Hi,

I'm planning on investing a lot of time into poker and I want to make a decision on whether to focus on cash games or multi table tournaments and am hoping I can get some good advice here.

As far as I've read it seems cash games have more advantages in terms of profit per hour and lower variance but I'm wondering if there are any advantages to MTT's that I'm not aware of?

Any advice is appreciated.

You're going to hear different opinions on this. Most will say cash is the steady money maker. But others find they have more success in SnGs or MTTs.

The biggest advantage to MTTs is also the reason for variance - you won't get highly placed often but when you do you score big. If you can get into the habit of cashing often and running deep occasionally, then they can be very lucrative - but you must be able to afford long periods of buying in with no return.

Personally I think you should try out different games and find one you are happy with. This mainly means you enjoy playing it and are driven to improve.

And you can always change your mind at any time. Although the types of games are very different, the key poker playing skills are transferable.

Agree with ninja. Try both and see which you prefer, the one you like will be the one you try the hardest and and thus the one you make the most at. Cash will give you a nice steady income. Tourneys will give you a rush when you go deep and can pay out big when you do score. I play mainly cash while throwing the occassional tourney in to break things up a bit, I find the cash skills help an enormous amount in the early deep stacked period of the tournament.

Thanks for the helpful advice. I've been trying both for a while now and seem to be able to beat the lower micro's at both games to a similar degree. I probably enjoy MTT's slightly more as I think they have more interesting situations but the advantages to cash games (Probable PPH advantage, low variance & the ability to get up and go whenever you like) seem to be outweighing the excitement factor of the MTT. I guess I'll probably continue mixing it up for a while but focus mainly on cash games until I can find a clear favourite. Thanks again.

I think playing style is a big factor. I find I do great at lo-stakes MTTs, partly because a patient style is more suited to MTTs, and partly because I think I understand how to adapt to changing blind levels. I don't have the same success at cash games (which I rarely play now). But I think the majority of people who are playing to earn a living will tell you cash games are the steadier source of $. I agree with posters above - try both and see what you do best at!

All the above posts are spot on IMO, so what you might find best, and what many players do, is mix both cash and MTT's.

Whether you use MTT's to break up the boredom of grinding cash or just play cash to work on your skills to improve at deep stacked play in MTT, it will benefit you IMO. The one thing I don't recommend is mixing SnG since they are highly specialized and the skills don't translate easily between that game and cash, at least in my experience.

I don't think grinding MTT's exclusively is a good idea for anyone without a large BR and reserves for expenses. Unless you can get backing, then you will always want to play lots of cash games for the relatively steady return that should provide.

gl

That depends....



If so, then MTT. But they suck as you could end up playing one for 6hrs+ if you're doing well.

You have liberty to enter and exit at any time in cash games unlike MTTs. In cash games competition is relatively very less. In MTTs, u will have to knockout many other players till u reach at a point to get a good bankroll. In cash game if u know the game well u can make thousands each day.
My pick is always cash games.

lol mtts!!!!!!

I disagree with a lot of this. If you like MTT's you should mix in sngs in order to put in decent volume. Obviously don't mix in single table ones but 180s are naturally a good choice.

Unless you have money on dozens of different sites it is difficult to get more then a handful of MTTs going at once, so use the 180s for this purpose. The 180s also provide a relatively steady source of income compared to real MTTs, which are more of a long shot to win or even final table.

^^ Should have said STT which is what I meant obv

I was not talking about those MT-SnG's, I consider them beginner MTT's

Arg, I always thought MTT's were MTT's, now there's real MTT's aswell??? I'm guessing you mean the however many man enters MTT's. Do they pay a lot better than the 180 man MTT's over the long run?

Thanks for the replies and advices.

From what I recall the 180 SnGs will give a solid player a significantly lower ROI than the large field MTTs. However you can play many more 180s than large field MTTs per day as they are much shorter (4 hours v 8 hours) and the variance is lower due to the smaller field size.

sorry for the confusion, that was my error.

There are multi-table sit & goes which start as soon as 180 players are registered, and MTTs are multi-table tournaments which start at a specific time and can get thousands of players registered.

Playing MTTs and 180-man sngs is probably better than playing MTTs exclusively.

there are so much much much much more fish at MTT than Cash. At cash you have to be really good to win any decent money but at MTT you just need a huge bankroll and being able to handle variance.

If I started to play poker now I would start with MTT.

Cash games by far they give you a better return - If I knew what know now I would have played mostly cash games with a few tourneys.
I started building my BR with 2x or nothings LOL (I know crazy) Now it's steady rev in cash games with some nice takes

he didn't really ask about DoNs or SnGs. MTT is where all the money is really. that is 180man+