Should I switch to cash games?

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Jon2015

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Hello everyone,
I have been playing online poker for about 6 months and just cannot seem to make a profit at 1.10 turbo SNGs on Bovada. I have busted a few $20 bankrolls and have been slowly losing them over about 2 months. The games are really swingy, and I am usually on a winning or losing steak. Would it be better to play .02/.05nl cash games? My bankroll is $75 right now.
 
honeycrush

honeycrush

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Hi Jon. Welcome to Cardschat!

Perhaps you don't realise how much variance is involved in poker. You may be doing everything right and still see huge downswings. It is true though that SnGs/MTTs are higher variance options than cash games.

There's also the question of Bank Roll Management. If you're depositing $20 and playing $1.10 games then that's less than 20BI's for your level and just not enough. It's very easy to go bust without making any huge errors. I think 100BI's is usually suggested which means you should have around a $110 BR.

If you fancy trying cash games then you could start at .02/.05 with your $75 BR and see how that goes. Although ideally for those games you should start with at least $100 for correct BRM. 20BI is the usual suggested BR for cash games.

And of course there is the chance that your game is not solid enough yet. Are you completely confident that you have a solid pre-flop game? Are you playing the right starting hands from each position? If not, then check out some strategy articles. Preflop and push/fold is extremely important for SnG/MTTs but with cash you will also have to study playing deeper and post flop which makes it more complex.

Hope this helps. Good luck at the tables! :)
 
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alexis8888

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6 months not enough to switch to cash imho.
 
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hffjd2000

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Losing $20 at sng for about 2 months is already a feat. Many would lose it (even playing the $1.10 turbo) in just a week.

For cash games, either you win fast or lose fast.
 
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chloebrand

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I wanted to tell you on my previous post, that you should consider the switch. Focus on building your bank roll. Do not put it all on one game. You should start on a .01/.02 table, and when you find your rhythm, and see yourself making a small profit, open another .01/.02 table. You'll find that 4 tables is pretty manageable, or more. The only profitable way to play is to play tight. If you are playing more than 9 hands an hour on any given table, you are playing way to much, and throwing money away. I'm glad that you are considering the cash game switch. SNG and tournament plays are difficult to make a living at, because you are often in a position where you find yourself having to make bad plays. In cash games all you have to do is fold.

FOLD often...Raise with purpose...call your friends and family, but not in poker
 
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chloebrand

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Oh yeah. The one thing that helped me out the most, was when I learned about FSI, Fast Selectivity Index. If you don't know what it is, it's worth looking up.
 
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bnasp2

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Im not sure that cash games have less swings. I actually tried to switch from MTTs to cash games:
- MTTs -> long term profit, but very small ROI and lots of work
- so tried micro cash games -> total disaster, about 20% BR gone, negative ROI that I feel like total fish

After some study if was not all my fault, real bad luck with bad setups and lost flips. Still the rest was my bad play, so now Im back to MTTs.
 
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Jon2015

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Thanks for the response everyone. I played a few sngs today and lost 4 buy-ins. Then I switched to .02/.05 nl zoom and made $7. I think I'm going to try cash for a while, unfortunately the lowest stakes on bovada are 5nl.
 
pcgnome

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Here's my take on cash games vs. tournaments. When you're playing in a tournament as you get closer to being ITM your going to feel more pressure, and the good hands are usually going to come around less frequently, so your going to have to deal with the pressure. It's just a part of the life of being a tourney player.
As for being a cash player, you have to pretty much consider yourself as being someone that is sitting on top of a time bomb. One little mistake will make it go off with the end result being that you end up going busto. When you fail you will have to decide for yourself whether it's a good idea to dig back into your pocket and reload.
There's less pressure playing the cash games... you don't have to worry about paying anties, so it's okay to fold often. There's the issue about how
often you are able to outplay your opponent post-flop that is something that you will have to learn on your own though study,practice, and experience. In the words of Ringo Starr "It don't come easy."
 
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ilostmysoul

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Very good advice was already given above, and I'll just add my 2 cents.

As HoneyCrush said, the BRM for Tournaments is around 100 x BI (buy-in) for players who want to make serious money, or 50 x BI for players more on the recreational side who don't care if they lose.

Meanwhile, because Cash Games have less variance, there's really no limit set upon the Buy-Ins that I've heard off. Here's how a pro chooses Cash Games: he turns his tracker on and goes around the tables. He is looking for a table where 1 or + players are huge fish, calling huge amounts of hands without being aggressive and not folding much.
He will then sit down. Usually there will be at least 2 other professional players that are stacking off that player. What happens when that fish leaves? The pros leave too. GG WP, cya next time. They won't play each other.

In Tournaments you don't have this freedom. You can't choose tables, you can't choose players. You can't even have solid reads on the players at your table (assuming they are Unknown) because you'll switch tables frequently. And if everything is going bad and you are losing chips because the other players are outskilling you, you can't leave the table and find someone worse than you.
Besides, in tournaments, there's a lot to worry about: how many BBs you have, ICM, all the different phases, comparing stacks constantly, etc. Cash Games are much more basic than that. As long as you have a fair understanding of odds and (at High Stakes) ranges, and have a good basic basis on theory, you're golden. There's not too much detail to worry about.

I'd recommend you try Cash first. Or at least STT (Single Table Tournaments, usually 6-10 players). I started out with cash and found it quite enjoyable. Although I've burned through a $20 bankroll as well (with aid of Spin & Gos too to be fair). Besides, the part I like the most is that Cash Games are faster. If you go on tilt, you can just leave. And if you win, you win instantly. You can say "I'll leave after I win $5 so I don't get too excited, and I'll leave after I lose 1 or 2 Buy-Ins so I don't get on tilt" and you can follow through. There's no need to worry about getting in the prizes and rebuys and stuff. Much easier, IMO.

Good luck at the tables!!
 
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Jon2015

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Update: I've been grinding the 1.10 turbo sngs with 3 minute blind levels and I am up to $114. I think I have improved my push/fold game a lot at higher blind levels. Sometimes I will have really crazy downswings though, like losing 5 or 6 games in a row. Is this normal? Yesterday I lost about 8 buy-ins out of 10 games, and had some brutal suckouts like losing JJ vs 10 10 and AK vs A10.
 
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Jon2015

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Just now flopped trip queens, top kicker and lost to a backdoor royal flush.
 
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