There are many benefits of playing ring games. Personally I prefer tournament poker but I do like playing the low stake ring games from time to time. Playing in these ring games from time to time allows me try out new poker strategies or to just some work in if I haven’t played in an MTT or SnG for a few days.
Playing in a ring game also lets me meet some new players as a lot of players who are new to poker will jump right into a ring game and I get to make new friends who don’t usually play tournament poker!
How often do you play ring games and do you prefer them over tournament poker?
I used to play only ring games. I was intimidated by the thought of playing in tournaments where everyone (I assumed) would play so very much better than I could play. When I finally dipped my toe into the tournament stream, I found a range of players there and began to feel at home. I like the beginning, middle, and end I experience in a tournament. In ring play, there’s no absolute moment when it’s over. When I play in ring games, I try to set a chip # I want to accrue before I leave. Mostly I want to make certain I step out of the ring richer than when I stepped into it.
I have heard that all ring game players are kinda goofy, and that most of them have buck teeth and tape on their glasses. Obviously, that’s no environment for a highly refined fella like myself!
I like tournament poker but i do ring games between waitning to it starts,it depends of the ring game but the most is all in and that is not fun,now iam a lower player as you,ha i win more often to high rank players than low,still learning the game! A question to you ! what is your favorite game here! i most say also,the most players here is very nice,if you are nice back they are nice too back! Bad losers is always there! sorry for me hahaha of topic
Some of my favorite games are tournaments that start out with a deep stack like the Sensational Blinds tournament and the Play The High Blinds tournaments. I also like tournaments with big fields like the Freerolls and Bust the Staff.
I started out with on-line play playing mostly tournaments of all sorts on a different site quite some time back, and I’ve always loved the suspense and drama of a tournament, and the struggle to survive till you are the last one standing. I probably would have never worked on my heads up or short handed game if I hadn’t wanted to last a little longer, after the first few times I made the final table.
Unfortunately, I don’t usually have large enough blocks of time to be able to reserve for a tournament, and there is nothing worse than making the final table, and then being told it’s time to leave for the grocery shopping…
So cash games are great in that I can play for just 5 or 10 minutes if I want, or if I get frustrated after a couple of bad beats, I can just do something else for a while if I find I’m not enjoying myself anymore. I also like that winnings are more consistent in cash games… if you are playing tournaments with a few hundred people, it always takes a bit of luck to really cash big. I also like the ability to buy in deeper stacked at replay, so it is not rare to be playing 500 or even 1,000 big blinds deep, something you pretty much never get to do in tournaments.
That gets to another charm of cash games: there is more strategic depth and nuance in deeper stacked play. Tournaments often start out moderately deep stacked, but inevitably become dominated by shallow stack play. Of course there is still skill involved in short stacked play, and frankly that’s what creates a lot of the excitement and tension: you’re often close to falling over the edge, with no way back when your last chip is gone. But still, increasingly, over the years I’ve gradually come to prefer cash games in general, though I still think the thrill of trying to hang on in a tournament is something that cash games cannot offer.
I like to play both Ring Games and MTT. Here are my thoughts.
Ring Games
If an average player dips his/her toes into a ring game at or above 2-4 thousand blind level you will likely run into several higher ranked players ( 500 and lower). I assume most players will look at your rank and your bank when you set down. When you go heads up against such players many seem to take pleasure in forcing your play by making large bets that tax your stack. I call this being “bank rolled.” It’s very difficult playing someone who seem to have no fear of pushing the pot against an average ranked player because reloading for them is an after thought.
The result is that they are willing to try and bluff you off your hand without much concern for loosing a small portion of their bank. So it make it difficult for average ranked/banked players to win at the higher stake tables unless you are willing to call or even better raise against players who will test your “guts and skills” with little concern of loosing.
MTT
In MTT the size of your bank does not matter. In my opinion this levels the playing field and gives you an “equal” footing against higher ranked players who cannot rely on a hefty bank to push you around. The down side for me is that you can spend an hour or more at a MTT and bust out short of the “money” with nothing to show for all your hard work.
I also started out only playing tournaments ($10 buy-in home game tournaments and Replay tournaments) before moving almost exclusively to cash because it doesn’t come with the time commitment and it is possible to chip up faster.
Tournament play is more fun in my opinion because the dynamics change and because the fields are generally weaker across all levels of poker (more players take shots at tournaments above their skill level than try to grind out cash sessions, and they don’t adjust properly to blind/table changes).
But cash games make you a better player because you have to play scientifically. The dynamics stay fairly similar and you play more with the same opponents, so you can see results more clearly and leaks can be identify and exploited (yours and theirs). In cash you can get paid for making a good decision and decide when you want to leave the table, while in tourneys you can do everything right, get lucky for a while, and still bust from a cooler.
As I said…Ring Games and Tournaments are two different beast, both having an “Up” and “Down” side. The same basic BS, just got to handle it differently. The big difference is ONE bad beat most likely ends your tournament, while in a ring game, after a few bad beats you can say “screw this crap” and just leave …
The big difference is ONE bad beat most likely ends your tournament, while in a ring game, after a few bad beats you can say “screw this crap” and just leave … 