Cash games vs. MTT

I find that I seem to not be able to get in the money in MTTs with any bit of consistency. I do however find in cash games, I play low stakes now while trying to build my BR, that, I can consistently make money. It isn't uncommon for me to double up my $5 buy in. What is it that a good player does in the MTTs, say in the mid levels, that gets them to cash on a regular basis. I consider myself a tight player, which works in cash games but not in MTTs. What are some simple suggestions to help get into the money

if ur winning at cash but not tournies, its pretty obv u should just stick to cash

I still like the thrill of the MTT, the chance to make much more money.
Like playing golf, I know I suck, but I still keep dragging my clubs out!
It would be nice to win sometime though

just get more aggressive as the tournament progresses until u reach a stage were ur stack to blind ratio is good enuff that u actually have some play

I think its more complicated than that you should read up on them if you really want to get better. Basicly the blinds change things a lot in tournament poker as blinds and antes raise learn when to still and reckognize a steal. Also learn icm push/fold poker and basic bubble play, maybe play some sitngos for some practice. In the beginging basic tag style should be work well even if you fold something like 25 straight hands, don't play garbage out of position.

very well said, that's why I like mtts. I consider myself a decent player and prefer an opportunity to win big than to grind out a dollar. Whenever I play cash games, I play them trying to turn my 1 dollar buy-in into a few hundred but that ain't going to happen. My dreams are too lofty for BRM and cash games it appears.
** PS. dangerous leak: calling raises preflop, then folding on flop if you miss, it always seems that the times I do well, I'm always charging ahead firing bullets into the sky, rarely just weakly calling, unless i have some small pocket pair, know what I mean?

^^you're right i don't like just calling raises pre-flop, i'm either raising or folding to it...usually folding...but it feels good to confidently push out way more chips than the original raiser.

i'm nervous about ring games, i don't know why. maybe i'll be a big boy one day and try them. i play very tight and agressive in tourney's. the thrill of it all i guess is the fact you can die and not be able to come back, where you can just re-up in a ring game, if you wanted...come to think of it, if i died in a ring game i'd probably just leave it at that too. i dont' know, i guess i'm a sissy.

^^ me too ted im a sissy.
haha i'll have $5.42 on full tilt and use the $0.42 for the cash game- no more- so that if i lose it i still have 5 $1 buy-ins for mtts, and if I grind it to $6 i stop and have 6 buy-ins for the mtts lol. i think to play cash games i need to do it at a casino, not online, mtts are so much fatter.

I make in the cash in probally I would say 3/5 tourneys I play tight very tight in the first hour to hour and a half then I loosen up a little bit induce a litte more bluffs..

Why do people lie to themselves? If you are cashing in 3/5 of tourneys you are either cheating or looking at an extremely tiny sample size.

Nobody has an ITM percentage over 25% in a standard payout structure. According to OPR you have an ITM of 11%, which is pretty good and you have shown a profit. But it's just ridiculous to say you have a 60% ITM.

If anyone has an ITM% of over 30%, please direct me to their OPR page.

The best MTT players are around 15% ITM. Winning MTT's are around 2-3% range. Some people go years without winning an MTT, afterall your playing with 2500+ people! For a pro playing single table SnG's you can expect a 35% ITM. This is with a sample size of about 500 games.

After reading these replies, and taking into account a very small sample of games, I guess I am not doing too bad. I recently started tracking my play at checkyourbets. I have played in 11 MTTs and cashed in 4. $2.20, $3.30, and $5.50 buy-ins. I am up $13.30. It sure seemed as though I was losing a lot more than that. I will have to keep an eye on future progress as I am sure this will even off to the average.

I have 20% ITM (pafkatabg at pokerstars) but I play many micro SnG where players are really bad.

I am new to the poker world. Started to play at the end of 2008. I think I can easily reach 30% if I play only when I feel good, but I am playing for fun after work and if I get sleepy - I just go all-in and go to sleep, because I do not care about the dollar

I am thinking about more serious play by the end of the year. I feel that I have the skills to become great player. What do you think ?

^^^
This, over and over and over again. I see so many posts from people claiming that their ITM% is 75% or some other ridiculously high percentage without bothering to check their own stats pages to verify their outrageous claims. The thing is they're only hurting themselves by having an inflated vision of their own ability.

Next time, please take a look at officialpokerrankings.com or another online database and look up your own screen name before claiming that you make it in the money every single tourney you play. Doing that is the first step towards improving your game.

Best of luck to you all, T.

Currently laughing my buttocks off.

My ratio has to be like. o idk. 8%. which i guess isnt bad but it isnt good either. then again its 90% freerolls so what can you expect.

I have been thinking lately that the 2 forms are different mainly in this way;

In ring, pot odds will dictate and in tourneys ICM overrides pot odds. ICM is not a consideration in ring at all (AFAICT).

What does this mean?

Not sure, but I know I suck at ring, and consider myself to be reasonably successful in SnG's and MTT's. My bankroll agrees.

This is what a good MTT micro grinder's stats should look like, if I do say so myself. There is no way anyone cashes in 3/5 tounries, let alone SNGs.

Attached Images

OPR - July-09.JPG (59.7 KB, 18 views)

pay more attention to average chip stack and doing be afraid to be more agressive. In a cash games being very tight can work out, however in a tourney with blinds going up, you needs to open your hand range some.

i play in MTTs with 27 people on a regular basis and what i do is read the players..playing tight will only take u so far if ur not getting anything to play....u have to spot the players that u can play poker with and outplay them if u can

How about 35% ?? ... see below, or check for yourself.

But there are always situations and reasons that can and do alter results.

I have won several forum FR's, but those don't show in OPR .... just in my BR balances ... ... I'm one that has NOT 'won' a Stars buy-in game, but I'm not at all unhappy with my 35% ITM ... One day the cards will fall right and I'll be right there to cash in ...

opr-7-26-nl.jpg

Stats are and can be deceiving. No set of rules applies to all players. I play cash tables (stud) and various MTT's. I never intended to make a profit online, but maintaining about a $300 BR over 4 sites is not bad (imo) while NEVER making a deposit on ANY online poker site. I do have greater win rates in cash games, but then I limit my rings to stud games since that's my preferred game and I've played it live since '69. (I BETTER be good at it ... )

Since I live in Nevada, I have the advantage of playing live anytime I want and I save my cash for live games. Why deposit and fight the often moronic situations online when I can always make $$$ playing live ?

Excellent example and great result !! Duffer is right ... the 3/5 or 60% claims are bogus ... or would have to be with ridiculously small samples. Duffer plays a wider range of games than I do with my avg fields being ~2,500 while his is ~1,500. I typically have 1,000 more players to survive than Duffer. I never play anything less than the 180+ MTT's. He also has about 4x the number of games played this year than I do.

The point is, there ARE players who can make ITM at better than a 20% rate, but it's few ... and it sure isn't as frequently or as EZ as some write about ...