cash games or tournaments

Kweejibo

Just looking for some general opinions here. Is the more money to be made playing tournaments or cash games? What is the difference in considering bankroll management? Do you keep a seperate bankrolls for each type of games?

apryllshowers

There is "more" money in winning a tournament because winning a tournament is like hitting the lottery. You will lose most of the time, but one big hit can be life changing.

There is more "reliable" money in a cash game. A good cash game can be worth x amount per year. I played in a 10-20 limit home game that netted me an easy 30K per year without the huge variance of tournament play.

There is nothing wrong with trying to make a score, but for my money, I would rather play a cash game.

Dave Scharf

I have never seen a satisfacrory answer to the original question. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts...

Tournaments offer more variance. So, if you require a steady income from poker then avoid them.

Under what circustances whould you NOT require a steady income? If you have a HUGE bankroll you can weather some LONG losing streaks (in fact, some "known" pros are, I think, losers with BIG bankrolls). If you are not a pro. I am, for instance, a recreational player. I am willing to lose $14.5K at the WSOP this year because although it will be a BIG hit to my bankroll it will not kill me. To be sure, I am overplaying my bankroll, but I know that and I do not require a regular income from poker so I can afford the loss.

So, if you don't need a regular income. Or, you are playing for fun then play tournament because they are, for most people, more fun.

Specifically, I don't think the original question can be answered. Are you playing cash games at the $3-6 level or the $300-600 level. If a top players EV is 4 x the buy-in then a $10,000 event nets $30K. Play in fifteen a year and your expectation is $450K per year. If your regular game is $500-1000 limit hold'em then this is the equivalent of 450 hours work. What I mean is, without knowing how big a bankroll one has and a specific comparision of tournament size to ring game size it wil be hard to answer.

Here is what I guess...

In a tournament my expectation is that I will gross 1.5 to 2.5 times the buy-in depending on some varaibles including strength of field and structure of touranment. Estimate the length of a tournament and you will have your hourly win rate. But, remember that tournament will be more streaky.

In a ring game my expectation is between 1 and 1.5 big bets per hour depending upon the strength of the field.