the ability to play MTT's for your poker career

The TriColor · #1 10-26-2005, 08:01 AM

I've read a lot of post on playing mtt's and learning when and where to make plays. The question I pose : Is playing mtt's primarly for a living worth it in the long run? A friend of mine Morphling29 keeps repeating something Daniel N said a while ago about his tourney career. While tourney players wait for their next big score cash game players are paying off houses and cars. I only play mtt's online and im well aware of how huge the swings are but is it worth it in the long run? Since I dont have the br for the $100 buyins I play obv lower stake tourneys. The Swings are huge but with bills and what not it his hard to actually cushion the bankroll. It comes down to making a few hundred extra a month on top of the bills and living expenses. I'm not complaining about that because I know the higher you go the higher variance and the bigger the br will become. I'm just interested in practicality of the mtt's vs cash game scenerio.

The TriColor

zambonidrivr · #2 10-26-2005, 08:25 AM

i think variance is higher at the lower buy in levels

Nick-Zack · #3 10-26-2005, 08:27 AM

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I'm just interested in practicality of the mtt's vs cash game scenerio.

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I play both. I have a budget setup each month and any day of the month that I am ahead of budget I play MTT's the rest of the day. If I am running behind then I stick to the cash games as the variance is much lower. On the other end of the spectrum, if it is close to the end of the month and I am way behind my budget I play only MTT's as the chance for a big score is much better.

ansky451 · #4 10-26-2005, 09:45 AM

Even the best MTTers usually play cash or SnGs on the side, variance is just too huge for tournaments. You can go so long without getting a big score no matter how well you are playing.

tek · #5 10-26-2005, 09:46 AM

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I play both. I have a budget setup each month...

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Me too.

Most people can't play both cash and tournies well. That's one problem many have. Another is if you don't play cash games, you need to budget the tourny winnings. Many people can't do that, either.

Exitonly · #6 10-26-2005, 11:23 AM

I think if you can keep yourself from getting burnt out of tournaments, you could make a living playing just that. But the problem is when you playlike 400 in a month y\it's really easy to slip into a mental state wher eyou just don't care about your results anynmore and it affects your play. If you can control that, either because you're really disciplined, or because you gave yourself breaks/few days off, i think you could stay fresh enough to do well in just tournaments. Variance is killer, but w/ online tournaments you can play ao manyn in a month that it makes up for it. You may not be able to always have winning weeks, or winnings months even, but if you're a winning tournament player it shoudlnt take that long (time wise) for you to start showing a profit consistently.

nath · #7 10-26-2005, 11:51 AM

I play MTTs primarily as my poker income. (Or I do now that I've started winning consistently.) But I also play SnGs as a bit of a hedge, to stabilize the bankroll.
I'm a decent live cash player but I was getting the crap kicked out of me online, so I haven't done that in a while. Now that I have the BR to expand, though, I may give some of the softer sites a shot.
I also haven't been playing MTTs as my primary source of income long enough to hit any horrible stretches, but I also don't play full-time (damn school).
In my case I've realized that I've picked up the skills for tournament play much better and faster than I did cash play, and so I mix up SnGs, small-field and large-field multis, because I feel my biggest advantage over the field lies specifically in my tournament-poker ability.
I have no idea if any of this helps you or not.

SlowStroke · #8 10-26-2005, 01:20 PM

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Most people can't play both cash and tournies well.

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That is true for me. But I find that playing SNGs and MTTs are a good mix. And playing a lot of SNGs is great experience for when you finally do make a final table in an MTT.

#9 10-26-2005, 01:31 PM

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Most people can't play cash OR tournies well.

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FYP

BTW - I consider myself in this group but hope to improve with time.

John

HandCracker · #10 10-26-2005, 01:48 PM

agreed.
tournaments and Sit and Goes are so readily available(online) at any time of day, it doesnt take long for variance to balance out.