Tournaments vs Cash Games - Which Should YOU Play?

[@nussbaumig]

I really appreciate the style of these videos. No unnecessary shenanigans, only straight info.

[@PokerCoaching]

Glad you like them!

[@ricky5369]

I would say there is definitely value in doing the one you prefer vs what will make you the most money. If you enjoy it, you'll want to play more and that will make you more money. Doing what keeps you motivated is most important. This is a key concept that applies to EVERYTHING in life!

[@kingp791]

Def different mindset playing them. When I jump into a tourney. I want to win but it's a more laid back have fun kinda vibe. Cash games I have to unsheathe my sword and get ready for battle. Thank you Mr. little. You have helped me tremendously in improving my game and variance aside I'm a far better player today than a yr ago.

[@patm.9777]

I feel like it’s the complete opposite. Cash games you can lay back relax and fold all day until you have a good hand. Tourneys you can’t.

[@kingp791]

@@patm.9777 Agree with your statement. To me the mindset of "cash games" the stakes are of more value. That's how I see it and my head reacts to that degree. I find myself taking hands off in tourney as opposed to even if I'm not in the hand I'm watching what happens in a cash game. So I def agree with you but think there's different layers to the thinking process of it all. Good luck at the tables bro

[@patm.9777]

Agree with you. People who have your mindset are usually winning players.

[@kingp791]

@@patm.9777 Well trying to at least lol

[@kenyonferguson1243]

Great way to describe it

[@gazorpazorp9798]

Goofing off, parlaying your money, having fun, thrill seeking? A poker jedi craves not these things.

[@DakaSha]

No nonsense and to the point. I imagine this guy being very grating to most people, but I'm sitting here thinking finally.

[@kumarkishen677]

I think you are one the best teachers for me. I have used “for me” because it’s not necessary that every teacher’s teaching style could make all the students learn the depths of the games.. since a synergy between teaching style and student’s past learning style is important… In my case WE HAVE THAT SYNERGY… Thank you 😊

[@dennisSINN3Dphillips]

Mr. Little thank you for this video. I knew these variances were affecting my mental stability bouncing between cash and MTT. My win rate and ROi are significant in cash, and I expected that to translate to MTT, it does not, as I know from my bank roll fluctuations. I now know why because of your video. Having literally just busted from a 2 bullet buy-in today, after a very nice cash session the day before, I was feeling pretty defeated. Making money is the point of poker for me, these loose variances of MTT was crushing my soul. I think it is cash games for me for awhile, I do feel much better when the bank roll increases with each session (increases most of the time.) But again thank you for this video it truly helped me and I will be adding it to my website for others.

[@razaali6497]

Great video strongly agree that cash is better for low variance and mental stability

[@dxjycz99]

I definitely prefer cash games by A LOT. Tournaments really just feel like coin flips half the time, with constant all ins with marginal hands. It doesn't feel like real poker, it feels like luck with some people having slightly more luck (due to being better at the game)

[@PO-Dunk_din]

This was enjoyable. As always I appreciate and respect ur honesty

[@parafroome]

in UK the Law look on tournaments like really skill dependant but the cash games like gambling and pure luck!

[@LowTide941]

Great vid. It’s sucks that acr and others have a bunch of eastern euro bots ruining even the micro stakes now

[@wesleydavis2977]

I play micro stakes on ACR often. While I would say the Eastern European players are better than the American players on average, they are definitely not bots, I see them make plays that no bot would make in a million years. They are just nitty regs who make a side income from taking advantage of the fish at the micro stakes. Remember the countries they live in have a very low cost of living making each $x pot they win much more substantial.

[@LowTide941]

@@wesleydavis2977 nah that’s 🧢

[@yitzhakgoldberg5126]

its the same on every pokersite, LowTide. Since recent years its almost impossible to win a hand agains a eastern euro player. They and also the Russians are not good for the poker ecology, because they chase the recreational players away

[@DostoevskyGrandson]

Thats why I want to play cash game most of the time. Small bankroll. For now :) . Im learning and improving fast by watching your videos.

[@cedhabs20]

I was a tournament player since I've start playing back in 2006. I stop playing in 2019 and restart seriously in 2022. I find out that I prefer Cash game, because you can quit when it suit you, which is great. When you start playing well and find that your focus lose some edge, you can stop. There's variance too, you can almost have no variance when playing 1$ / 2$

[@ngotheanh2087]

Just learned poker for 1.5 month, I mainly play cash game with my friends. But after watch and learn a lot from you vids, I participated my first tour last week and went to ITM ( it just a small tour with 30$ buy in but still have so much fun and emotion there). Hope that you post more vids like this so I can learn more about poker 🎉🎉🎉

[@PokerCoaching]

That's great! Good luck on your poker journey

[@RoCkShaDoWWaLkEr]

I like cash games for the fact you can get paid out for your individuals monsters (nothing beats the feeling of drilling the nuts in a huge cash pot) versus having to last hours to get paid off and need multiple monsters plus required proper bluffs and winning your all ins. That being said I'm good at getting deep in tourneys, much better since I started watching these videos, my win at showdown percentage went up to 54% from 52% in just a couple months, my overall GG stats look much better (over 20,000 hands) and I'm consistently getting super deep versus previously consistently making the money.

[@denske1272]

Oddly enough I recently switched from a full time MTT grinder to a full time cash game grinder because of the crazy variance....I have gone over a month without a good MTT score, where as cash games I never go more than a couple days without a good score...all my studying time is devoted to cash games now

[@daireb123]

And how you doing profit wise in comparison?

[@denske1272]

@@daireb123 it varies a lot but on average I win about 2 buyins a day at 200nl. Short term example, 3 days ago I won 7 buyins ($1400, best day ever), 2 days ago I won 5 buy ins ($1000), yesterday I went down $600 in the first two hours of play and spent the whole day grinding back to even. In general, the scores are smaller than toruneys but way more consistent.

[@caspermartijn]

I always gind that people tend to play smarter in cashgames here in the Netherlands

[@tmclbnk]

Amen Jonathan, winning + profitability is pretty exciting to me too!

[@patrick_kyker]

I definitely think tournaments are the best way to start if you have no clue about poker. You can read all you want but just figuring out the blinds the positions stuff like that is super cheap in a $60 tournament. If you buy into a 1/2 game for $200 you could easily lose it in one hand and you're just not going to learn that much.

[@oglocbaby520]

I agree with this. I've gone to a handful of live tournaments in my area, with buy ins of $45. Many of the people at those tables really don't have much of an idea of how to play. $45 to get some live play experience at a casino for a couple hours of entertainment is not bad at all.

[@PokerCoaching]

If you do not know the rules of the game, play for play money...

[@coolmonkey5269]

i learn playing freerolls 😻

[@michaelnchin2824]

I would prefer cash games grinding over tournaments. I would rather dabble in tournaments every now and then just to mix it up. More fun than serious. But you never know. But I would rather master cash games as a main foundation and be happy making a steady couple 6 figs. Just like trading the markets, you want to create and follow a trading plan which makes trading "boring" but very profitable.

[@trip4osu]

If playing at a member club like the ones in Texas with an hourly rate rather than rake, should my cash game ranges more closely resemble tournament ranges?

[@Dreamline78]

The only time chess players are competing for a lot of money is when some rich chess enthusiast puts up a bunch of money as prizes, and the tournament is usually invite-only. Such as the Sinquefield Cup.

[@1chance4life76]

i play online tourneys and some online cash but i typically stay in the smaller buy in cash games online vs live cash because the players are better online than live.

[@worlddaves]

My local casino has a starting bonus for their Monday tournament for player who played their cash game for up to 4 hours prior, would this be a great or terrible time to play as a cash player?

[@lunchbox6576]

Cash games only. My last tournament I played. My KK got cracked by J 9 unsuited. The injustice of tournaments makes my stomach hurt.

[@PokerCoaching]

...you know KK can lose to J9 in cash games too, right?

[@lunchbox6576]

@@PokerCoaching yes sir, however I normally get the money I put in the pot back later. Other players are willing to put money in when they are that far behind, in the long run normally returns that money in the same session..

[@coolmonkey5269]

yes i agree buddy 😪 my AA cracked to K9 cost my whole tornment QQ allin busted juzz before bubbpe 😭

[@cosmolupo]

If these kind of situtations make you cry, you shouldn't play poker at all. I have crack aces in cash game with 2-7 off and my aces have been cracked by garbage also, reason why i don't slowplay aces or kings ever

[@ryurazu]

Personally I love talking to the loose cannons.

[@NineInchTyrone]

Are 2/5 NL live cash games tough to beat nowadays?

[@ricky5369]

Garrett Adelstein is everyone's favorite cash game player SAME!!! haha

[@michaelnchin2824]

Jonathan Little, a true grinder. Every poker player needs a Kanish-like mentor.

[@coolmonkey5269]

this question is bugging me frm 1yr 🙄😪

[@FCarraro1]

I like tournaments more, of course they're more fun, but I play much better in cash games and my winrate is getting actually decent in online micros. Unfortunately, no casinos in Italy (very few) so no live poker :(

[@OldSchopenhauer]

That's kind of ironic considering casino is an Italian word.

[@payn313]

Is a 30buy in bankroll enough to play soft live 2-5 game? Have a big-decent edge

[@PokerCoaching]

If you don't know the answer, it probably is not enough.

[@ryurazu]

I doubt you have a decent edge, not trying to put you down obviously you want to try it out so I see where it can take you.

[@micarobles3248]

Love you content

[@TimeHandler]

If you respect your money, play cash games. The variance in tournaments is ridiculous, i have a 20% roi in MTTs over 40k games but even so, at one point lost 600BIs over a 9 month bad stretch. At that point i quit MTTs after 10 years of only playing them. The big problem with MTTs is that in poker, at some point, pretty much everyone gets over-taken by the field eventually. In MTTs, you will have a much harder time working out whether you're just on a downswing, or whether you're getting crushed by skill. It will take a huge number of buy-ins lost before you know for sure that the field has surpassed you in terms of skill. For this reason, when playing MTTs you really have to play at a level MUCH below your own skill level. Whereas in cash games you can play whatever stake you like, and if you ever go on a 25BI downswing, you have immediate cause for concern. In MTT, even 200BI into a downswing you can still tell yourself it's just variance and be completely wrong. cash games, cash games, cash games. You also don't have to play 10 hour sessions in cash games. Kind of difficult to stay well focused for 10 hours... Usually all the money is being played for at the tail end of that session when you're least focused. If you're a beginner. Play cash games and put in as much volume as you can. Start at 2nl zoom, work your way up to 5nl, then 10nl. No jumping around in stakes. Slow and steady wins in poker without a doubt.

[@PokerCoaching]

Get a higher ROI?

[@TimeHandler]

@@PokerCoaching yes please

[@SensaiJOD]

the difference in skill in players in the 109s and the 33dollar entries is mad, like i crush small tourneys but get wrecked in big ones

[@OrevShalom]

I'm enjoying it Coach

[@maxwelllittle5291]

I am one of those guys who cashes out their Equity when All-In (no fee so it's 0EV) when it's offered, so I guess Tournaments are not for me.

[@PokerCoaching]

That's for sure!

[@Icekuma23Chen]

You hit it right. People need to switch off the dopamine addiction, it's a reason I had trouble with poker before. It was not until I basically zombified myself to winning pots. Once you manage to distance yourself from the thrilling emotions you will finally start to earn a spot. You either play cash games or sit and goes to make a living, tournies are a luckfest apart from maybe tiny ones> 200-300 man NONE turbo.

[@ReaperAHHH]

dude why you throwing shade at tournaments, stay in your lane homie

[@yungbruhmane8751]

It’s actually mostly skill. Don’t kid yourself you prolly just rip it with AJ

[@S1M0N3-AI]

I almost always make the bubble whereas in cash games I am extremely in the negative. I don't touch cash games anymore.

[@RoganBits]

I wonder if one of the reasons J Little says online cash games are tough, is because of collusion, he just didn't want to say it. 2 people colluding? I'm not worried about. It's a botnet sharing hole cards that worry me. I've seen too many odd things that I just don't see in tournament play to think it's entirely on the up and up for online cash games. Could simply be variance; but imagine the edge of a bot network that not only has hole card info of other bots at the table; but is also performing odds on that data faster than humans ever could.

[@joaoneto3881]

What about spin n go?

[@PokerCoaching]

If you like tons of variance, they may be for you.

[@joaoneto3881]

I like the mix between principles of poker and 3 ppl table that allows me to be more loose (sorry not native english)

[@thygrrr]

CG is way more exciting than tourneys and the more consistent routine is so much better than spending 2/3rds of your time during 9/10 tourneys in push-or-fold mode. Whee, soooo exciting, amirite?

[@ricky5369]

sit and go's are bad? like online? that sucks. I was probably going to try my hand at some of the 2.00 buy in type ones online

[@cryptoboj]

250 buy ins? bro

[@AtlasZero13]

Play cash games to fund your tourney entries

[@Anime..7]

If I win 115$ above in India I have to pay 30% tax 🙁

[@michaelnchin2824]

Massive down swings playing tourney royally suck! Cash Games, way less! I'll stick to the consistent wins and profit.

[@nomaschalupas2453]

The only reason poker dies is because every new born now comes out with a shorter attention span than the last. One day a online player is going to have a panic attack at the live tables because it’s so slow.

[@ryurazu]

Holey shit 30k a month, so tempting

[@johnnyblaze8030]

ONLY 1 reason Sit-N-Gos have died: Black Friday. Make online Poker legal in all 50 states then watch!!

[@PokerCoaching]

I don't think so...