I am very intersted in this cash vs tournaments debate, but please take my perspective as a poker newbie. I am also trying to place it into the context of where poker should fit in one's life and what we want to get out of it.

To put this into context, I make about $3k a day working 10 days a month as a freelance consultant, so gains or losses at the baby levels I play at have no effect on my real life, but I take them seriously because I want to be a player and not a fish.

Last week I decided that my learning - doesn't matter if I lose - period was over and since then have done 12 SnG tourneys, with 2 1st, 2 2nd and 2 3rd. Have also a tiny profit on cash games since then but...ring games feel like a grind, you can only make money by folding, folding till the group 1 hole cards come.

The point is, having a clear undersstanding of why we play poker and for me, despite all its reliance on luck, I think the buzz of tourney play beats the grind of cash play.