Cash! I don't think I'd enjoy sticking out the variance with MTT's =/ The bankroll would have to be plentiful. I also like the ease of cash games, they're always running so you can hop in and out. I don't think I would have enough spare time to put into MTT's

I'd like to eventually learn more about tourney play though

Cash for no particular reason, I just do. Wouldn't mind playing MTTs actually but need a deep BR, I already have the patience so that's noproblem.

Yeh tournaments have a lot higher variance but I think the draw for a lot of people is that they can bink big. The problem is tho most people really have no clue about how much they are making. I have mates who bink $20k and think they are winners.... I can tell you they are not even if they have had 5 or 6 of these binks. The hours spent, money invested and so on often comes down to a loss or a very small below min wage hourly.

There are some who profit from it but it is very tough to do long term!

I guess i'm just gonna have to mirror most of the answer here. As many people mentioned here it is the convenience of cash games, sit out, take a break, make some coffee and sit back in. Rather then having 5 minute breaks every 1 hour is the first reason for me.
Second thing is obviously variance, i feel like i have a lot more control in cash games, where in tournaments there is so many predetermined spots, you play turbo for 3 hours go pretty deep and then loose 2 coins flips in a row, there goes your big money bink and final table dreams about boosting your bankroll to 1k while investing 2$ down to min cash of 4$ for 3 hours of work.
I heard good analogy saying that tournaments are like flipping coins with small +ev which i do believe in. There is ton of bad players blasting stacks away that is what makes them +ev however once blinds get pretty big and there is no more poker to be played only seeing Ax and shipping it i don't enjoy it anymore.

I probably had a go at every format from 2005-2008 when I discovered DeucesCracked and played nothing but cash ever since. Now it's more through habit more than anything else.

The last four years of cash was full ring only and I've kind of gotten used to the easy going variance, but would really like to have a go at MTTs this year.

Maybe a few of us could team up and try to cross over to tournys and I could write up some articles on the pitfalls we experience. There's some Cambodian casinos just down the road and I wouldn't mind pitting my wits against the Chinese degens that come down for the weekend to splash around.

People say that cash game players transition pretty well into MTT's and it doesn't happen vice versa for MTT players, cash games gives you overall great game sense and all you need to know additionally for mtts is push/fold, ICM decision making little bit more i guess. Post flop game should be easy against tournament players

I started with STTs, did pretty well from 2009-2011, until one day I realized that I actually had no idea how to play poker. I simply knew the STT maths, it was prob closer to sudoku than poker. Since then I've played both cash and small field MTTs. Grinded 45s on Stars for a bit, decent ROI but boring. These days I prob play 2-4 online MTTs a week, $25 BI, about 120 runners, I hate the large field tourneys. For 2016 my ROI is obscene, but that's cuz I've binked far more than my fair share of cashes. My ITM is where it should be, just lots of run good at the FT.

I mostly agree that it's easier to go from cash to MTT, but not as easy as it looks. Playing short stack poker (anything under 25BB) is a skill on its own, and while it's easy enough to learn the math, it does take a lot of work, and a cash game player who hasn't done that work will be at a serious disadvantage vs anyone who has. Even thinking that there's much postflop advantage is a slight mistake IMO, cuz there really isn't and postflop play to speak of, it's a pre-flop, OTF game once you're past the first few levels.

@Turlock count me on on any MTT journey/threads you get going here.

I have been enjoying MTTs recently with some relative success however this does kinda prove a point

2 * $215 nightly FTs
5 deep runs - 5th tier type cashes
12/18 cashes overall

and i'm basically break even. MTTs can be a real waste of time unless you outright bink them. 5ths-10ths just never add up to be enough.

I am intrigued by the idea of MTT grinding but at the moment it is impossible for me. When the boys go to nursery next March I am certainly gonna give it a try but for now as it seems a long way away il be trying to make it on the cash tables.

I asked Jaime Staples in his thread last week about making the switch to MTT because I presumed most people on here are cash players. I also thought there were probably people here that are also intrigued by the prospect of grinding MTTs.

I have friends that play tournaments. They often say it's pointless just trying to make it to the bubble all the time and that you are better off taking more risks and busting 19 times out of 20. You just need that one big finish to make it all worth while. Of course that is easier said than done....I like the idea of it though!

As someone who loves MTTs, and does well in them, even I'll admit they will only work for certain people with certain poker goals. If you enjoy them, and are cool with very modest EV, every now and then they are fun. But like @Jon-PokerVIP pointed out, without a couple of top-3 finishes, if your goal is maximized $/hr, you prob won't get there.

Stars turbo 180s are for people who want to grind, but they are so reg-heavy past the 3.50r BI level that idk how much value there is in them. I think a better plan for most people is to read up on MTT strategy and maths, then find a smaller site and play a couple of small field MTTs a day while grinding cash games at the same time. The smaller the fields, the smaller the variance. As an example, on my site I can play a $25 at 4pm, 5pm, also the occasional satty in there as well, so if I am prepared to set aside 5-6 hours, I can structure a session around 2-3 MTTs while autopiloting a couple of cash tables.

I've recently moved to MTT with the odd cash game. I do like the fact you can just sit and leave when you want with cash, but at the same time, you still need to sit for a long time and grind some serious amount to make it count. I find MTTs are softer than cash as the fun player can try and make that big cash, instead of sitting at cash making small change.

You guys reckon MTTS is the most solved variant of poker but the fact that so many newbs play them it really does not matter?

That seems fair enough. The caveat is that with so many noob, the difference between marginal and good ROI is being able to read the noobs and adjust accordingly. When I switched to my new site and noob-heavy MTTs, I was shoving "proper" ranges near the bubble and ITM, but people cal much wider, and I was getting into way too many ICM-disaster flips.

When I first entered the online poker scene just over a year and a half ago, I started out on cash on Full Tilt; I was too scared to attempt the world of MTTs. Eventually I took the plunge, dividing my time casually between MTTs and cash. As the cash games dried up and I got bored of them, I decided to invest my time solely on MTTs. Learning how to play them properly takes a LOT of time, and a lot of money. There are no two ways about it: if you want to get better at tournaments, you WILL lose money at the start.

Over my first 6 months I was down around £1k mainly from $10 and $25 MTTs, and then clearly something clicked, as I turned -£1k in the red to £750 in the black in the space of three months.

There's variance - of course there is - and you'll go on downswings (I did for about 5 months later on, but picked myself up from it) but for sure there is less variance in MTT play than cash once you know your how to properly crush those things. There will always be enough bad players without the patience to make MTTs profitable for you as soon as you have that 'click'.

Patience and restricting mental fatigue has been probably THE key factor in taking my game to the next level. Since I've consciously improved that aspect of my game, which was around the turn of the year, I've clocked 16% ITM and 50% ROI. The latter stat will likely come down with time but for sure I've become a lot more profitable from it.

There's something beautiful and fulfilling about the tournament concept, with its key element of survival and requiring a single person victorious at the end of it. I think this is what made me focus my efforts and love for the game on tournaments.

My MTT pain continues...

Made day 2 of a $700 high scoop to finished 30th/1300 for a few k......$150k FTW

Huge AKs v 99 flip did not go my way and the rest is history.

Anyone having luck?

Sweet 1st post!

Do you think a lot of it comes down to game selection also?

I've been recording my profit's and losses since January this year, had a bit of cash thrown in (small profit overall with rakeback and rake race) but primarily MTTs. This includes pub poker twice a week (£5 buy-in, with generally £30-£40 FTW), casino tournaments (generally £30 is biggest buy-in, had 2 decent binks, as well as a third place in a £75 and one good session on the cash tables which I rarely play - though the bad beat jackpot is super big and qualifying hands have been lowered so might play some this week) and small stakes online (max buy-in $11) and at the end of April I was up £3.5k on the year which I can't complain about, and that's not playing anywhere near as much as I would like to, particularly online

Been grinding these god damn SCOOPs hard

Not sure on how many i've played but it probs looks like this

- $700
- $1k
- $1k
- $215
- $215
- $215
- $109
- $109
- $1k

So like $5k in buy ins. Some I binked sattys for and total cashes are at like $7k. Made 3 day 2's but just not ran good when needed.

Last few days to make some real money!

Thanks Koffi, I'll get right on that! @Jon-PokerVIP