Cashing 20% of the time is an extremity good rate. The think is cashing is not the only thing you should think about. Lets say you cash in a $100.00 tournament 20 time of 100 but you always reach the money and then get knocked out never getting to the final tables. All those cashes are nice but all those min cashes you may end up cashing for say $4,000.00 but you would have lost $6,000.00 Most of the money goes to the final table and the top 3-5 players and that is what you should be thinking about. Next time you get near the money bubble look and the 4 or 5 people in last place at that time. You will see more than 1/2 of them cash because they are folding and playing slow to win some money. If you look them up you may see they cash a lot more than the average but are loosing players. Now look up the winning player and you will see them cash often but not nearly as much. They are playing to win and not cash. You will also see them go out on the bubble a lot. They are trying to grow there stacks and not just reach the money. Next time you play look at the top 3 spots payout. No think about what min cashing 20 times in 100 comes to vs one of the top 3 spots. would cashing 5-6% less be worth it if one of the other game were a top 3 finish? check it out and you will see what i mean.
Best of luck to you and may the flop be with you.
The reality of the situation is that you will not win every tournament we play and if you don't cash with any regularity at all you lost you investment with 0% return. This doesn't take into account bounty games where you can miss the cash completely and still make out with your investment and more if you put together a string of great calls a/o continuation bets to force a player to go in on middling
hands that draw dead. My point is that consistency will have you on top more than not and most cashings at the lower end will return the players initial investment and a little more, at least from what I have seen over at MGM and Maryland Live!. There are a few pro players I see out here and more times than not I see them make the cash but rarely do I see them ever make the top 5 in a tourney but they will make the middle of cashing most consistently because of their reputation. Playing to win will come when its crunch time, you don't start out with that in mind because you will wear your mental capacity out trying to win the tourney on the opening hand. Instead, we play at a pace that makes us contemplate our opponents ability to make rational decisions and find a way to catch cards that complete our hand as best we can.
In my opinion, if you are able do fight through a field of about 200 in a $5000 guaranteed at a $75 buy-in tourney you will make more money back just getting past the bubble let alone if you make it to the top because that pushes the pot to $9000. Not saying you don't play to win at all. Most people are doing this recreationally and only are elated to make the cash and opt to just play loose from that point on. I use to bust on opening hands and before the 1st break often and now I progressed to where I'm within 10 places of the bubble consistently when I do play $75 and $125 tournaments. Learning how to be more conservative and being able to take shots with cards that wouldn't have flown earlier is now my task at over coming because I see the consistent winners able to play hands I still am not quite bold enough to play when the stakes are getting tight.