How Poker Cash works: differences between "cash game" and prize pool tournaments

Poker cash represents the most natural form of poker game, in which each player sits at the table with his own money and is free to abandon the game at any time and with any amount of chips

This type of game, already consolidated in poker room ".com" for years, has also been available also in American poker rooms regulated by the state monopoly. Let's see what are the peculiarities of the cash game and the game with prize pool online.

In the cash game, in our opinion the real form of poker, players must not buy access to the tournament by paying a buy-in, but they can sit at the table and use the money available directly in their account game to make the episodes. In simple words, it is equivalent to sitting at the table and playing with the money you have in the wallet.

The choice of the table in which to participate is bound to the mail offered and the value of the darknessnull When choosing to sit at a table, you must also decide what is the amount in money with which we want to play. Generally the minimum limit is 20 times the value of the big blind, while the maximum limit is 100 times the big blind.

Let's take an example: on a no limit hold'em $ 1/$ 2 table the darkness is worth $ 1, the counterbuio and the minimum episode 2 $, the minimum mail $ 20 and the maximum mail $ 200. So players can sit at the table with an amount of chips that varies between $ 20 and $ 200.

In poker cash the value of the dark always remains the samenull Contrary to the prize pool mode, which provides for the increase in darkness at regular time intervals, the cash game provides that the compulsory level of episodes is fixed.
Furthermore, Each player has the opportunity to sit and leave the table at any time, without having to submit to any time constraint.

Let's make another example: a player decides to participate in a NL Hold'em $ 1/$ 2 table, starting the game with a stack of $ 50. After participating in a number of hands and having increased the stack of up to $ 70, the player is free to abandon the table, and these $ 70 are added to his bankroll, that is, the equivalent of the chips in his possession at the moment in to which he left the game.

Obviously the cash game is structured on different levels, starting from the "micro" tables $ 0.05/$ 0.10, up to the "high" tables $ 5/$ 10, with maximum mail for each game session of $ 1000. All variants of poker limit, no limit and pot limit can be played in cash mode.

The differences between cash poker and premium tournaments:

The so-called "prize pool" game mode essentially provides for the purchase of a ticket that allows you to participate in the tournaments whose value, indicated by the buy-in, is between 0.50 $ and $ 100 (in the coming months this limit will come Probably extended to $ 250). The price of the buy-in, net of the commission held by the poker room, constitutes a prize pool that is divided and offered for players who classify themselves in the best positions.

The chips that are "delivered" to the player when he sits at the table do not therefore represent real money, but only tokens that allow you to confront the opponents, as the only way to receive a cash prize is to reach one of the positions which provide for the payment of a hamlet of the prize pool at stake.

It is basically an elimination game. The value of the darkness increases at regular time intervals and obviously the players cannot leave the table until the end of the tournament, or at least until they are eliminated by an opponent. In fact, abandoning the game is equivalent to giving up all its stack.

Game times, risk and rake:

The game times, usually very long in the prize pool tournaments, can be managed in Poker Cash at the complete discretion of each player and depending on their needs, since it is possible to play for 5 minutes or for hours without any constraint.

The game structure of cash poker is intrinsically more risky than the other game modes: the fact of sitting at the table with your money to fill the stack needs a choice of the table suitable for your economic possibilities and very strong emotional control.

On the other hand, it must be said that, as well as the losses, the winning winnings in the Cash Game are also much higher than the other types of play.

Finally, a consideration on the commission requested by the poker rooms: in the cash game a percentage of the dish to the flop in each hand is retained, while in the prize pool a part of the buy-in of the tournament is held.