The biggest difference between cash games and tournament’s is the ability to chip up at any stages in a cash game. If a player loses all or most of his chips in cash games, he can instantly increase his table balance by just adding chips from their online bank balance. Whereas, in tournament play – once your chips are gone your chips are gone. If short stacked, the only way you are going to get more chips is by winning hand. On the other hand, if you bust, you are out. It is not possible just to top up you chip stack as you wish.

This means tournament poker players on PokerStars think more about survival and are looking for situations where they can increase their chip stack with out risking too many chips. Cash players think differently. They think more about getting the maximum amount of chips from their big hands and losing as little as possible when behind.

Skill levels

The level of skills that a cash play faces is also different from a tournament player. It is possible for a tournament player to play at the highest buy-ins and still run into novice players. Whereas, in cash games, if you play high stakes cash, it is extremely unlikely you are going to run into a low skilled player. Most cash game players are highly skilled at their profession and you are going to find it difficult to find a player who is not a seasoned pro when you are playing at any decent stakes level.

Cash players will also have the same problems if moving to tournament poker. Two good examples are Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan of PokerStars.net. Phil is a great tournament player because he has mastered the art of survival, but is not respected as a cash game player. Then you have Tom Dwan, one of the best cash game players in the world, yet struggles when he plays in tournaments.

Therefore, before moving to cash game poker, take into consideration even though you are a good tournament player, you will not necessarily be a good cash game player. Remember skill levels and styles of opponents are different. So if you are deciding to move to cash tables. Start as a beginner, as you could easily lose the bankroll you built as a tournament player very fast if you assume you can play at the same level as you did in tournament poker.