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Hanging Up My Tourney Boots.


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When I started playing poker in the fall of 2003.. I was primarily a tourney player. I went from a losing sng player.. losing mtt player.. to a winner at each of them. With the current state of online poker being the way it is.. I realized my mindset has changed. I am no longer fun to be around, I am much more irritable because I dont know when my next tourney score will come.. and if I do get a big score.. who knows if i'll even be able to get the money. The variances in MTT poker have led me to be almost miserable. I have been in constant snap mode after i grind a tourney for 4 hours.. only to lose a huge coin flip 5 away from the money. Ive decided to quit playing donkaments for the time being and focus on low limit cash games. I cashed out everything except 500 dollars.. and im going to work my way up the way I used to when I was grinding low limit sngs...only this time with cash games. Hoosier really made me see the light in the sense that cash games are where its at and that you can win ALOT more money in ring games. I know if I focus on cash games as hard as I have focused on MTTs over the last few years.. that I will become a big winner. I'll play the occasional donkaments here and there but for the time being.. I will consider myself a cash game player.Sorry, just had to vent my frustrations.

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While I don't think cashing out the majority of your roll and starting at micro-stakes is necessarily the best idea, I think you're making a good decision to focus on nl cash games.I won't lie though, they have gotten tougher post-Neteller. Also, you don't have to completely give up on tournaments, but it sounds like you need a break.

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Very good post. The stresses involved in playing MTTs are unreal if you do it for a living; you are basically throwing yourself to the variance gods knowing that when you score, it will be big, but when you don't, you can spend months playing great poker and losing money. I've been in pretty much the same boat as you for a while and have also begun shifting my play from MTTs to cash games by limiting the tourneys I play to 5-6 a night. Last night was a perfect example of tourney poker for me, I twice worked my stack up above 100k at the FTOPs 200r, only to have AA fall short to QQ for a 160k stack with 27 left. There was nothing I could do, I just wasn't destined to win 90k last night. That's what makes it so tough, you just have to accept that part of poker is losing and to try and feel good about the way you played no matter how many times it isn't 'your night'. MTT poker definitely isn't just the glamour of BkiCe and Chucksty final tabling every night, it's also the 2 months when you don't see any rail threads for them because they can't get anything going, definitely something everyone should think about before considering playing for a living, since most people aren't cut out to deal with that much mental anguish when their income depends on it. You have definitely proven yourself a solid tournament player and shouldn't feel bad about your decision, and I'm sure you will find continued success in poker and your feature endeavors.

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I'd like to know what Hoosier said that inspired you to make this decision?
Hoosier basically said that he wishes he would have spent more time playing cash games when he was playing tournaments because he was essentially throwing away money when he was playing tourneys... Though I will miss the BIG score.. I feel like I will be living a better, happier, more fulfilling life.. I havent been happy these last couple of months and a change is needed.
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It's good that you realize a change is needed. Could also be a month or two off of MTT's to rejuvinate your mental state. I think I am too competitive to quit Mtt's. GL bro

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I find cash games more stressful personally. The bad runs are magnified in rings when things go very far south and I hate being patient (well relatively speaking to tourneys) in the rings.I'm glad you made a decision that hopefully will turn out well for you. It's definitely one I made too, only in reverse, because the stress of the day to day grind got to me and the tourney atmosphere feeds my competitive drive. Yeah, it's tough during the dry spells, but the stop-loss is easier to calculate on any given week, and the rush of a big score can't be duplicated. Plus I've seen and been privy to way too many online collusion teams to warrant playing them any more, especially as you move up and in the shorthanded limit games. GL GL GL GL

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