Why MTT’s are the Best Deal in Online Poker
The real money in online poker is in the larger multi-table tournaments. Unfortunately this is also where the highest variance is. You can go a long time without cashing so you need a decent bankroll. Dry spells can be frustrating and cause you to change plans and start playing cash instead. That is a big mistake in my opinion.
Unless you have a decent rakeback deal going for you, play high stakes, or are always cashing bonuses (like you are at Ultimate Bet), cash games should be avoided. The rake is just too high. Most sites take 5% with a $3 cap and it’s just too difficult to overcome that at limits where the cap is not being invoked on most hands (which means the average pot size needs to be significantly over $60). You might be a very good player but the rake is going to grind you down and you might not be able to do much better than breaking even in the long run.
Multi-table tournaments on the other hand, have the opposite affect going for them. You lose lot in the short run but you are eventually assured of a worthwhile profits (assuming you are applying good tournament strategy). This is because of the tremendous amount of dead money in MTT’s. I am talking about players who have almost no chance of cashing. There are a ton of them and they more than make up for your entry fees. In other words, they pay for your entry fees and in effect you are always freerolling!
This is why you see online sites willing to back MTT players that have any kind of decent record whatsoever. There is a lot of equity in these things, especially the larger-field tournaments. With a good tourney plan a poker player can parlay himself to a paid exotic vacation for his family, and you might even find yourself on ESPN at some glamorous final table somewhere!
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