[steve-fredlund]

Not sure how I missed this post originally. I rarely play cash but not completely sure why, other than in the live setting I look at the cash tables and it seems like they are rarely enjoying themselves or engaging with each other in a positive way. But in theory I like your points… I don’t get a lot of practice playing deep stack when playing $50 tournaments so when I play a $300 tourney I have that same sort of rushed feeling that I will have 30 big blinds in an hour; cash could help with that I would think. I also would like to go play for 2 or 3 hours and be done rather than not knowing if it will be 30 minutes or 6 hours.

[taylormaas]

I like tournaments for the dynamic strategy that happens throughout the tournament. There’s so many different strategic approaches to take due to ICM that I love the variety it gives the game. I don’t play much cash but assume it just comes down to chip EV decisions.

[jasonbsu]

If you’re a winning cash player, you’ll probably win at cash around 55-60% of your sessions. If you’re a winning tournament player, you’ll lose 80-85% of the tournaments you play in. Sometimes for me it’s just a matter of enjoying the positive reinforcement of having more money at the end of the day than I started with. There’s also the part about getting to play whenever and wherever I want, and getting to play whichever game I feel like playing, whereas tournaments are almost always NLHE. But when I’m pumped up and ready to go big, there’s nothing like running deep in a tournament.

Plenty of reasons to do both, all forms of poker are awesome and enjoyable.

[fivebyfive]

<div>My preference for tourneys comes down a lot to geography. Online: I don’t trust unregulated online cash games. There’s just too much opportunity for funny business when you can select your tables. Live: I prefer NL, and in Minnesota you can only play 2-100 spread limit.
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But it is always a treat to play cash in Vegas when I go, and on any trip there I carve out a tournament schedule which leaves some time for cash sessions too.

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If cash was more possible where I live, I’d be a more balanced player, but as it stands, I’m 80% tourneys. And 100% now that we’re in the time of Covid.

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[binkley]

I enjoy cash games for the lower time commitment as it give me the flexibility to start and stop playing whenever I want. The lower variance gives more immediate positive feedback and steadier bankroll growth.

However, I’m finding myself having more successful with online MTT than online cash at the moment. It’s fun learning how to adjust to the various stages and stack sizes of the tournament.

[arw]

I echo what @Binkley said

– the scheduling of tournaments makes it tough for me to play. I like being able to start and stop when I want.

– tournaments are more fun and challenging and I play them occasionally.

[raisy_daisy]

I prefer Cash games vs Tourneys, mainly for the potential steady flow of cash to my bankroll, but I do enjoy tournament strategy. My challenge with Tourneys is that I can play a hand perfectly , build a huge pot, get all the chips in the middle, then , my carefully disguised set or monster hand gets beat by a four flusher on the river, and ends my tournament life. “ That’s poker , baby!” So, after several hours of good play you’re on the rail! Obviously, with cash games you reload to 100 BBs and go on to next hand. I track my cash game sessions and average 9.5 BB per hour. However, with swings over time in cash games , I expect to leave the table up $300-$400 with each session. I also set limits on cash game so I leave with profit and avoid going bust. Strategy: Play every hand…you can’t miss ‘em all…

Raisy Daisy

[aceq963]

I enjoy playing NL cash game because of the flexibility of time. I can come and go as I see fit. Although, I’m not a winning cash player, my hourly rate is my cost for entertainment. I only started playing online tournaments since March when the b&m room closed.

[jim]

This is SUCH a good point @AceQ963 ! Someone asked me about bankroll management last month as a recreational player, and they were beating themselves up because according to their stats they were losing 3-4 Big Blinds per hundred hands, and felt like they were failing at poker because they weren’t a “winning player”. I gave them a couple of tips about their play in the blinds, told them that if they were losing 3-4 BB/H then they were actually doing great for a recreational player, and asked them to review their budget for some other hobbies they enjoyed spending time on.

The next time we spoke they told me that they used to go to the movies 2-3 times a week with different friends and they had a reloadable card that got them points at the theater for tickets and snacks. They loved going to the movies, and the expense was easily worth the fun they had, it was a trivial investment in their leisure time. But of course now (summer 2020) they hadn’t been to the movies in months and had crunched the numbers on their ‘movies’ budget – around $400/month including snacks etc. In poker terms, their monthly movie budget was roughly equivalent to 200 big blinds in their local b&m cardroom, or when playing online it would be more like 2,000 big blinds at the stake level they prefer to play.

Next time we talk – maybe they’ll see it here! – I’ve crunched the numbers and figured out that if they were losing 3.5 BB/H they would have to play 57,143 hands in that month to lose the same amount that they were spending at the movies. If they were playing one table online and playing an average of 100 hands/hour that would mean they got roughly 571 hours of poker entertainment that month for the equivalent of their movies budget. I decided they would get about 25-40 hours of leisure time at the movies for the same expense if you counted hanging out before or after with friends. That’s a pretty stark comparison! Of course the leisure time you spend with your friends at the movies is differently valuable than the leisure time you spend enjoying poker and working on your poker game, but if you are a breakeven player or a moderately losing player that doesn’t mean you aren’t “winning” at poker. Are you “losing” at the movies? Of course not. You’re spending money to entertain yourself. As recreational players, that’s the same way we should be thinking about poker. Would we like to be a “winning player”? Of course! We all want to be the best at everything we do, and we should all want to be constantly improving. But don’t let that get in the way of ENJOYING this great GAME that we all love so much. Great post @AceQ963 you win the internet today!

[aceq963]

Jim, thanks for the reply. I’ve always thought that in an b&m card room, one needs to win about 6 BB per hour in an $1/2 game in order to be a break even player. Considering the rake, promo drops, and the tokes. Still I love the game and it’s the cost of entertainment. Other hobbies- hunting, fishing, golfing, etc. cost money too.

[wooperdooper]

Years ago when I first started playing NLH I played only in tourneys…I didn’t have much money and I knew exactly how much money I had in the game. As time went by I started playing mostly cash but still playing in tourneys. I find the cash game more relaxing and like to sit for hours playing with the same people figuring out their game. A lot of donks out there, but most of them seem to be in tourneys.