Why cash games are better than tournaments–Part II
Once in awhile, when I’m out on the tournament circuit, I do something really strange and uncharacteristic for me–I think about playing a tournament. Have I mentioned that I mostly play cash games? 
I played the evening super satellite at the Commerce the other night. The thing was a joke–by the third level, there was no poker involved in the event. Every hand was raise and take the blinds, or raise/reraise/call, and watch the inevitable pair vs two overs confrontations play themselves out. Mine was getting it all in with A9 suited, getting called by 44, and not hitting anything.
I believe if I played enough of these big buy-in WPT/WSOP events, I could probably show a small profit–but I just hate the idea of peeling off $10K every few weeks to do so. Especially so, since I know how much of a rip-off these things are. For example: My entry into the super was $1,020. My entry ticket indicated that $970 was going into the prize pool, $30 for a service charge (whatever that means), and then another $20 for the dealers, supposedly. If I had won an entry, it would have come with an additional $100 on top of the entry. What’s the $100 for? It’s given in the hope/expectation that you’ll freely give it up as an additional dealer tip, of course. But wait, the juice doesn’t stop there: Your $10K entry ticket will likewise reflect that only $9400 of your entry goes into the prize pool, with the balance again going to service charges, dealer tip pools, etc. If you happen to be lucky enough to cash in the actual event? When you’re at the window getting paid, you will be asked if you’d like to “leave anything for the dealers”. Can you believe this stuff? How many times are you supposed to pay for the same thing?
I don’t know, I guess I’m a curmudgeon–I first started going to the WSOP annually in the late 90s, around the end of the Jack Binion era. Hard as it may be to believe, the total juice was no higher than 6% for most events, and the bigger buy-in events were cheaper–the main event was effectively “free”–your entire $10K buy-in went into the prize pool.
At the rate this tournament mania is going, there will eventually come a point where the goose that lays the golden eggs (that means you, you tournament junkies) will be crushed by the excessive greed of Harrah’s, the WPT, etc.
Me? I went back to the cash games..been doing great..I may never win one of those Chris Moneymaker/Jamie Gold/Jerry Yang payoffs..but my side game action shows a consistent profit…
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Aren’t tips supposed to be optional? A conditional gift based on the level of service that is provided? If you take it from my prize then you get nothing additional. I don’t care if I win the thing, you’re not getting another penny.