Calling in Cash vs Tourny

mattless

I have started playing cash games recently having almost exclusively played stt's and mtt's up to now. I am playing 25p/50p holdem. I am learning as i go but feel I have a resonable holdem game.

It is the calling from players in all positions that is confusing me. I understand that with no blind pressure that calling a standard 2 or 3 times raise pre flop is regularly done with a wide range of hands, but calling on flop and turn with nothing also seems common place. I ask myself, Is the float play used more in cash? Are  2/3 or 3/4 c bets (even) less respected in cash? Or is it simply bad play?

It also seems that an opponent will call when they are strong (top pair good kicker, 2 pair or set), despite the board being draw heavy. Is this somehow more profitable over time in cash or again is it bad play?

Is all this just that I need to play more hands or am I missing something.

Ta muchly

Matt

DOHHHHHHH

Aup mate, I think in cash, its more about playing down the streets.....you can auto reload after every hand, so like in tournys you say a deepstack structure gives you lots of play, in each individual cash hand, theres so much play.....so things like this happen alot....

Top pair good kicker, as you quoted above, isn't THAT strong in cash, people play all sorts of holdings, so its hard to put them on hands. - its not a way of trapping alot of the time its just controlling the pot size....

If you do that and the draw gets there, back yourself to read your opponent as strong or weak, and get off the hand 

Re-Raising with say King ten on a Ten high flop with 2 hearts, opens up the move for the initial raiser to come over the top again, and all of a sudden you have lost control of the situation and the pot....

Don't wanna give too much away as I play the same level as you - but there are many players who make good money at that level just playing ABC stuff - theres enough fish to go round.

GL in your games, DOHH

penguin7

I think Dohh has given a very good answer to your question here. Looking at it from the other side as a tourny specialist, we often have different reasons to raise a pot.

In the example he gives, playing K10 on a 10 high flop, a tourny player is looking to take the pot down there and then, especially if there is a potential draw on board. By choosing the correct betsize to give the opponent a choice of folding or risking his tourny by chasing the draw, he will often succeed. The only time he will get into trouble is if he runs into aggressive opponents willing to come over the top with a draw.

In cash it is different, the raise is more often a way of building or controlling the pot size. A potsize bet is more likely to be flat called by a drawing hand. Because your opponents can reload there is value for them in seeing the turn and river, either to hit their draw or find a situation where they can represent a strong hand.

Similarly in a tournament, if an opponent misses the draw on the turn, he is more unlikely to put in more chips to see the river because the odds are not good enough to risk his tourny. But a cash player is more likely to chase a flush draw or open ender with only the river to come, because in terms of risk and reward there can be value there.

mattless

Thanks guys. As ever, need to find my own way, but both useful answers.

See you at the tables.

Matt