R
Rational Madman
Legend
Platinum Level
Undeniable Point 1: Forced Bet-Pacing AKA Accelerated Variance
Cash Games involve unlimited hands (theoretically) and do not ever increase pressure to play hands (unless you are at an unusually aggro table for the stake level). Your aggression never has to be reasoned as "I only have X left, I may as well all-in here" and you always are in a setting whereby you have the option to fold and not cry about it in the long run (although your bad folds will teach you as much as your dumb raises).
Tournaments involve limited hands and furthermore punish you for having better luck EARLIER if you have bad luck LATER, so literally the majority of profit to ever be made as a tournament player comes from about 15 hands at the very end of the tournament, it can easily be a 500% increase in profit from the tournament based on the outcome of 15 consecutive hands; if you comprehend the actual math of variance you will see how severely randomized this is. On top of that, to even make it to payouts, you need to realistically have been in 2 cutthroat hands (at least) meaning that in 2 hands you and your opponent probably had coin-toss hand that you either won by drawing on the turn/river or the opponent failing to draw. Of course at the very low stakes, your opponents don't tend to make these cutthroat hands equal and end up losing more often to you in those hands as they are usually 38% to your 62% or worse. That being said, you will make more by being a very patient cash game player of the same buy-in level as that stake.
Undeniable Point 2: Ability to punish impatient fish/donks is about sevenfold
You are about seven times more able to abuse bad players in cash games than in tournaments (where you only can hope that enough other players get kicked out by the donk or at least enough to get you to payouts via folding).
The first way you are already twice as capable of doing it is that since blinds never increase over time and since variance over MANY hands is going to be less brutal to the good player's profit than a smaller amount, you can fold many hands (even semi-good hands) to ensure you are ONLY engaging the idiots when you have a clear advantage. For severe donks, you don't really need to ever chase (unless you are in a multi-draw hand like outside-
straight AND flush or something and it's only the donk who is engaging you in the hand). You can literally fold happily knowing your income is GUARANTEED to a HIGH DEGREE just by waiting it out.
The second aspect (which increases it from the already double to a quadruple) is that you never have to be on a table that is in any way forcing aggression beyond the bare minimum (which is a full table of 9 that lets you fold 7 hands for FREE, per 9 excluding your first payment). This means that you are minimising your forced loss of income (blinds) and ensuring you are maximising your ability to control your loss of income. When tournaments get to final 5, you are already in a donk dominated environment where idiots who bluff get far (I know because I get further when I play like an idiot towards the end of tournaments as opposed to a sane human being, you cannot ever consistently get first place to any degree if you play like you aren't a cold blooded psychopath with the willingness to lose to the end of a tournament). This is all forced by the blind-loss happening at final 5 and lower.
The way the 4x bonus against donks changes into 7x is tiny things like there never being a forced responsibility to bluff (you should bluff once in a while low-key to grab a tiny easy pot though) and/or having the power to jump tables if a SEVERELY LAG player is making the game unplayable with any hand short of QQ+.
Undeniable Point 3: Tilt is extremely easy to handle in cash games but extremely punishing to you in tournaments.
Now this can even be the helpless instigators of tilt like internet breaking to more preventable tilt like one bad beat making you only have 2BB left mid-tournament.
Immediate quitting to have some deep breaths and perhaps meditation to introspectively think where you got trapped in the mistake or how you could have played differently earlier in the hand to read their hand better on the river is very possible in a cash-game but in the middle of a tournament (or in the middle of multiple if you are multi tabling them) is EVEN MORE TILTING as you are now blackmailed to forfeit them or play them upset.
Closing Statement
For mathematical reasons, emotional health reasons and ability to smile as bad players fall on your sword slowly (yes you will have to fold A LOT to punish them in cash games) but surely, you simply will have a happier, more profitable lifestyle as a regular cash game table goer than a tournament reg.
Enjoy life, play cash games and relax.
Cash Games involve unlimited hands (theoretically) and do not ever increase pressure to play hands (unless you are at an unusually aggro table for the stake level). Your aggression never has to be reasoned as "I only have X left, I may as well all-in here" and you always are in a setting whereby you have the option to fold and not cry about it in the long run (although your bad folds will teach you as much as your dumb raises).
Tournaments involve limited hands and furthermore punish you for having better luck EARLIER if you have bad luck LATER, so literally the majority of profit to ever be made as a tournament player comes from about 15 hands at the very end of the tournament, it can easily be a 500% increase in profit from the tournament based on the outcome of 15 consecutive hands; if you comprehend the actual math of variance you will see how severely randomized this is. On top of that, to even make it to payouts, you need to realistically have been in 2 cutthroat hands (at least) meaning that in 2 hands you and your opponent probably had coin-toss hand that you either won by drawing on the turn/river or the opponent failing to draw. Of course at the very low stakes, your opponents don't tend to make these cutthroat hands equal and end up losing more often to you in those hands as they are usually 38% to your 62% or worse. That being said, you will make more by being a very patient cash game player of the same buy-in level as that stake.
Undeniable Point 2: Ability to punish impatient fish/donks is about sevenfold
You are about seven times more able to abuse bad players in cash games than in tournaments (where you only can hope that enough other players get kicked out by the donk or at least enough to get you to payouts via folding).
The first way you are already twice as capable of doing it is that since blinds never increase over time and since variance over MANY hands is going to be less brutal to the good player's profit than a smaller amount, you can fold many hands (even semi-good hands) to ensure you are ONLY engaging the idiots when you have a clear advantage. For severe donks, you don't really need to ever chase (unless you are in a multi-draw hand like outside-
straight AND flush or something and it's only the donk who is engaging you in the hand). You can literally fold happily knowing your income is GUARANTEED to a HIGH DEGREE just by waiting it out.
The second aspect (which increases it from the already double to a quadruple) is that you never have to be on a table that is in any way forcing aggression beyond the bare minimum (which is a full table of 9 that lets you fold 7 hands for FREE, per 9 excluding your first payment). This means that you are minimising your forced loss of income (blinds) and ensuring you are maximising your ability to control your loss of income. When tournaments get to final 5, you are already in a donk dominated environment where idiots who bluff get far (I know because I get further when I play like an idiot towards the end of tournaments as opposed to a sane human being, you cannot ever consistently get first place to any degree if you play like you aren't a cold blooded psychopath with the willingness to lose to the end of a tournament). This is all forced by the blind-loss happening at final 5 and lower.
The way the 4x bonus against donks changes into 7x is tiny things like there never being a forced responsibility to bluff (you should bluff once in a while low-key to grab a tiny easy pot though) and/or having the power to jump tables if a SEVERELY LAG player is making the game unplayable with any hand short of QQ+.
Undeniable Point 3: Tilt is extremely easy to handle in cash games but extremely punishing to you in tournaments.
Now this can even be the helpless instigators of tilt like internet breaking to more preventable tilt like one bad beat making you only have 2BB left mid-tournament.
Immediate quitting to have some deep breaths and perhaps meditation to introspectively think where you got trapped in the mistake or how you could have played differently earlier in the hand to read their hand better on the river is very possible in a cash-game but in the middle of a tournament (or in the middle of multiple if you are multi tabling them) is EVEN MORE TILTING as you are now blackmailed to forfeit them or play them upset.
Closing Statement
For mathematical reasons, emotional health reasons and ability to smile as bad players fall on your sword slowly (yes you will have to fold A LOT to punish them in cash games) but surely, you simply will have a happier, more profitable lifestyle as a regular cash game table goer than a tournament reg.
Enjoy life, play cash games and relax.