What is Cash Game?

A cash game (also called a ring game) is a poker format in which the chips on the table represent real money at face value, and players may join, leave or rebuy at any time. Unlike a tournament, there is no elimination and no rising blind structure: the blinds stay fixed for as long as you play, and you can stand up and cash out your stack whenever you choose. This structure shapes strategy. Because survival is never at stake — busting a stack simply means reaching for more chips, not leaving the event — cash-game play centres on making individually profitable decisions, hand after hand, rather than on the tournament concern of staying alive as blinds escalate. Worked example: you sit in a £1/£2 cash game and buy in for £200 (100 big blinds). After an unlucky session your stack falls to £40. In a cash game you may simply reload back to the £200 maximum and continue at the same fixed blinds. In a tournament, by contrast, losing your chips ends your participation and the blinds would have been climbing throughout, forcing increasingly desperate play. The cash game lets you keep grinding at a steady structure indefinitely. Why it matters: the fixed blinds and freedom to rebuy reward patience and disciplined, long-term expected-value decisions. Stack sizes are typically measured in big blinds (a £200 stack at £1/£2 is "100bb"), and deep-stacked play allows more post-flop manoeuvring than short tournament stacks permit. Common mistake: importing tournament "survival" instincts into a cash game — playing too tight to avoid busting — when the correct mindset is to maximise the value of each individual decision, since there is nothing to be eliminated from. Compare to: Big Blind, Ante, Bankroll.