I realize that most of the people on this site probably know who I am mainly for my poker tournament accomplishments, but due to some changes in my life (primarily my two children), I've branched out and started playing a lot more cash games as well. There are a couple of distinct differences I've noticed aside from the more obvious differences in play styles between cash and multi-table tournament play.

First is focus. I personally find it is much easier for me to stay focused in tournaments than it is in cash games for much longer periods of time. Tournament dynamics are constantly changing, the blinds are constantly rising, and the stacks (and players) at the table are always changing. All of this changes the overall 'feel' of the game very significantly. Also the top-heavy payout structures and various stages of tournament play, in my opinion, add a bigger overall level of excitement and help keep me focused for the 8+ hours that is often necessary to go deep or win a tournament.

Cash games are great, but without all the changing dynamics one thing I noticed was that during longer sessions my play (and then my results) would often suffer significantly after the first 60-90 minutes at the tables. There just aren't as many changing dynamics and… to be quite honest, I get a little bored sometimes after about that period of time and will usually do something stupid just to mix things up a bit or for my own entertainment, and more often than not it ends in disaster.

I definitely admire people who can play cash games for hours on end with little-to-no deterioration in their overall level of play. I've learned to accept that I am not that type of player though, and now regularly limit my cash sessions to no more than 90 minutes and often to around 60 and have found my results have improved LOTS since making the change. Using tools like Poker Tracker or Hold Em Manager to constantly look at things like this for weird patterns has helped me a lot over the years. For both tournament and cash game players, you can easily see if there are certain days or times of the day when you do better than others, or certain times when you do horrible. You'll be amazed how easily you can often track these fluctuations in your win rate back to specific things during that day or time that will often help your bottom line.

The second thing I've found playing cash games as opposed to tournaments is there are some significant lifestyle benefits. One of the reasons I quit my regular job to play poker professionally was the freedom to not be a slave to the 9 to 5 (or later) work schedule that is generally accepted in society today. Looking back though, playing tournaments, I was still a slave to the tournament schedule. Sure, I was no longer answering to a boss or punching a clock, but I was still forced to fit within the boundaries of the online tournament schedule to make a living. With cash games I can play whenever I want for as much or as little time as I want, which can be both a blessing and a curse. It's great because it's made it much easier to spend time with my family, go out to social functions that I would have normally missed because they fell during the prime tournament schedule, or just generally have the freedom to go cool off for a while if I just don't feel I'm on my 'A' game.

I don't think I could ever stop playing tournaments on Sundays, but just about every other day of the week I find myself more and more leaning towards playing cash games. This doesn't necessarily mean everyone should do the same, but as my life has changed I've found that branching into other areas of poker have made the parts of my life that are important to me much easier to enjoy and maintain. I guess the point of me sharing this with all of you is that I think it's important to constantly be evaluating our poker game on many different levels. That can be as fundamentally simple as reviewing hand histories or watching a training video. It can also go beyond that to what makes you the happiest at the moment, not just at the tables but away from the tables as well. It's also important to constantly evaluate the ways you can set yourself up for success, from the above example of evaluating the deterioration of my play over periods of time to simply making your poker environment as comfortable (and distraction free) as possible!

– Rizen

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Eric Lynch has had success in both live and online poker tournaments. In 2006, finished 24th in the WSOP Main Event for $494,000. Online, he has an outright victory in the PokerStars Sunday Million for $156,000. Besides being a sponsored pro at Lock Poker, he is the co-author of "Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time" along with Jon apestyles Van Fleet and Jon PearlJammer Turner.

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Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time
by Rizen, apestyles and PearlJammer

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