Why we love ring games.

nameless1537 said:

It's really about the risk-reward. I've always liked tourneys because of much you could win if you really do make it to the final table as a multiple of the buy-in. For me, I've stopped playing tourneys mostly because I don't have the time -- at most, I'd have an hour, maybe 2 max to play... and this is why cash is preferred for me right now.

The thing with tourneys is that when you land in the top 10 of a tournament, you are playing for top prize (and at least the final table). Just randomly popped into a recent completed tournament, and a .55c buyin MTT netted you $9.36 for 9th place (17x buyin) and if you make it to the top 3, you are up for $75.73, $98.01 and $170.36 (137x, 178x, and 310x buyins respectively). How long would it take you to net over 137x buyins in a cash table? In a tourney, you could do it in just around 9 hours.

But you gotta be both lucky and good to win a tourney (even making it to the final table)... the rewards for those 9 hours of work is far more efficient than in cash games. But there is so much variance with tourney play. I really don't know how overall winrates compare between a decent tourney player and a decent cash player.

All that said... I'm kinda with you. I have learned to love the cash game and is now my preferred game type over tourneys. To each his own, I think.

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pentazepam said:

Every professional player knows that the skill advantage is biggest in cash games.

The reason high stakes players now play a lot of tournaments are that there are almost no fish left in high stakes cash. Amateurs win tickets to higher buy-ins via satellites and sometimes also like to gamble for as you state it a big reward.

But the risk for a good player to go with-out getting paid is MUCH higher in tournaments (due to luck-factor being bigger - and variance caused by big fields and top heavy payouts).

You can win big with a lottery ticket also. No reason to play just because you can win big (other than the thrill for a big score).

Play where the bad players are. If you get them in a cash game it is much easier to get their money.

If you only play online and at bigger stakes than 50-100NL it is almost only regulars left, so I can see an argument for MTTs at these stakes (and higher).

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pentazepam said:

Every professional player knows that the skill advantage is biggest in cash games.

The reason high stakes players now play a lot of tournaments are that there are almost no fish left in high stakes cash. Amateurs win tickets to higher buy-ins via satellites and sometimes also like to gamble for as you state it a big reward.

But the risk for a good player to go with-out getting paid is MUCH higher in tournaments (due to luck-factor being bigger - and variance caused by big fields and top heavy payouts).

You can win big with a lottery ticket also. No reason to play just because you can win big (other than the thrill for a big score).

Play where the bad players are. If you get them in a cash game it is much easier to get their money.

If you only play online and at bigger stakes than 50-100NL it is almost only regulars left, so I can see an argument for MTTs at these stakes (and higher).

Click to expand...