how many of you think its easier to make money in tournament than cash game and why?
i know the anz to this from past playing in both i just want to know if the people here really know what the odd are in making a living playing card is
i know the anz to this from past playing in both i just want to know if the people here really know what the odd are in making a living playing card is
mr.longshot
Favorite Answer
Two totally different concepts to the game. The main reason? If you make a mistake in a turny.. Your on the rail.. Mistakes can be made in a cash game and you are still there. Can make a recovery.
Cindy
2
Vegas Matt
"Easy" is a relative term. There are people who are better tournament players and people who are better cash game players.
In general though, I'd say that cash games are a bit more complex. For long stretches of time in tournaments, you're playing short stack poker. Either you've got a short stack, your opponent has a short stack, or you both do, and that reduces the amount of decisions you have to make. Hands are almost always either ended on the flop (or pre-flop), or one player is all in. This simplifies the game compared to cash games, where every player is deep stacked and can be put to a decision pre-flop, on the flop, turn, or river. Because if this, I think it requires a more thorough understanding of the game to be a successful cash game player.
Of course, some of this is counteracted by tournament specific skills and strategy. There are times when you should go all in or fold in tournaments with hands you'd play very differently in cash games. But in general, I think those concepts are easier to learn and apply successfully than the intricacies of deep stacked poker.
Now, I'm sure you've heard many top players say that the "real" money is in cash games, and to an extent that's very true. If you're exclusively a live game player and don't have the bankroll to be playing $1,000+ entry tournaments several times a week, you need to be a cash game player to stay afloat. But with online poker, a player can specialize in sit and goes or MTTs and make plenty of money on a daily basis. A cash game player can still generally make more, but it's nothing like is was 15 or more years ago when live casinos were the only option.
I also laugh when I see people saying cash games are "cheaper." These are people that simply do not understand bankroll management. A professional player who wants to sit at $1/$2 NL cash games should have a $4,000 bankroll. Mr Fish might sit at that table with $300 to their name, but that's why Mr Fish loses all his money. The professional player who sits at that $1/$2 table is going to be playing $100 entry tournaments with a $4,000 bankroll. A STT (single table tournament) player with a very reasonable ROI of 10% playing turbo tournaments is going to average $10 an hour playing one tournament at a time. That cash game player is going to average 3-6 big blinds per hour playing one table, or about $10 per hour!
So, as you can see, a successful cash game player and a successful tournament player with equal bankroll playing at the proper limits can be making about the same amount of money per hour. So don't think one type of poker or the other is going to be "better" for making money. You should play in games you're personally going to be more successful in, not what anyone tells you is better.
Mrs. BonBon
tourneys are easier for the player because you can win ALOT of money based on risking a little - if your fundamentally a solid player and make good reads and you catch a good run of cards - you can WIN or at the very least place in the money in ALOT of tourney's and you can build your bankroll fast
Cash is a different breed - some people dont have the patience of tourneys as each tourney you have to be prepared for long hours and the expectation that in this SPECIFIC tourney your not gonna win - in Cash games you more have to put your money where your mouth is - your wallet is much more attached to your emotions - if you tilt - your tilting ALL your own money - not a small amount you have built up - Cash games can break a player alot faster than tourney players.........so as a poker player you have to be able to handle ups and downs better in cash games as the swings can be big from day to day - week to week
good luck:)
LegFuJohnson
That's really arrogant of you, isn't it?
"I know the anz to this from past playing in both...."
Perhaps your skill set is more suited to one style over the other, and perhaps someone else has a different skill set. Cash games and tournaments are very different.