Other than boredom, for what reason tournaments better than cash games?

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Rational Madman

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As many on this forum know, I am a major advocate on cash games being the better option for profiting from poker because the variance is always equally brutal whereas in tournaments variance punishes much more brutally in the ending than the beginning making it very unfair of your good hands game earlier on in the tournament rather than later.

Anyway, I am now doing the reverse of my Modus Operandi; instead of a rant-post supporting cash games, I'm offering people to attack cash games and defend tournaments as their chosen style of poker and I will decimate the arguments one by one to truly prove to you how much worse tournaments are for your overall profit from poker no matter how smart you are at them.
 
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leon_fush

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I do not like cache games because of a huge number of wild players who are pushed from late position with any sort of musso, and you kind of have to win when you open up but you move the river and you lose money ... than it looks like freerolls))) but there is no freeroll Losses ...
Cash game I meant a zoom version for 0.01 0.02 $
 
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davidhoyle107

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It totally depends on your win rate. I will say with even a low percentile win rate, tourneys can offer long term results due to leverage. Cash games are simpler and harder to turn positive in due to their simple abc nature. Also, tourneys are less likely to lose a ton of money due to the long term nature and low buy ins.
 
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Darce Vader

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I have been playing poker at the $40 buy in 1/2NL and hate how many maniac players there are. I mean I 3 bet preflop with AK even push $11 dollars in and get 4 callers. Nobody had hands they should of called that with and one guy in particular catches a boat! I prefer tournaments because those players don't last long in tournament play. It's seems players you know you could beat you have to basically just slot machine it because they're always pushing all in or high raises giving your hands you play less value and have to fold in hopes you'll get a good pocket pair. Again it's either all in or nothing which makes for boring and frustrating poker.
 
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onondaga

onondaga

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who told you that tournament is better than cash?

its all depends on your preferences! where you feel better. the same thing when someone say that holdem is better than stud, draw or omaha just because he cant play that games.
 
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PKRNRS

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Back in the day tournaments were the joke. Everyone played cash and it was limit. Now it's all no limit. I like tournaments because I can often recover from a bad coin-flip. Cash I often lose that flip and be done for the day. Tournaments always have a clear prize amount one will win. Cash you never know how your going to finish. Up down or even.
 
dundo84

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It's up to the individuals mindset to be better at cash or mtt.
Speaking of online poker, most of the players who are cash game long term winners use hud's to study their opponents, while mtt winners rely on their individual reads and intuitions.
Take away the hud from the cash players and put them together on a table with mtt players, who do you think would do better?
But there are also players who don't use hud's in cash games and are profitable, those players probably do better in mtt's compared to hud users.
Overall if you enjoy the real art of online poker, play mtt's.
I myself am enjoying it, the pride of getting to the final table is priceless.
 
Leonid Stepanov

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In my opinion, mtt is better because in tournaments such beginners as I can win :)
 
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ph_il

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I play online MTTs because I find it fun.

I don't play online cash because I don't find it fun.
 
GRIN281289

GRIN281289

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to try his hand with other players.to save the Bank for other games
 
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myuk1

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I feel like there is a different mindset you need to play cash games versus tournaments. In a cash game u just want to make money however possible, but in a tournament you just want to stay alive. I feel like cash games will cause people to gamble more and a wider range sometimes to catch people off guard. Tournaments feel more by the book to me.
 
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0_5v

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In the small amount of cash games I have played, in casino, I have found there are maybe 3 types of players on a normal night. The "Pro's", the "sharks", the "lets have some fun fish" and then there is the house.

The house always wins.

In private games I've found there is one more type of player, the "ring-in", cousin bob say just in from down south. Turns out south is Vegas, and he is a super-pro-card-mechanic, just there to take your money. Everyone else knows this but you. If you are not careful you could lose everything, oh and they do break legs.

Buy wheelchair insurance.

On line cash games I feel sometimes, there are only two types, me, and the bots.

Oh and a pro like moneymaker playing in a 1 2 game might as well be a bot as far as I'm concerned.

That's why I like MTT, 9000 players, maybe 500 pro's, 1500 semi pro's, and the rest of us suckers. The odds are on our side just from the 50% win / fail coin flips, due to our physical numbers.
 
Masi2197

Masi2197

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Are styles and tastes, by your game mode you love the real money there others who love other types of game and other
 
tilan501

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It's totally another game playing cash or playing tournament.
Cash are easier in my opinion, to get sucess in tournaments needs a lot of patience, study a lot of diferent opinions.
 
Tigerdoom

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It totally depends on your win rate. I will say with even a low percentile win rate, tourneys can offer long term results due to leverage. Cash games are simpler and harder to turn positive in due to their simple abc nature. Also, tourneys are less likely to lose a ton of money due to the long term nature and low buy ins.

Agree, much better value for money in tourneys although the work (and time) required to hit the cash is a big difference between cash games where you can double up pretty quickly and move up to a bigger game.
 
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BukuDuckets

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I agree with you 100% about the HUD. I play zoom poker cash because I think the HUD is less effective there, but I have seen that over time if you play long enough they still record your play. Tournaments reward skill to a much greater level than cash games do. I find the only way I can have similar results in cash as I do in tournaments is if I start at a 0.01/0.02 zoom table minimum $1 and then work my stack up to three times the minimum buy in for the next limit, move up stakes, rinse repeat. I just keep doing that until I go bust one time, while pocketing other buy ins. If I go bust I move back down to the $1 stake and start over. I find this is an effective way of playing big and moving up levels without ever really jeopardizing your bankroll. The results are also similar to what you get in a tournament for the same amount of risk upfront.

Tournaments are still better than cash though because the added stress of antes and increased blinds works in your favor eventually, as the more you play the more skilled you become at building a big stack early on and riding it to the cash. At the same time, luck can result in you being a big winner. In cash games, a big stack is more of a target and than any real advantage, especially if people are using a HUD, whereas a sick run in a tourney can result in life changing money, or at least a few months worth of cash game earnings.
 
Oliver Wayne

Oliver Wayne

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Cash Games are better.

Tournaments are no better than cash games.
The only advantage of tournaments are freerolls.





P.S.
Sit'n'Go is the best.)
 
Luan

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why tournaments pay better than cash. and it's better to hold the bank!
 
lcid86

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I like MTTs because everyone starts at the same time, with the same chip stack. I hate walking up to a cash game and several players have more than the chip max buy-in.
 
liuouhgkres

liuouhgkres

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I think MTTs are more profitable, because they have more recreational players. Also chance of winning big and excitement of final table can't be found on cash tables.
 
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Rational Madman

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I think MTTs are more profitable, because they have more recreational players. Also chance of winning big and excitement of final table can't be found on cash tables.
Your second sentence counts as the 'other than' part of the title.
 
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AviCKter

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Money, off course. That's the only reason for playing, at least in my case. For the same amount of time invested, tournaments will offer more returns than Cash game possibly can. These were some sources of motivations (people who did it through Tournaments):

Aarnimetsa's 50$ to 5000$ in two weeks
Boku's 10K Challenge

For those who try it through Cash games:
Doug Polk's 10K Challenge FAILED
FAILED
FAILED

Now, I know you'll comeback with the line "But in the long run....". So, here's my view: Poker isn't my end-game, I've other goals to reach, Poker is just the stepping stone in that dream (and a very important one) and in the long run, we're all dead. Before that happens, I want to get as close to my dreams as possible.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a comparison between the two format. Cash games are different than Tournaments in more than one way, and one isn't necessarily better than the other. So Stop this debate.
 
Andrei Lisovets

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Tournaments are more interesting to play, because they go for a long time, even if you lose, it's just one bet and you can win a lot, but in cash games you can quickly lose all the money!
 
masik6

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ответ

For me, the tournaments do better than cash because they make me feel more confident.
 
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pokersextreme

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Cash games are better for profit but tournaments allows better control meaning you can only lose the buy-in rather than your bank in one hand.
 
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