One excellent way to get used to cash play from an SNG background, without worrying about pot control, is to ’short-stack’. This means to buy into a cash game with the minimum buy-in, usually a 20 big blind stack. Deep-stack cash players often get upset at short-stackers, because you’re forcing them to play for shallower effective stacks than they would like. There are plenty of tables requiring higher minimum buy-ins that these players can patronise.

If your edge is bigger playing with a short stack, then you should absolutely do so. The types of decisions you’ll be faced with as a short-stacker are similar to those during the middle-to-late phase of a sit-n-go. Resteals are key. For instance, suppose you are in the small blind holding a pair of nines. The hijack raises and the button calls. In a deep-stacked situation, you would have to decide whether to call or raise, and then decide on a plan for each of the remaining streets. With a stack of 20 BB, however, the decision is simple: Go all-in pre-flop and don’t look back.

In summary, short-stacking is a good way to transition from SNGs to cash no- limit hold’em. Once you are ready to play with deeper stacks, start by playing a tight-aggressive style, sticking with quality starting hands, even though your game may feature winning loose-aggressive players.

Remember to have a plan for the entire hand. If you don’t want to play for all your chips with a one-pair hand, you might have to check and call where you would normally bet and raise playing a sit-n-go. And lastly, never stop searching for the most profitable table. You win money in any game from the mistakes your opponents make, and weaker players will always make more mistakes.

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With more than 20 percent of your remaining stack now sitting in the middle, you should rarely be hesitant to bet the rest of your chips during the hand. This same hand would play differently in a cash game, however. Suppose it is $1-$2 no-limit hold’em with a $200 buy-in. You raise to $6 on the button with your king-jack and the big blind calls. Now the pot is $13, but you have nearly $200 left. Unless your opponent is very loose, he will almost certainly need a better hand than a pair of kings to put his entire remaining stack in the center with comparatively little already out there.

With your strong top-pair hand, you still want to play a decent-size pot to get paid off by lower pairs and drawing hands. If your opponent checks the flop, tend to go ahead and bet for this reason. If he instead leads out for a pot-size bet, however, you should then often flat-call.

Raising is aggressive, but sets the hand up for a huge pot. This concept is why many good players will bet right into you with a monster hand – if you raise, then they’ve gotten you committed to a very large pot. Think about how big a pot you want to play, and do what it takes to make the pot that size. If that means making a passive call instead of an aggressive raise, or checking behind with a one-pair hand when the pot is already large, then by all means do so.

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Next, the deeper average stack sizes in cash make the concept of pot-size control an important one. I discuss this concept at length in my book on heads-up, and the essence is: The stronger your hand, the bigger you want the pot to be.

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For instance, when you raise in early potion in a nine-handed game, an observant opponent will know that you ha, one of only a few hands (perhaps pock.- -pairs nines through aces, A-Q or A-K).

If you’re new to cash, you won’t playing the high-stakes games, course, and there are plenty of inobservant low-stakes players who will put off your early position raises wit weaker hands no matter how tight-_- you’ve been playing so far. A somewhere predictable tight-aggressive style :1 fine in these games, but you should, still be aware of how the observant players in the game will perceive you As a compromise, you might raise wit’ the occasional low pocket pair or suit end connectors from early or middle, position.

These hands will balance your range, keep you unpredictable and can still pay off big. Don’t get carried away, though; stick mostly to strong starting hands when you are starting out.

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The blinds are constant in cash, so there are no ‘game phases’ as there are in SNGs. The stacks tend to be much deeper stacks in cash than SNGs. This statement is a generalization; you can fall to a 10 BB (big blind) stack in cash without rebuying, and some SNGs start with 100 BB stacks. In general, though, cash is played with stacks of 50-100 BB or deeper, whereas most of the important decisions in SNGs take place with stacks of 20 BB or fewer.

Chips do not change value in cash-game play. In SNG play, it’s important to understand that you are playing for equity rather than chips. Suppose you are one of two big stacks on the bubble. You would not call an all-in from the other big stack unless you had a very large edge, because doing so risks your entire equity when you are almost guaranteed a money finish. Cash play is different, however – chips and money are identical. You are correct to take any edge.

(In practice, you might decline to call off your entire stack in cash with a very small edge, in order to lower variance. In theory, though, you’re correct to seize even the smallest edge.)

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In a previous column, we discussed the transition from SNGs to Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs). Today we will approach cash no-limit hold’em from an SNG background. First, a quick review of how cash play differs from SNGs.

• CASH IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL
• DIFFERENCES ARE SIGNIFICANT
• LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE PLAYERS
• POT CONTROL
• SHORT-STACKING

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