With the enormous boost in pokers exposure over the past few years, many new players are introduced to no-limit holdem through online poker tournaments. Its a natural progression seeing as how many beginners have gone from the couch to the computer, learning tournament poker from professionals and fortunate amateurs on countless televised events. Many beginners even do the smart thing and immerse themselves in a no-limit poker book or two to refine their skills, and they may even have some success at Sit n Gos or multi-table tournaments. However, many of these players spill over into the no-limit side cash games offered at all online sites and fail to adjust their play. While its true that in poker the most money is made in cash games, many players make critical errors when they try to transition into this format. My goal in this article is to help you eliminate some of those mistakes.
One of the most basic, but important, things to realize about cash games is the difference in structure to tournaments. In no-limit poker tournaments, you pay a specific buy-in and are given an arbitrary amount of arbitrary chips. Those chips have no cash value, and you can only make money...