I am currently a winning NL5 cashgame player, I want to learn more about poker and get even better at it. However, I can't decide what to learn and what to do. I really love tournaments as well and I can't decide on what to do. I could go and learn both at the same time with 2 courses but I feel like that is way too much. I like that the variance of cashgame is way lower and that I can just sit down and go away whenever I want, but I really love tournament poker too.
When we can play live poker again I want to start playing live cash & tournaments too.

Are people here with the same problem and do you have advice for me? If I want to go with a course, should I go for cash and tournament or should I only pick one?

i would say start with one thing at first, and wait until adding a second game

Just wanted to say congratulations on being a winning NL5 player without actually studying the game. You must have a natural ability. I'd read some good books and still struggling to break at NL2. I could only imagine how good you will become after studying. Good luck, I hope someone with enough experience will give you some insight on how to approach the learning process since it would be kind of awkward for me to give advice to a superior player.

You'll get better faster if you just focus on one type of game.

That said, if you enjoy playing two or more types of games, just go for it and forget about the people telling you to focus on one game.
Never take any advice that doesn't help you move forward, even if it's good advice, if it's not for you, ignore it and find your own way.

If you focus on one game and get bored after a few months, you'll never get good by focusing on that one game.
If you play two games, don't get bored and keep playing for years, you'll get good at both.

Hello.

I play cash games and I recommend you to play cash as well. Some of the reasons are: (I) you can play whenever you want; (II) variance is a lot lower (and even then the variance is huge, which is crazy because this means that tournaments have even bigger variance); (III) it's more fun and enjoyable. I wouldn't play both if I were you because you'll have to study a lot (really a lot!) to learn one of them, so you'll have to invest your time really well.

About how to learn the game: I wrote my humble opinion about this on my thread. In short, I'd recommend you to learn the theory's principles and GTO right now. Solvers are not hard to use as some people say they are.

Well, (I) and (II) certainly are objectively true, but (III) certainly is just subjective opinion. I personally disagree with (III). I enjoy tourneys more than cash games. I typically play cash more than tourneys, mostly because I don’t always have the time to commit to a tournament; I can quit a cash game whenever I want.

Why not just take one seriously (cash games preferably), and then play an occasional tournament for fun? I mean, if you wanna be a professional or even just a good amateur one day you have to take things seriously, but you gotta unwind sometimes too. It's very difficult to play 50-100k hands a month, focusing perfectly and not making mistakes. Playing small tournaments on the side can even help with that and keep poker fun and interesting. That's what I do, grind micros, trying to play well and also, play as much as possible. It's difficult to play tons of hands a month if you never have fun so I sometimes play small tournaments for entertainment. I'm about breakeven with tournies money-wise, but I'm fairly certain the fun factor helps my cash game, so the overall effect is positive.

Poker is not just a game of decisions about how to play an individual hand as well as you can, it's also about being able to play tons of them for months and years. It's not just about your bb/100, it's also about your actual dollars/year. Of course, that's not a poker theory issue per se, but still something to consider. Like, I'm fairly sure my dollars/year went up, if I exercised more and had a better chair. I could play more and probably be more focused as well.

If you're currently a winning NL5 player why not just build from that? Play more hands, build a bankroll for NL10 and maybe even beyond. And put some of your winnings to some small tournaments. There's no rule you have to be super serious about everything in poker, be serious about cash games and have fun with tournaments, possibly with the intention of taking them more seriously later?