Jumping on the bandwagon...

Wait... do I sense a debate??? Ooooh, I love that. I'm in! Well, here's the background... In case you weren't following the latest happenings in the blogosphere, MiamiDon posted this and apparently, got under the skin of Cracknaces, who fired back with this. Hoy weighed in with his thoughts. And when the big wigs of the poker blog world start talking, some others follow and offer their thoughts, like Anguila did here. So, I feel like I'm a little late to the party and I'm not even sure if anyone cares but I'm gonna offer my 2 cents.

As far as the cash vs tournament goes... I've actually always said that they were very different games. I mean honestly, it's like comparing Omaha and Stud. Ok, maybe that's insane but the skill sets needed are so different, in my opinion. Now, take it from me who is a tournament donk. As I indicated in my half year review, I am clearly a cash game player. Well, at least I'm making a lot of money in cash games and losing in tournaments. So, I can't provide the type of insight that Don, Chad, or Hoy offered up because what would I know about winning a tournament? Nothing.

Having said that, it continues to amuse me that there is always a comparison. Tournament players all say that tourneys are harder. Cash gamers all say that that's real poker cuz you have decisions to make on every street. Personally, I don't care about either. I enjoy both in different ways. I still dream of a big score in a tournament and I believe it when I hear others say that once you win a big score, you'll never look at tournaments the same way because now, every time you enter, you'll envision the big score. Cash games are clearly more of a grind and admittedly, there are times I play cash, not because I want to but because I feel like I have to. But I also love cash. I love the different types of deception that happen on cash games. It's not just about balls and shoving the entire stack. There are layers of deception that happen and in all honesty, my favorite poker show right now is High Stakes Poker. So much better than televised poker tournaments.

But I do feel that sometimes I have to play. Not because I want to or that I desperately desire to play. I feel like it's my job. Sounds crazy right? I mean here I am, a guy that clearly loves poker, who plays everyday, writes about it frequently, and definitely thinks about it a lot... and I feel that I have to play instead of wanting to play sometimes? It's true. Why is that? I think it's because one day, I would love to be like Don. I want to play poker to make my living. I have a very nice job with a very decent pay and I know that a lot of people would love to have the income that I have. But, my days drag... I hate getting out of bed every morning. I hate working on projects that I disagree on. Basically, I want my own freedom. Long time ago, I thought that maybe I want to run my own business. Now, I just think I want to play poker.

And for that purpose, I feel that being able to consistently churn out profits in cash game is critical. Now of course, if you can consistently win tournaments, that's nice but cash games are definitely more of a grind but at least consistent. I've seen some people say that if you get stacked a few times early, the rest of the session you are just fighting to get back to even. That's true but if you play enough cash games, you should know that getting stacked a few times is just part of the variance. If you are playing within your roll and you are a winning player, the results of one cash session shouldn't even affect you.

So, in that sense, I'll continue to focus my efforts on cash games so that I can continue to build my roll and make money. But, I enjoy tournaments and I would love to join the elusive club of a guy who's taken down a tourney with 1000+ runners. Do I think that would happen any time soon? Probably not. But I enjoy both and I really wish I was better at both. Only thing I can do is to keep at it, I guess.

Hmmm... this post actually went no where so if you survived till the end, sorry. Just wanted to weigh in with my thoughts... hell, I guess it's my blog, I'll write what I want.