The way I am starting to see it, Cash game PAWNS Tourney poker

Well sort of.

I have been noticing that most of the best tournament players (live), are also great cash game players who are putting in 30-40hrs a week.

You'll never have a night at a cash table like a big tourney score for the same investment, but as even the basic books say, tourney is the gravey, cash is the steak.

Guys like Vekked and Wetts may be the exception, but they are putting in comparable time online. I would also be curious to compare invested dollars from a winning MTT player to a winning cash player. It seems like cash game would have a way better hourly than mtt, unless someone is playing lets say 10 or more a day.

Anyway, I am finding while I find tourney way less stressfull than cash game in terms of you know what you are going to invest, I am also starting to like the fact the cash game just provides so many more options as far as being able to not worry about increasing blinds, being able to wait for better spots, specific opponents and when people are playing bad and stacking you, that usually a reload or two later you can get it back with significant interest. And you can leave when you want.

I will admit flat out though, even 1-2NL can feel huge with the max buys getting bigger and tables often very deep, so this is strictly a home game attitude I am hoping to eventually take more seriously later.

Most likely start back at 4/8 limit and 4/8 Limit DC

Anybody else have thoughts?

Comments

  • Give me a choice of a buy in for 100 at a cash table or a 100 buy in tourney I'd take the table.

    Well okay wait that might not be truee..

    Ugh Poker is Poker... you can higher highs and lower lows with Tournaments though I feel.
  • cash games don't give you hardons like omg i made the final table posts do
  • You want to make real money in poker, play tournaments IMO. I always heard, cash games feed your tournament habit. Now I am starting to think it is the other way around.
  • pokerJAH wrote: »
    You want to make real money in poker, play tournaments IMO. I always heard, cash games feed your tournament habit. Now I am starting to think it is the other way around.

    I believe this too, (cash games feed your tournament habit) but after the last few years of watching Tournaments, I find that the guys I see winning also invest a lot into events, which they get all of from the cash tables.

    Obv, you ship something for $50,000 plus, pretty hard to match at all but the 25/50 games.

    Maybe I should refine this some. Canadian tournaments, with the exception of a few series, forget it. cash games way more profitable for the better players.

    I think >$100 and 100 player tourneys are definitely long term losers compared to investing that $100 in cash?

    Anyway, the Hendon mob all time Canadian Money lists show that to be in top 1000 tournament players here, pretty much cash for 4k and your in. Top 500, think a half decent 2/5 NL player can match annually. Top 200, best tournament players, don't think many guys will make this playing cash.

    That's a really small percentage though...

    BAP of the top 1000 Online or 200 Live Canadian FTW?
  • I have decided that cash>>tourneys for the simple reason that if you don't like your table or are feeling tired you ask for a table change/sit out. You can take break on your timetable, not the tourney schedule and play as long as or little as you like. There is something to be said for your ego to sit at a tough tourney table and do well but meh, I'd rather switch to a table of fish and play cash.

    Playing cash games at my house every two weeks for the last year started this thought and hitting Windsor and taking the bubble prize in one tourney for $50 while making a g-note in the cash games, on my schedule, cemented it. Never mind that most casinos do not comp for tourney hours, whereas cash games are and it seems a no-brainer.
  • The best low limit cash games I've ever seen are the 1 2 NL in Alberta. Win rates at these games approach what is possible in most 5/5 games. Edmonton is even better than Calgary in that the max buy is $500. I have a win rate of high 2 figures over the past 3 years in these games. It is usually not even worth sitting in a 5/5NL game anymore when it rarely goes in Edmonton. You can easily make as much in a deep 1/2 game with much lower variance. The key is table selection. If you are sitting at a table where everyone is milking their $100-$200 stacks then get on the list ASAP for the table with $5k+ sitting on it...ez game.

    It's my understanding that the MTTs are also supersoft, but I would think that a casual player is not getting enough volume playing live MTTs to ever establish a reliable winrate. If all else were equal then I would choose cash games.

    Given that all else is not equal: I love playing 300-500bb deep, I generally never make it to the casino at MTT times due to my schedule, I don't really even enjoy MTTs at all, I can leave when I want, I prefer a steady winrate to the ups and downs of MTTs, etc...you will rarely see me playing a MTT.
  • moose wrote: »
    I have decided that cash>>tourneys for the simple reason that if you don't like your table or are feeling tired you ask for a table change/sit out. You can take break on your timetable, not the tourney schedule and play as long as or little as you like. There is something to be said for your ego to sit at a tough tourney table and do well but meh, I'd rather switch to a table of fish and play cash.

    Playing cash games at my house every two weeks for the last year started this thought and hitting Windsor and taking the bubble prize in one tourney for $50 while making a g-note in the cash games, on my schedule, cemented it. Never mind that most casinos do not comp for tourney hours, whereas cash games are and it seems a no-brainer.

    Where are these tough low bi MTT tables? I've never seen it.
  • Open your eyes and reread the post again then.

    Oh perhaps you should start here, note role of Dick.

    Dick_and_Jane.jpg
  • moose wrote: »
    There is something to be said for your ego to sit at a tough tourney table and do well

    wat?
  • I am unclear also. Please fill in the form:

    [ ] making a final table makes me feel sad and lonely.
    [ ] making a final table makes me feel good
  • The fundamental difference from my perspective is in a cash game I am there to rid you of your money. In a tournament I am there to beat you in a competition. That requires a big mental shift for me when playing with friends.
  • Meh, I love tournaments way more than cash games, but mtts are obv way more time consuming, you never make the long run, and the luck factor is more significant. Even with all that being said, I'll prob be grinding them next month and onward because, like AC said, the rush of going deep and final tabling mtts is amazing and I can't really get that rush playing cash.
  • I do always enjoy the cash game, the stronger quality of player you get the high the stakes you pick, as far as a tourney goes especially ontario casinos, you get mostly people who are just looking to gamble (that gets old fast if I wanted to gamble I would!)

    As for leaving ON Im told its quite worth it and you can get some quality tournament play, now myself of course I leave ON and play a cash game:P
  • Last trip to Vegas, I played 2 - $100-ish tourneys 50 to 100 entries. Busted out both times around 40% players left. Total time invested about 7 hours. Played about 8 hours cash (NLHE and PLO) over the three days and made $500.

    Buzzard's tourneys ($60 entry) where I don't final table, more than make up the entry fee playing cash after busting out.

    Westside tourneys (played the last 3 and bubbled the last one), played cash after busting out and doubled the entry fee.

    So for me, live cash >> live tournies. Agree with the cash = steak and tourneys = gravy concept.
  • GTA Poker wrote: »
    The best low limit cash games I've ever seen are the 1 2 NL in Alberta . . .

    I have a win rate of high 2 figures over the past 3 years in these games.

    So . . . $85.00? Doesn't seem like much over 3 years. :D



    Cash games for the money . . . tournies for the fame.
  • milo wrote: »
    so . . . $85.00? Doesn't seem like much over 3 years. :d



    cash games for the money . . . Tournies for the fame.

    $81.13 cdn
  • Nice score . . .
  • GTA Poker wrote: »
    $81.13 cdn
    81.13 an hour is impressive at 1/2.

    I don't make that much at 2/5.
  • I think playing live tournies are a lot more fun but for a living would be brutal..the long run is basically a lifetime. I'd rather make a consistent profit in cash games and dabble in some tournies on the side..hoping to make a few nice scores.

    That being said..I'd never want to play live poker for a living...although I do have what I think is the juiciest 1/2 game here in Fort Mcmurray and have been going there again this week and WOW...plays like 2/5 easily and more spewy than any 1/2 game I've ever played in Edmonton or Vegas.
  • Newff wrote: »
    I think playing live tournies are a lot more fun but for a living would be brutal..the long run is basically a lifetime. I'd rather make a consistent profit in cash games and dabble in some tournies on the side..hoping to make a few nice scores.

    That being said..I'd never want to play live poker for a living...although I do have what I think is the juiciest 1/2 game here in Fort Mcmurray and have been going there again this week and WOW...plays like 2/5 easily and more spewy than any 1/2 game I've ever played in Edmonton or Vegas.

    1 2 down here also plays as big as a Vegas 2 5.

    I'm just posting this because I've never before been able to refer to Edmonton as down here.
  • I've recently started playing micro rebuys (2-4$) funded by winning a couple of bi's at .5/.10c ring games.

    And when I play live I usually sit down for an hour or two at 1/2 before a tourney and win my buy in.
  • Its all relative to how comfortable you are and with swings, could be anything from 5-10 or .25 and .50....The people you sit with gamblers/nits/collusion.

    When I play with peeps on the forum its .50 whatever I hit the casino Im looking for 2-5 or 5-10, perhaps its what your looking to get out of poker too is it fun? Is it going to make you a living?
  • A big advantage of tourneys is that stupider people play tourneys.
  • I believe if you are able to take some of the fundamentals from a cash game and apply it to a tournament and adjust based on certain situations you can really play tournaments well. I am mainly a cash game player and I do enjoy tournaments but I always look at the idea if I sit for 8hrs in a cash game I have a higher chance of profiting then in a tournament.

    At this years fallsview classic I skipped events because the cash game was so juicy and instead of dumping 2500 into the event where top 15ish get paid I was able to make 2500 in the cash game.

    But then again I enjoy tournaments as they are usually very soft and most tournament players play the same fundamental strategy in which if you understand you can usually catch on quick and exploit. Cash games are a different beast because you don't know how much money they have behind or if they just want to gamble gamble gamble.
  • A big advantage of tourneys is that stupider people play tourneys.

    FU!
  • A big advantage of tourneys is that stupider people play tourneys.
    ryanghall wrote: »
    FU!

    Not you of course, I meant the fields are full of dumb players.

    By the way, Nice article in Cardplayer Magazine!
  • moose wrote: »
    I have decided that cash>>tourneys for the simple reason that if you don't like your table or are feeling tired you ask for a table change/sit out. You can take break on your timetable, not the tourney schedule and play as long as or little as you like. There is something to be said for your ego to sit at a tough tourney table and do well but meh, I'd rather switch to a table of fish and play cash.

    Playing cash games at my house every two weeks for the last year started this thought and hitting Windsor and taking the bubble prize in one tourney for $50 while making a g-note in the cash games, on my schedule, cemented it. Never mind that most casinos do not comp for tourney hours, whereas cash games are and it seems a no-brainer.

    ^^ this x 100 if you have kids. The ability to getup and leave at any time is huge!
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