Normal swings?

[LethalRose]

IMO the swings in MTT's are bad in general for bank roll building, I learned this the hard way. Learn to play Sng's or cash games, both will make you a better mtter anyway.

[betgo]

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IMO the swings in MTT's are bad in general for bank roll building, I learned this the hard way. Learn to play Sng's or cash games, both will make you a better mtter anyway.

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I don't do that well at online cash games or SNGs. I don't play well with the 100-60-40 payouts for SNGs. I like to push on a semibluff and so on and that doesn't work when you have to play so careful to cash. I can play careful, but that takes away my advantage.

I can beat live cash games, but those are high variance too. I think I play lower than I could, because I don't do well with variance, but play games I can generally beat.

I do the same with online tournaments. I multitable a bunch of small tournaments and win entries into bigger ones. I couldn't deal with putting up $640 for a tournament. I wouldn't play as well if I did.

[Melchiades]

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I don't play well with the 100-60-40 payouts for SNGs. I like to push on a semibluff and so on and that doesn't work when you have to play so careful to cash. I can play careful, but that takes away my advantage.

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Then learn how to get an advantage within the SnG format. The fact that your current style doesn't give you an advantage shouldn't be a reason to not learn how to master that format. Some of the skills needed to do that might help your MTT game later. And SnG's are probably one of the forms of poker with the least variance, which seems to be something you would like.

[betgo]

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I don't play well with the 100-60-40 payouts for SNGs. I like to push on a semibluff and so on and that doesn't work when you have to play so careful to cash. I can play careful, but that takes away my advantage.

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Then learn how to get an advantage within the SnG format. The fact that your current style doesn't give you an advantage shouldn't be a reason to not learn how to master that format. Some of the skills needed to do that might help your MTT game later. And SnG's are probably one of the forms of poker with the least variance, which seems to be something you would like.

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I used to play SNGs, but I found I did better in MTTs. In MTTs there are more different situations to adapt to and more strategy. I gain a big advantage in MTTs by playing aggressively to win later on. In a supersatellite, I gain a big advantage by following proper strategy, which means folding into the money or stealing with junk in the right situations.

In an SNG, the limping/miniraising style people play works better, as they avoid big swings. I play WTA single table satellites well, but not SNGs.

[JeanieJ]

I wasn't sure if you mentioned playing for a living or not...

Tournaments are probably the hardest thing to make a decent living at. You need to have patience and be able to handle the mental strains that come with not winning every single day. Most players can't do that, which is why they add in ring games/sng's to take away the stress of not winning.

I'm not too sure what I can tell you. You can move to another form of poker (ring games/sngs) but you don't seem to want to do that. So basically you're going to have to learn to deal with the varience that comes along with MTTs if that's all you want to play. Assuming you don't have bankroll issues, this is going to be a purely mental challenge for you.

There are more issues than skill level/game selection/bankroll. The mental aspect can be a killer.

Good luck
Jeanie

[betgo]

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I wasn't sure if you mentioned playing for a living or not...

Tournaments are probably the hardest thing to make a decent living at. You need to have patience and be able to handle the mental strains that come with not winning every single day. Most players can't do that, which is why they add in ring games/sng's to take away the stress of not winning.

I'm not too sure what I can tell you. You can move to another form of poker (ring games/sngs) but you don't seem to want to do that. So basically you're going to have to learn to deal with the varience that comes along with MTTs if that's all you want to play. Assuming you don't have bankroll issues, this is going to be a purely mental challenge for you.

There are more issues than skill level/game selection/bankroll. The mental aspect can be a killer.

Good luck
Jeanie

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I do play primarily tournaments for a living, reaonably successfully so far. I also play some multitable SNGs, single table satellites, and live cash games. I reduce variance somewhat by multitabling MTTs.

I have not been successful with live tourmaments. I am not sure if that is due to variance, the psychological effects of variance, the fast structure of live daily tournaments or other factors. I have tried slower structure live tournaments, and seem to do better at those.

Usually, I will make some huge cash in an online MTT, which will pay most of my bills for the month.

It is hard when I lose several hundred dollars on the day and I sometimes think I am playing wrong, and I may go slightly on tilt.

I am doing OK as a tournament pro, but I play lower than is probably optimum without psychological factors and I find the variance hard to deal with.

[JeanieJ]

I've been playing for a living roughly two years now. Most of my money is earned in tournaments but I always had cash games on the side.

Just recently (last 3 months) I've been playing strictly tournaments and it's gone fairly well. I don't play high limits so this creates the need to win more money playing at MTTs than usual.

I'm not quite sure how multi-tabling reduces varience in MTTs, but I multi-table as well. Without it, I probably wouldn't be able to survive on tournaments alone.

Several hundred on a day of tournaments isn't that bad (depending on level you play). It all basically evens out once you hit the bigger cash. There's going to be a lot of ups and downs.

Give yourself time. I think things will get easier the longer you've played. Try not to stress out so much. Stress can cause your mind to think things that aren't true. I judge my day by the choices I've made. Not the money I've earned. If I've made the right choices then the money doesn't matter too much. That helps me keep the "long run" in perspective without stressing out about the money.

You keep implying that the variance in cash games is about as high as that in MTTs. It's definitely not.

[Melchiades]

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In an SNG, the limping/miniraising style people play works better, as they avoid big swings.

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I'm not familiar with this style at all.