Multi-table Tournaments are a fun way of playing poker for many players who want a shot at the big bucks. However because of the high variance nature of their results, the vast majority of players, even those who have a positive expectation, have no guarantee of making a successful living.

High Expectations but also high variance

A very good player might have an expectation of 40% or more profit per each multi-table tournament he plays. This is however an average. With potentially thousands of players in each tournament, and as the blind levels rise, because there is only a relatively few key hands, and because the prize money is so skewed to the top 1 or 2 %, the variance in multi-table tournaments is absolutely massive.

If a great player has luck on his side too, yes he could go on to make millions and maybe even become another household name, but if this very good player has more than his fair share of bad luck in these key hands then even over thousands of such events, possibly even a whole lifetime there is a chance he could be showing a loss.

This simply does not happen in cash game play where there are no increase in blinds during the game, obviously there are still key hands but even then they do not make or break your day. In a tournament if you are knocked out it’s game over, in cash games you can rebuy and go on to have a winning session. If a player is a great cash game player and multi tables online, he may have a losing day, he may have a losing week, even occasionally he might have a losing month, but the luck will eventually even out. If a cash game player has a losing year, chances are almost certain he has been doing something wrong.

So for sustained profitability for a player with positive expectation I come down on the side of cash games. Poker tournaments however do provide that shot at winning big money, perhaps providing the opportunity for a sponsorship deal which are simply not there for cash game players. Poker Tournaments also provide opportunity for the recreational poker player to win big money and even at times to come from nowhere and make a name for themselves. Both have their place and the different poker skills required for both will also mean that some players who excel in one discipline will not necessarily do so in the other poker format. The thing is though the good cash game player can prove he is good over hundreds of thousands of poker hands. It’s much harder to tell whether an mtt player is a winning or losing poker player based solely on results.