Cash vs Tournament
I am about an average NL Holdem tournament player. I have heard that it is easier to make money in cash games and have tried low-limit cash games a few times. I have not done as well as I had hoped. But playing them did give rise to some questions:
1. Generally speaking, do cash game players play better in tournaments, or do tournament players play better in cash games.
2. What adjustments are necessary for tournament players to make when they switch to cash games.
3. If two players of the same ability play the same number of hours, one in tournaments and one in cash games, which would make the most $$$/Hour?
Even if you are not an expert I would like to hear your thoughts on these questions or this subject in general. Thanks... FlyingSafe
Comments
Yeah cash games are different to tournaments quite drastically really. I play 6max cash games and so there the idea for me is to play it TAG, if i'm entering pots i like to be the OR, or otherwise have a good reason otherwise (like calling IP with a pocket pair or perhaps connectors).
Again it depends what sort of tournaments we're talking, for instance in a non turbo MTT the early stages your play style could be quite close to how yuo play in cash games.
Sometimes in a 2000 player MTT I try to play a lot more hands than I would in a 9 player SnG, especially in position. Often I lose a lot of chips before I win any by being raised off partially hit flops or top pair-weak kicker situations. But I think trying to play as tight as you would a 9-player SnG will usually just get you to going allin preflop with Ax near the bubble.
On the television version of High Stakes Poker many players seem to play almost any two cards to a raise just trying to hit a monster flop so they can bust the raiser. I wonder if this stradegy would be profitable in $1-$2 cash games with deep stacks. Anyone tried this with any success?
In big MTTs it is profitable to try and see cheap flops but only in the right spots. Position is still important and the odds you're getting pre are important too. But its nice to see cheap flops in large limped pots with connectors or pocket pairs, or two-gappers from somewhere like the button.
I don't have much experience in cash games but remember that in High Stakes Poker, you're only seeing the hands that are played. Most of the hands that are dealt, you don't get to see, so its easy to think they are much more aggressive than they really are. But the cash games that I've played have been profitable and I have played only premium hands but that takes a lot of patience. The great thing is the blinds don't go up!
Take my comment for what it is. I've been playing and studying both but I can't say I am good at any of them 
It's a whole world of a difference between cash and MTT.
The 2 main major differences:
1. Playing cash you almost always play with a 100 BB stack and your opponents will have similar stacks (I'm not taking short stacking into account here). While in most MTTs even at 1st level blinds you are 50 BB deep (1500 chips, 15/30 blinds) and for most of the tournament your stack is under 50 BB. That means you have a lot more room to maneuver in a cash game than in an MTT. You can use a lot more techniques (ie it's almost always ok to call a raise preflop with low pocket pairs in a cash game).
2. In a cash game you can always reload. I know we don't want to and we hope to be over 100 BB but the point is - you can reload. In an MTT you are always risking a bustout and have to adjust your play accordingly. If your bluff doesn't work you are often busto or crippled. If you lose your All In battle - you're gone.
Moreover there are usually different players at these games. Regulars at cash games are MUCH better at playing post-flop than most MTT players. Even good MTT players are NOT as good at post-flop play as their good cash game counter-parts (I'm not saying they are bad or anything).
The skill set is different.
As a cash game player you have to be very good at your post-flop game, hand reading, bet sizing, assessing your opponent etc. You don't really need to know much about ICM - All In equity and such.
An MTT player can't live without knowing all the ICM stuff. You can make do without much post flop skill - preflop raise, cbet, continue or let it go.
It's just different.
I would say it's easier to move from playing cash games to playing MTTs rather than the other way around.
AND while the tourney prizes are definitely bigger - there is a LOT more variance involved in playing MTTs than in playing cash.
From my experience - although (as I mentioned) we talk about different skill sets here - good cash players tend to make more money / hour than tournament players
In cash because the blinds never rise and you are usually deep mistakes get magnified. In tournaments you can just sit around and wait for the blinds to get high and then play aggressive during the high blind phase where mistakes aren't so costly.
The biggest difference is cash game players need to be good at deep play and tourney players need to be good at short play. I do find that cash game skills help you when your playing the early phases of a deepstack tournament. Very rarely however could I say that I've used short stack skills for cash play.
Its an interesting question, i do a bit of both and it generally fluctuates around, normally one is going fairly hot whilst the other isnt so much. Ive made more money in tournaments overall than in cash games, but then i am in a cash game downswing and MTT payouts skew the results somewhat.
I personally prefer cash games i think, but as for which is most profitable i really couldnt say. Especially when "tournaments" encompasses such a wide range, are we talking HUs or STTs or MTTs, turbo/non-turbo etc