Tournament players often rely on limited information to make crucial plays, and are often paying more attention to players and behavior than cash players. They have trained themselves to use every bit of information available at the table since they do not have unlimited time to sit back and wait for spots. They are also often very adept at understanding game flow and tilt, and can capitalize on these dynamics in crucial moments at cash tables when someone is ready to give away their whole stack. I’ve learned that combining this type of training within the parameters of actually being able to pick spots without that pressure of increasing blinds and antes can prove very profitable. This may be a tournament player’s best use of skill in a cash game, and should be valued highly.

The hand ranges of short-stacked cash players should be more similar to tournament ranges, although usually in cash you will find them to be looser and they rarely bluff-shove, so all-in plays should generally be considered stronger. However, tournament players will be easily able to cause short-stacked players to make mistakes by committing too much of their stack in certain situations since they are very used to 40 big blind-and-under poker. Some cash players fail to adjust ranges vs short stacks looking to gamble, while tournament players should have no problem gauging this.

MTT players will often enter the pot with a stronger range than their opponents, as flatting low to medium strength hands is not really in their repertoire. A tournament player can gradually adjust and play looser as the table requires, but playing a tighter range often makes your post-flop decisions a lot easier, which is an advantage for those newer to cash. While it may give off the image of being tighter, entering a pot with a stronger range of hands than your opponent is simply tough to overcome and gives you an easy advantage.

Any successful tournament player knows how to empty the clip and what run outs provide the best scenarios to apply pressure vs. an opponent. Combined with a high level of reading players and attention to game flow, tournament players will often be very successful in running an occasional big bluff or being able to extract a full double up (assuming they adjust sizing, as discussed above). They also tend to be aware of their own image and how to use that to their advantage when evaluating these situations. ♠

Greg Merson won the WSOP 2012 main event for $8,527,000. That same year he also won the WSOP’s $10,000 no-limit hold’em six-handed event for more than $1.1 million. Merson has more than $11 million in career tournament cashes.

Trevor Pope won the 2013 WSOP $5,000 no-limit hold’em event for $553,000. He also specializes in high stakes cash games. Pope has more than $1.1 milion in live tournament career cashes.

Melanie Weisner climbed the online tournament ranks with multiple wins in increasingly prestigious events and is also a cash game specialist. She also has amassed more than $2 million in online tournaments winnings. Weisner is a commentator for the high stakes cash game ‘Live at the Bike’, and is host of the interactive strategy show ‘Poker Talk Live.’