The year is 2024, the games are getting more challenging, and there’s no more money in poker to be made. Or is there? This article will take a closer look at the state of online poker games in 2024.
First of all, let us reassure you: there is still a lot of money in poker. You have to know which games to play and where to play them.
What are the most popular poker formats nowadays?
Poker formats and poker strategies are constantly evolving, but the basic principles of the most popular poker game (we’re looking at you, Texas Holdem) stay the same: two hole cards, five community cards, and a lot of room for creativity. If you wish to play online poker in 2024, you can pick from many different formats. Still, only three stay relevant and undeniably popular nowadays: multi-table tournaments, cash games, and Spin & Go’s.
What are the pros and cons of each of these formats?
Poker MTTs – to the victor go the spoils
Multi-table tournaments (or MTTs for short) are the most common and popular poker format. We’re sure that the first time you’ve heard about poker was with someone winning a lot of money in a poker tournament.
Poker tournaments have a lot of appeal. They usually allow you to multiply your buy-in by a lot. While playing an online poker tournament, you get dealt a lot of hands, and you are allowed to take your time and pick the spots to play carefully.
There is also another side of the coin. The poker strategy for playing tournaments is quite a complex and nuanced one. Even if you learn how to navigate the most common spots, the more complex ones will keep on popping up. Moreover, if you want to do well in tournaments, you must understand ICM (Independent Chip Model) on final tables, where the most money in MTTs is made.
Oh, and did we mention luck? Of course, poker is a skill game with quite a lot of luck involved, but no format is crueler than MTTs. You’ve just bubbled Sunday Million’s final table because of two outer on the river? Well, you’ll have to keep your fingers crossed that one day you’ll beat a few thousand other players once again, only this time your hand will hold.
Don’t get us wrong, MTTs are a great and enjoyable way to play poker – who doesn’t love the thrill from time to time? It’s also an enjoyable way of starting, playing for pennies, but it’s really hard to make sustainable money from them, especially if you’re not running too well.
And don’t forget that when you decide to participate in a tournament, you have to reserve quite a lot of time. It’s not a go-to option for a father or mother of two.
Poker cash games – the Cadillac of poker formats
Poker cash games – the ONLY skillful format, as many players love to call them. And to be fair, they are not wrong. The poker strategy for cash games is one of the most complex ones – the pots have way more big blinds on average than in any other poker format. This gives you a lot of wiggle room to choose creative lines — which is not always the best idea.
Many people start their poker journey playing micro stakes cash games or even playing money games. Playing micros is a great way to learn the basics of poker strategy. The small-time investment is the significant advantage of cash games over poker tournaments. You can play long cash game sessions if you want, but you do not have to. Unlike during tournaments, you can walk away from the poker table at any moment without any harm to your bankroll.
The biggest downside of cash games is the player pool. You’ll often have to play against experienced poker players, which is not an easy task nor incredibly profitable. On some sites, you will be able to choose the table you can play on. On others, you won’t. Proper game selection is essential to your win rate, despite being tedious at times.
Spin & Go’s – the new kid on the block
Spin & Go’s are the youngest poker format out there. Despite that, they seem to be getting more and more popular, and new poker players are giving them a go. Why has this poker format become so relevant?
Well, Spins have the best qualities of poker tournaments – quite soft fields, a chance to win big in a single game (can you imagine the thrill of winning 1000 x of your buy-in in a single game?), and you do not need to book a whole night to play them, as an average game lasts a mere 10 minutes or so.
All of the above make Spins one of the most accessible formats in online poker. The appearance of Spins shifted the online poker landscape more than any other event in the last few years. Soon after their rise to popularity, they’ve become the game to pick for the vast majority of recreational poker players.
And it should go without saying, but we’ll stress it out anyway: where the recreational players are, there lies the money.
How can you take advantage of that? Despite being a relatively simple concept, the poker strategy for Spin & Go’s is not as straightforward as it may seem. That’s a good thing – the bigger the room for your improvement is, the more edge you can generate.
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