Let The Professor Teach You
Howard Lederer on Cash Games vs. Tournaments
Question: How has the game evolved from cash into tournaments?
Answer: Well, certainly the idea of the tournament didn't start until The World Series of Poker back in '70. People used to just get around and play poker, but certainly (there didn't exist) the idea of a set loss limit or the concept of that if you run really well for a few days, you can turn a small amount of money into a lot of money.
That has really caught on, and also this idea of a visible winner. We always like to crown our champions, and you really can't do that in side games to the extent that you can in tournaments. It's just been gradual. I would say when I first came on the scene, tournaments were kind of an excuse to get everyone together to play side games. You'd play some tournaments, but now the tournaments are the reason everyone gets together. Tournament poker is taking over that way.
Question: You hear about more money being won in cash games than in tournaments, and how much players spend to play the tournament circuit. Why, then, do they still play these tournaments, if cash games are more profitable?
Answer: Well, first of all, tournaments are a lot of fun. I have always enjoyed playing them. I used to play mostly cash games and some tournaments, and now I don't really play cash games. Not so much because I wouldn't want to, I just don't have time. My business commitments keep me from being able to be as focused as I have to be to win in cash games. I just stick to tournaments at this point. At some point, I will free up my schedule and play more cash games.
I think there's another part of it, too: The cameras are there for tournaments and not for cash games, so there are business opportunities and promotional opportunities that aren't available during cash game play. Three years ago, I kind of saw it coming a little bit, and I decided for the first time in my poker career that if I won a tournament or two, there would be some business opportunities that would go along with it. You weren't just playing for a couple hundred thousand dollars first place prize. It was that and what might come along with it, and you don't get that in cash games.
Question: How is it that cash games are more profitable, when you only have to put up $10,000 for a tournament, and that's all you lose, but you can lose up to $500,000 in a session at cash games?
Answer: Some people lose a lot of money playing cash games! But, a winning player will win more money more consistently in cash games. Cash games are more like punching in on the clock and putting your hours in. Some of these games are very big. There is a lot of money you can lose, and a lot of money you can win.
Tournaments are much more of a gamble. A very good player can go almost a whole year hardly winning a tournament, and that does add up. Say a really, really good cash-game player who figures to make a million or a million and a half playing cash games for the year entered in three or four $100,000 tournaments. If he or she is a great player, maybe his positive expectation, in terms of how much money he should make at the end of the year, would be about that same million or million and a half.
The way that's going to look is that it might be a whole bunch of break-evens, or small wins a year, and then that big year when he wins a two-million-dollar prize. So in terms of being able to make a consistent living, it's a lot easier in cash games. If you are a winning player, it's really almost impossible to go a whole year and lose. Which is easy to do in tournaments, even though you're one of the best players.
Question: Is recognition the reason why cash game players are moving to tournaments?
Answer: Yes, definitely, and now all of a sudden there are these poker tournaments that are big, and are very profitable, and there is that extra little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you win, because with the recognition will come business opportunities. Quite Frankly, I think some of the top cash-game players are literally in it because, I've heard one top cash game player complain, he said, "Well, I have to start playing tournaments, because my son kept asking me, 'If you're such a good poker player, why don't I see you on TV?' It's hard to explain to your son, 'Well, I don't really play in front of the camera. I play with the best players in the world,'" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, Dad." That's probably what he gets.