Small roll.... Tourn vs. Ring

I will give a little backstory on this. I wasted a lot of money with $20-$30 loads on Bodog for the 1st year and a half I was "learning" (not playing) poker before I got sick of the site and moved to Full Tilt July of last year. I started with a 50$ deposit and then had to make one more 50$ deposit about a month later. I guess I was still learning. Since then I have done two seperate cashouts for $350 and $150 with still about $75-$100 left in depending on how the day went. I now realize I should have left that money in and kept building. The first cash out was to get a gutair I don't even pick up any more (which ,by the way, if anyone is interested in a slightly used Fender Strat with Lace pickups let me know, we can work something out) and the other time was because... well I just needed the money. That being said I do ok at tournaments but find since I am at low level toruneys I tend to have a lot of varience. I have had the most succes at the $3 + .30 90 player knockout tourneys and $2 + .25 SnGs and they are about the only reason I have a positive ROI. I have tried playing cash games and do well for awhile but always end up giving away any profits I have gained within a couple weeks. I am also mainly able to play after 6:30 pm-midnight monday-thurs, 6:30pm-2-3a Friday and Sat. (I work M-Sat 9-6) and mostly all day/night Sunday if available playing times affect the answers. I was wondering what peoples thoughts on small roll vs what games to be more profitable with a $100 BR. I like NLHE, Pl Omaha08 or HI, and Horse. I have done ok in all categories but have the best ROI in NLHE. My honest goal is to one day have poker be my source of income and I figure I would need to be cashing out a min. of around 3k-4k/month on average to accomplish this. I know that is a long way off but building my roll above microstacks is the first step.

So, after all that, (and thank you for sitting through my rambling there) Should I be concentrating on cash games until my roll is big enough fo the bigger tournaments with a bigger profit margin? Or is it better to just grind out the small tourneys waiting for good plays and +EV to catch up and build it that way. I would also be interested in peoples thoughts about PokerStars vs. Full Tilt. And lastly, books and reads people suggest for someone of my limited experience. (I have a decent, not expert in any way, understanding of pot odds, implied odds, Paitence early/Aggression later in tournaments mainly because of the post I read through everyday and the poker strategey articles I have reread many times on this site) I appreciate any help or advice people have fo me (or other players in a similar position)

On sngs/tourneys vs. ring games thats really a personal decision. I play cash for the most part and I have been doing pretty decent so far. It really just depends on what you want to do.

On pokerstars vs. tilt, I've heard that Tilt is more of a nitfest then pokerstars. If you decide to switch to cash I would switch to pokerstars just because there is more traffic.

Go to the beginners circle and look in the "beginners digest" thread
Lots of really good info for someone just starting the grind.

Good luck!

I was in the same position the past few years. I played many sng's and tournys and cash games. Cashed out a few hundred here and there. My personal advice for you would be to give cash games a serious try. It works better for me because I can sit down and play whenever I have time. For me its usually between an hour or 2 during the weekdays and a few hours sat and sun. Tournys are tough because you have to set aside 4+ hours to play and they aren't always available at the times you are free to play. Cash games will help a lot with you tourny play when you do have time for one also. That's my advice.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

On sngs/tourneys vs. ring games thats really a personal decision. I play cash for the most part and I have been doing pretty decent so far. It really just depends on what you want to do.

On pokerstars vs. tilt, I've heard that Tilt is more of a nitfest then pokerstars. If you decide to switch to cash I would switch to pokerstars just because there is more traffic.

Go to the beginners circle and look in the "beginners digest" thread
Lots of really good info for someone just starting the grind.

Good luck!

Thanks,
I broke down and got a Pokerstars account through the Flopturnriver links and wow they do have like 3x the players Tilt does at any given moment. I was mainly just wondering how some of the other people built their roll.

Originally Posted by HeAVyB101

I was in the same position the past few years. I played many sng's and tournys and cash games. Cashed out a few hundred here and there. My personal advice for you would be to give cash games a serious try. It works better for me because I can sit down and play whenever I have time. For me its usually between an hour or 2 during the weekdays and a few hours sat and sun. Tournys are tough because you have to set aside 4+ hours to play and they aren't always available at the times you are free to play. Cash games will help a lot with you tourny play when you do have time for one also. That's my advice.

Thanks,
Good point on the cash helping with tourney play. And the time consideration is a very valid point.

Don't forget: cash games are very different from tournaments, you may want to look into the strategy differences more in-depth before you sit down for your first serious session.

Other than that, I'd suggest trying cash games for a few weeks, see how you do, and make your decision from there. As was mentioned, cash games vs tournaments comes down to a personal preference, and only you can make that call.

Good luck!

That was a great post lockpull. I'm in the same position as you basically, except I haven't done many tourneys.

For a guy trying to learn the ropes, do you guys recommend Full Tilt or Poker Stars? I'm on Tilt right now, but if you guys say PS is way better, then I'll think of switching.

Originally Posted by xpaand

That was a great post lockpull. I'm in the same position as you basically, except I haven't done many tourneys.

For a guy trying to learn the ropes, do you guys recommend Full Tilt or Poker Stars? I'm on Tilt right now, but if you guys say PS is way better, then I'll think of switching.

This is just my limited experience about both sites here but:

I find that Tilt is great for tourn play.... Especially the lower lever MTT's. My favorite tourn is the 3+.30 90 player knockout tourney. You start with double stack and plenty of players that will go all in with marginal hands at best. I have not had much luck in the cash games there. Poker Stars I have had good luck so far in cash games (which basically means I made up what I lost in the SnG's and am now back even)

Another thing I have been trying latley is to do the 4$ SnG or the 8$ MTT (18 players) on Tilt that wins the $26 token. (I like the $8 better because the top 5 get the token and 6th gets $10 where the $4 one 1st gets token and 2nd gets $6 I think)) Then I take that into the $24+2 90 player knockout. You get $4 for everyone you knock out so if you can knock out 2-3 players (even if you don't final table) you got your $4-8 buy in back (to start this process over again) plus 1st place takes $500+ and 9th takes like $45. It can be dangerous to your stack but profitable if done with discipline and patience. Keep in mind that this was going great when I was winning the token in like every tourney I play but just sucked my BR down when I would lose a few in a row.

There is also a $6 token torun 18 players where top 4 get token and 5th takes $10)