Cash or tournaments?

Cash or tournaments?

Monday, 10 May 2010

Dear Tom,


My friends and I like to play some poker occasionally, which works out nicely for me because none of them can really play. However, we only ever really play tournaments and I'd like to do a cash game. How can I convince them otherwise?


Philippe, London

Dear Philippe,


Nice! Why don’t you come out and say it? You think you’ll increase the hourly rate you take off your poor old mates for if you switch to cash. This is an excellent attitude, and one I urge all Bluff readers to adopt.


Option 1: Sell them the line that tournaments are for sissies. Fashion the idea of a cash game as the natural hunting ground of the gnarly road gamblers of old. I mean, Wild Bill Hickock wasn’t shot dead in a £10 freezeout while trying to hang on till the free buffet. Nor was he trying to win a bracelet, since that is jewellery and should only interest girls.


Option 2: Make the cash game dealer’s choice, which doesn’t work out too well in tourney form. Who can resist the chocolate box that is dealer’s choice? Double-flop hold’em, six-card Omaha, super stud – anything consenting adults want to get up to behind closed doors. Believe me, none of your mates will want to go back to fold-shove hold’em tourneys after you get them hooked on the hard stuff.


Tom



Tags: Tom Sambrook, Strategy,