Whats more profitable IYO, cash games or tournaments?

[Bentheman87]

I'd say cash games are more enjoyable and I like them better, but I'd say tournament is probably more profitable. What do you guys think?

 

[premierplayer]

Cash games are more profitable... u just have to handle the swings.

 

[naruto_miu]

tourneys are profitable in the long run because of the set buyin limits, and the payout itself, but cash is very good for a quick income, I mean look at it like this, if u sit down with $100 at a .25/50cent level, u can make your money into $500 if not more, but how long do you have to stay there, if your there for about 5 hours, then $100 per hour is what your making, but in a tourney, lets say the buyin is about $20 and first place is about 8k, you'll be there for about 8hours, but in the end if u win, u'll have made 8k, meaning that your time is worth about 1k, you choose which one sounds better

 

[Ursala]

Ring games A.K.A Cash Games are far more profitable, IMHO. HOWEVER, I think they should stop at the table.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

umm cash games and it isn't close.

 

[tenbob]

umm cash games and it isn't close.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Edit : Unless you username is Irexes

 

[quads]

My six year records tell me, sng's and tournaments are my nitch.

 

[zachvac]

tourneys are profitable in the long run because of the set buyin limits, and the payout itself, but cash is very good for a quick income, I mean look at it like this, if u sit down with $100 at a .25/50cent level, u can make your money into $500 if not more, but how long do you have to stay there, if your there for about 5 hours, then $100 per hour is what your making, but in a tourney, lets say the buyin is about $20 and first place is about 8k, you'll be there for about 8hours, but in the end if u win, u'll have made 8k, meaning that your time is worth about 1k, you choose which one sounds better

Well the best scenario is better, but I don't know anyone who can consistently win $100/hour at 25c/50c or consistently win 8k every tournament they play. Just to get it in perspective, $100/hour with a normal work week and a 50-week year (2 weeks off) is 200k/year. I don't know anyone that can do that at 25c/50c lol. So yes the best scenario is better in tournaments, but in cash games you can make a consistent profit (over the long term obviously). I'm not sure which is more profitable, I'm much better in cash games, and some people prefer tournaments. Certainly people making livings in both.

 

[pantin007]

cash games
just look at the high stakes action on any site and u will see that the ppl playing cash games are winning/lossing more than the tourny players

 

[reglardave]

I play both, and try to complement one with the other. I play .25/.50 limit, and keep my BR fairly steady by doing so. Then I play tournaments for potentially big paydays. Sounds convoluted, but it works pretty well for me.

 

[gnk2727]

Cash games are more profitable... u just have to handle the swings.

I'd have to agree with this. You can go from +200 to -400 in a session if ur not careful............But if you can control yourself and handle your emotions properly, you can profit much more much quicker in cash games...

 

[KingNothing4]

i like sngs and tournies, jus cuz it makes me more controlled and harder to tilt and lose more money, if u sitting at cash game u can jus keep pissing away ur money but in a tourney or sng u jus piss away chips representing ur set buy-in, unless u tilt to the point wher u keep buying into sngs or tournies until u r out of money, imo

 

[Chris_TC]

I mean look at it like this, if u sit down with $100 at a .25/50cent level, u can make your money into $500 if not more, but how long do you have to stay there, if your there for about 5 hours, then $100 per hour is what your making, but in a tourney, lets say the buyin is about $20 and first place is about 8k, you'll be there for about 8hours, but in the end if u win, u'll have made 8k, meaning that your time is worth about 1k, you choose which one sounds better

I'm sorry, but that's an awful explanation and a bad example. First of all, if you make a profit of $400 at $.25/$.50 over the course of 5 hours, your winrate is about 80 PtBB/hour at 6-max. This is ridiculously beyond sustainable. The same goes for your tournament example.

Why don't we look at a concrete example?
Let's assume a bankroll of $2000. Our player plays $50 MTTs as well as $.50/$1 NL cash games.
Let's give him a good winrate of 6 PtBB/100 for cash games and 90% ROI for multi-table tournaments. Let's say he sees 100 hands/hour at the cash tables, and his average tournament lasts 2 1/2 hours.

Cash game profit per hour: $12
Tournament profit per hour: $18

My numbers should be fairly close to what a good player can achieve. Even though it looks like a win for tournaments, there are huge drawbacks.
For one thing, the amount of tournaments you can play at the same time is fairly limited. A cash player can 8-table even mid to high stakes. A tournament player can't because there are not enough games going.

Also, multi-table tournaments are incredibly swingy. It will take you ages to come anywhere close to your long-term ROI. You may play 30 tournaments in a row without cashing etc.