Tournaments vs Cash Games

Why Tourneys are Better than Ca$h Games

Although this is perhaps bias central when it comes to rating tournaments over cash games, the following article will tell you why playing tournaments trumps cash games.

Tournaments are the Most Popular Form of Poker

Firstly, let’s look at the history of online poker to begin with.  The Moneymaker effect of 2003 is heavily regarded to have given birth to online poker as we know it today.  Chris Moneymaker’s hero to zero display of American nostalgia, where he went from cheap-ass online qualifier to 7 million dollar WSOP winner, gave much-needed exposure to poker in the medium of titanic proportions.  Proliferating the rules and excitement of poker across the world, so many people were talking about the victory. It brought so many newbies into the game, and enhanced speculation about poker so much that it arguably did for online poker what Newton did for science.  It can be argued then that gaudy live tournament such as the WSOP and WPT, with all the massive attraction, media exposure and exciting personalities they eschew, is what’s spreading the online poker bug today.

Tournaments and Added-Value

Next, for the player, we have the massive fortunes a single tourney pay day can give you.  At Ultimate Bet you can enter online tournaments every day for just $1 that yield a total prizepool worth over $1,000.  If you manage to get a decent finish you can earn hundreds of dollars.  

Let’s look at Peter Eastgate and Joe Cada for a second.  Both these guys took down the WSOP before they even turned 23.  And since then, their victories have propelled them into the lucrative world of magazine exposure and media sponsorships – Joe Cada currently plays for Team PokerStars, and even briefly appeared on an episode of David Letterman.  In both their respective wins they won just less under $10 million each.

Now down to the fundamentals.  In many online poker sites (and you won’t have to look far to find them), guaranteed poker tournaments give entrants much greater value of money for playing than cash games.  Think about it, in a cash game, your value comes from being better than your opponent, and being able to exploit that difference in skill through thousands of hands worth of time.  In guaranteed prizepool tournaments with a killer overlay, however, the value from these tourneys comes immediately after registering.  If a $10 tournament only has 100 players, and the guaranteed prizepool is worth $2000, you’re effectively entering a $20 buy-in value tournament for half the prize!  Theoretically you’ve made yourself $10 just by registering.

Nowadays, most online poker rooms make their biggest and most expensive tournament available to players too – through satellites.  Party Poker for example, runs Satellites for as little as $1 to new players, in order to grind themselves a seat to the $1 Million Monthly.  Playing in these kinds of giant tournaments also gives short-changed players the chance to play opposite their favorite poker pros.  In no way, shape or form can you get a cheap seat to sit across Ivey, Dwan or Patrik Antonius on the Full Tilt’s $100/$200 cash tables.  Through satellite MTTs and special promotional tournaments, at some rooms however you can!

My last point builds around the value of freerolls.  Online poker rooms allow you to enter tournaments for free with real money prizes in the region of $50 – $1000.  To find the best of these, go to where to find freeroll tournaments.

Which Poker Tournament Sites do we Recommend?

Go to Best Poker Tournament Sites to read our reviews of the best rooms for tournaments.