New Mexico Online Poker – Is It Legal?

Basics of Tournament Play

Most poker players play tournaments as opposed to cash games. Because poker is a game of skill, exciting tournaments are where players like to show those skills off; on top of that, they can lead to a bigger payday depending on the pot limit. The World Series of Poker tournament has really helped to popularize the game all around the world. The beauty of playing in online tournaments is you can buy in for as low as $1 or as high as $5,000. Either way, all players in the tournament begin with the same amount of chips.

Tournaments can involve one table with ten players or they can have hundreds of players all playing at multiple tables simultaneously. The goal in any big tournament is to make it to the “final table,” which usually means you are part of the prize pool. Most tournaments pay the top ten places according to the order in which they finish.

In terms of the blinds in a poker tournament, they increase incrementally in predetermined intervals that range from every 15-30 mins depending on the tournament. Some tournaments have blinds that increase significantly faster than that. The reason behind the blinds constantly rising is to prevent people from playing too conservatively in the hopes that they can just hang around until the final table. Raising the blinds forces the action, which is part of the strategy involved when playing in tournaments. The last player left is of course declared the winner. 

Cash Games Require a Different Strategy

Cash games require a different strategy altogether compared to tournaments. First of all, in a tournament, if you buy in for $1, you will still have starting chips that are the equivalent of $1000-$1500 depending on the tournament. In a cash game, if you buy in for $1, you have $1 worth of chips you can play with. Obviously, the minimum buy-in is directly related to the size of the blinds, meaning you can’t buy in for $1 in a game where someone else can buy in for $100. The minimum and maximum buy-in amounts are relative to the blinds.

Blinds in a cash game do not rise like they do in a tournament. Cash games are inherently more aggressive for this reason and the fact that you have unlimited buy-ins. In a tournament, there may be the option to buy back in, but even that has a time limit. In most tournament settings, there is no buy-back option. Once you lose in a tournament, you’re done. In a cash game, as long as you have money, you can buy in as many times as you want. 

Since there’s no fear of being eliminated, and the blinds stay the same, you usually have way more people participating in hands when playing a cash game. You also get to see a lot more post-flop action because people tend to call with more marginal hands in a cash game than they would in a tournament. 

These are just the basics of playing in cash games. The best way to understand all of the nuances is to play in as many of them as possible. Even if you have a big bankroll, we suggest starting off with lower-stakes games and working your way up.