I quit cash games

I'm a winning player at $5/10 both stud h/l and omaha h/l but I have one problem is I have a major tilt problem. One bad beat for $50 and i'll blow off everything in my account, 3 times this month I have gone to $1000 from $100 or less and than back down all from one tilt session. I just blew $1100 in about 40 minutes of pure trashing money and bluffing in h/l games. Nothing new probably the 8th time i've done this and the 3rd this month. Just venting Tourneys only from now on.

I've never been a fan of cash games. Personally I think tourneys are the much greater test of skill.

in the long run cash games show true skill and patience

joosebuck said:

in the long run cash games show true skill and patience

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I agree. To leave a table with a good profit is such a rush, especially after being down some. (Though I love SNG's & tournies, too.)

I have to agree with Joose also.
Although I do poorly in cash games vs tourneys, I do think cash games require way more patience and skill to take everyones money.

I disagree cause in tourney's you need patience in a crap shoot.
Without patience you won't get very far at all in a tourney what so ever.
The only diffrence I really see is that in a tourney you need to take a chance and gamble a little more with marginal cards compared to a cash game.

twizzybop said:

The only difference I really see is that in a tourney you need to take a chance and gamble a little more with marginal cards compared to a cash game.

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At certain times, you could be right. But (not to start a war, but a serious question) most of the time, wouldn't you want to take less chances with iffy hands in a tourney, especially when you can't re-buy?

I'm not saying cash games don't take skill or patience. But do any of you believe it takes MORE skill than tournaments? Cash games are on a hand-by-hand basis. A tournament is a fight to survive and as it progresses you're almost forced to change up your playing style and alter your degree of aggression numerous times. It's much more strategic, in my opinion.

Yes you may want to take iffy chances but they really aren't neccessary even in the early on.. it is later in the game where you may have to take chances...

In cash games yes the more opponents at the table the more patient you must become but the ... I think the risk/reward factor plays more into a cash game then a tourney cause again you need lots of patience to make it to the end of a tourney and be #1 where the reward is at.. but in a cash game the reward can be early enough as the 1st hand.

u sound exactly like me. One bad beat and im on tilt trying to win it back. Like i was playing 3/6 dollar limit on pokerstars flopped two pair guy catches runners for str8 after that i lose 80 dollars all mad and i play all dumb trying to buy pots when im drawing dead like doyle brunson said not to do.

Tournaments are a lot harder and take more of a toll on you. In a cash game you just sit and wait for a solid hand, or a time to bluff, and you're never in a hurry. In Tournaments you have the blinds catching up to your stack sometimes and you have to pick the right spots to steal blinds, pick the right spots to bluff, and hope you got your money in with the best of it... as well as a lot of pre-flop all-ins.

For instance... I played in a $100 freeroll freezout on CD Poker and had to bluff at so many pots after the second break... just to survive to make it into the money (which I barely did). And I know it's a freeroll, but the buy-in tourneys I've played in have been just as strenuous. BUT, I took that $1 to a .01/.02 NL ring game... and in the first hour I only played 3 hands, literally. On top of that I only won 2 of them, but my $1 turned into $4 (those hands I played AA,KK, and 99... 99 lost). So, as long as your patient, hands will eventually come to you in a cash game... in a tourney, sometimes you have to make your hands.

The key problem here is that the vast majority of players have a "get rich quick" mentality. This manifests itself in people playing at a level above their bankroll. To play at $5/$10 you need way way more than 1k in your bankroll.

If you play at the correct level to your bankroll, you will virtually never go on tilt.

The major difficulty of playing at the correct level is the absolute mind-numbing relentless boredom. I am not even being flippant here. Even the best players struggle to handle it.

What you are doing is "thrill-seeking" (although you ofcourse wont see it like this). It is a very common problem.

Hope this helps,

Welly

ps if i tell you the level to play at with a 1k bankroll, I guarantee you will ignore me

i like torneys because it teaches you to stay focused longer in cash game if you lose focus for a moment then you can lose a chunk of your bankroll where as in tournament play if your mind slips a little you still have a chance to get back in the game but thn i just like playing poker and visiting with all the players and cardschat has really helped improve my game thanks everyone

know when to leave!!

From what I experience in ring games is either your catchin cards from within the 1st few minutes or you wont catch a card to save your life. Ill take 100 to the .50/1.00 table and if I cant catch a hand and start winning with the 1st 40 of my stack I bounce and dont think twice. Wait a couplre days play some tourneys and then go back to ring games. If I start winning Il leave if I ever double to 200. Ive noticed if you sit at a table long enough with a large stack youll lose it eventually to a bad bad beat.gl all

From what I experience in ring games is either your catchin cards from within the 1st few minutes or you wont catch a card to save your life.

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I've experienced the same thing, but you really need to put a limit on how much money to deposit in a certain period. It's very important to set limits. Very.

LetsGetItOn said:

I'm a winning player at $5/10 both stud h/l and omaha h/l but I have one problem is I have a major tilt problem. One bad beat for $50 and i'll blow off everything in my account, 3 times this month I have gone to $1000 from $100 or less and than back down all from one tilt session. I just blew $1100 in about 40 minutes of pure trashing money and bluffing in h/l games. Nothing new probably the 8th time i've done this and the 3rd this month. Just venting Tourneys only from now on.

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I have had similar issues in the past, and I've found for me the answer is just to play less. Maybe some people are wired to play a huge amount of hours of poker, and for them it's good practice and keeps them sharp, but for me my game deteriorates and tilt becomes a much bigger threat. I've gone through many a deposit doing that, and to date it's prevented me from being as much of a winning player I think I can be. So I took a step back, took a break, re-evaluated my whole game, and my play has really benefited from simply playing a little less and allowing myself to stay focused...

Edit: I will add, also, that by the same token tourneys are also better for me, and I tend to focus on playing them rather than cash games.