For the past 5 years I have been a succesfull poker player and I finally decided to get more serious about it and get some schooling.
I found a 3 month course that is supposed to get me to pro level in this short time and there is no harm in trying that.

Only problem is that as a part of that course I need to play cash games at high volumes while I have always specialised in MTT's.
They say: "We find that good/great cash player can make better MTT players than than the other way".

Even when I happen to be good at cash games playing them will make my ROI drop and I got other coaching advice I should specialise more.

Do I have to make that investment in cash games to get my MTT's better?

IMO, cash game players can excel in all forms of poker. The initial learning curve is steep in cash games but once your fundamentals and theory are in place you should be able to well in both cash and MTTs. You just have to make some minor adjustments when switching from one form to the other.

But by all means is your ROI is your primary concern then specialize in MTTs. I just believe if you focus on learning cash games your MTT game will definitely improve also.

GL

That is the way I'm following.
1st year specialisation in STT
2nd year (now) specialisation in CG
3rd year (hopefully) MTT

Link?

I want to be 'Pro level' as well, no fair.

Link

I never thought of pursuing this kind of curve. Interesting idea, specializing in one form for a period of time.

No doubt.

But wouldn't your MMT game improve faster if you play MTT only?

I agree you learn poker faster in cash games, because you get to play more hands, but do you still need to play them if you played millions of MTT hands already?

My MTT game is definitely better since I started taking cash games more seriously. It is possible to do very well up to a reasonable level in MTTs and STTs with a very strong game in certain areas (e.g. restealing, ICM, short-stack play) but with pretty poor skills in others - the ones you use in cash game play - e.g. turn and river play, pot control etc

When you put them both together you can really improve your early MTT game - at least that is my experience.

Yes, I agree if just specialized in MTTs and played millions of hand just w/ MTTs then you'll be very good.

I just think with Cash games you can be a better overall Poker player who can play both MTTs and Cash, any form of poker for that matter.

I definitely agree that your MTT early game will be very good as a cash player.

I'm in the same boat you're in, trying to do both cash and MTTs. I'm learning cash now and it makes my MTT game so much better as far as head reading, bet sizing, pot control...etc.

But it sounds like you're more into MTTs so I think you should become a specialist.

ah man thanks a lot that's absolutely hilarious.

$30k/year as a sponsored pro by "gutshot"? You could make more in rakeback than that. Seems like a load of crap.

Those Dudes in gutshot are frickin strange lookin....


And what does 'The only real name in poker' acually mean?

OMG its like a time time warp!!

Has anyone read thru this website?

Its introducing internet poker as if its a new concept.

Very dodge.

(Fair nuff they are prob trying to attract a fresh field of players)

Just my results are very good, not my pokerplay.
I understand now how and why cash games would improve that.

It's probably the best known pokerclub in Europe and many well known pros come from there, like James Akenhead and Luke Schwartz.

To answer your original question: no, you do not need to specialize in cash before you can become a good MTT player. There are many skills that a winning cash player needs which will not be used as much in MTT play. There are also many factors created by the tournament format which will be completely different from cash games.

I would argue that learning SNGs before MTTs only makes sense, as it's easier to do from a BR perspective, and as a good SNG game will prepare you to own a final table of an MTT, where all the real money is made. Interestingly enough, this is probably where cash play becomes the least applicable.

Offering another viewpoint,
- Jeffrey "JGB146" Blake

It looks like the reason they're making you play cash before mtt's is because they're making most of their money back through affiliate revenue paid to them from the site based on how much you rake. Or if gutshot is the site owner then they're making it from rake itself.

Additionally, it looks kind of obvious that they're going to deny a bunch of people midway through the program. The backing deal with no makeup is very -EV for them if they're not making money somewhere else.

QFT