Epiphany

I had an epiphany last night. Briefly stated, it's that I really don't like playing cash games. I've had this epiphany before, but every time I have it makes it that much harder to return to playing them. At some point in the future, I'll probably swear off them completely. The ironic thing is that I've made more play money playing cash games than I have playing any other poker style. If I stop playing them, my yearly profits will drop, and dramatically. However, there's more to life than play money :-)

Let me try to explain what I don't like about cash games. Actually, it'll be easier to explain what I love about MTTs, and how cash games don't measure up in comparison. MTTs are highly structured. They're designed to end within a limited amount of time. The escalating antes and blinds guarantee this. Everyone has to deal with them. In that sense MTTs are much more egalitarian than cash games. When you're playing an MTT, you're essentially a rat in a maze; however, you know you're a rat, and you know you're in maze. Moreover, you know all the other players are also rats, and that they're in the same maze. When you're playing a cash game, it's hard to know who you are, who your opponents are, and where you or anyone else is. It's a bit of a stretch, but I can liken the difference between MTTs and cash games to the difference between rhymed poetry and free verse. Rhymed poetry has rules you must follow, and enforces a structure; surprisingly, though, there's a lot of freedom in the confinement. Free verse has no rules or structure to speak of; it's amorphous, and the amount of open space you have is so vast it can paralyze you.

Last night, I got under the lights again in MTT 8-game; that is, I made the final table. I ended up in third, but made the egregious mistake of sitting out my final twelve hands. Had I played those hands, I might have come in second, or even first. How could I make such a mistake? All unaware, as you might have guessed. I was watching a movie on Amazon while playing poker, and there was a hiccup when the PokerStars software failed to thrust its window to the foreground when it was my turn to act. I was engrossed by the end of the movie, and plain forgot I was playing poker. Pretty stupid, huh? :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4350   650       6   207      85   18     3    48060

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 71 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 9 times while in big blind (55%)
 - 3 out of 9 times while in small blind (33%)
 - 31 out of 53 times in other positions (58%)
 - a total of 39 out of 71 (54%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 8 (37%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-28,646
MTT 8-game balance: $276,610
balance: $10,067,356