(also brag post)
I thought I would post this as we seem not to have many live cash game players on the forum. I think I am probably as good at live cash games as I have ever been. I have learned the following things about my poker game over the years:
I do not enjoy playing online poker at all. To me it feels like a second job. Grinding multiple tables in front of a computer is just not for me. I think another part of the problem with online for me is that I cannot escape it when I play. It is always there. The biggest problem is that I fell it takes away from my live game -- I just don't feel the desire to play as much when I can sit here and play online whenever I want.
I do not enjoy playing live tournies. I used to love small MTTs when I was learning poker, but have lost all interest in them. To me, a big part of being a good MTT player is playing tight at times and I love to play lots of hands. If you look at the WSOP ME final table, I think the chipleader had around 70bb which I feel is super shallow. Just not my game at all.
I love deepstacked live cash, so that's all I ever play anymore. I play the game I enjoy and the money just follows. If I have played too many hours in a week and no longer feel likel playing then I don't go play poker. I play when I am enjoying it.
I lost my old data and started using an App on my phone and also backing-up data online (pokerdominator.com is a great free record keeping program that you can obviously access wherever they haz interwebz).
Sick brag graph for my last 20ish sessions of 1/2 (you will have to believe me that this is my standard winrate +/- $5 over my last year in this city):
High std deviation due to small sample size on this tracker.
I know this is a crazy winrate. I view myself as probably the best live cash player where I play and I am pretty introspective/realistic about my game. I have played live cash for 7-8 years and lost interest for a while but am loving playing poker again. Everything in my life (personally, etc) is going great and I think that has a big reflection on playing live. I try and keep my sessions short except if I am at a really good table and am still playing my A game. I find as I get older that I can no longer play well in sessions beyond 6 hours or so and that I don't really have the time or desire to play extended sessions anyhow.
So, the reasons:
1. 1/2 plays at $500 max which gives skilled players a much larger edge over the lol regs that happen to be deep. A couple casinos in Calgary have now increased to $500 as well, but not anywhere I would ever play regularly (ABS and Cash Casinos, I believe).
2. Often times you are investing $2-$10 in a pot vs an opponent who will stack off light and is sitting with $500+. You're playing for 2/5 stacks and putting in 1/2 money preflop. This really decreases variance.
3. A lucky, but bad player that has a deep stack is quite willing to lose it all on one hand. This means that buying in for $500 at a good table can be way more profitable than at a typical 1 2 game.
4. With table selection it is quite rare not to find a good, very deep table.
5. Most deep players have no clue about stack sizes in relation to raises and intrinsic hand values. They don't understand that calling them with ATC can be profitable if we are both deep enough and cannot adjust.
6. Even "solid" regs can be outplayed fairly easily my shifting your style up. Where I play, regs NEVER change their style of play. This makes it very profitable to play in even the late night weeknight reg infested games if you are willing to shift between LAG and TAG in the right spots. I am almost certain that at least 3/4 of the regs I play with are losing players (being conservative).
7. I think that many not too bright players (sorry about the stereotype, but if you play with some of these players you will know what I am talking about) working in the oil fields have access to much more money than they rightfully should for their age and are very willing to play drunk a lose a couple thousand dollars in a night of poker.
Overall, these have to be the best 1 2 games on the planet if you are a decent live player. I think they are beatable for more money than the 2/5 games in Vegas. I used to sit in the 2 5 at my casino when it (rarely) went, but it is a much tougher game and I'd be shocked if it is beatable for more than the 1 2 games.
IMO you cannot find a regular 2/5 game anywhere on the planet more beatable than 1/2 in Edmonton.
As an aside, I'm moving away from here as soon as I find a decent job somewhere warm (-30C trumps all).