Hi everyone, the following is a comparrison between HU Cash and HUSNGs I did for myself some months ago. Maybe you'll find it interesting if you've considered both formats.___________________________________________________HU cash players love to argue that their preferred format is the highest testament of poker wits. It's especially comical when the claim is made by bumhunters that sit out against anyone capable of folding bottom pair (a luxury HUSNG players don't have). It's natural and always pleasant to pad our egos, but is this claim justified? I don't think so and this is further highlighted by the countless cash game specialists who consistently failed to become big winners in HUSNGs. The typical argument is that deeper stacks = higher complexity and thus a greater effect of skill. While this is true in a pure mathematical sense, practical play differs. The deeper one plays, the less a fold can be exploited since the importance of winning the blinds is much lower. There's less of a need for nitty value peddling regs to adapt to their opponents because their strategy is harder to beat than it would be in HUSNGs. In HUSNGs, the blinds change constantly and decisions that were correct at one blind level become awful at another. Thus, one has to be more versatile and perceptive. Of course, deeper stacks offer more implied odds and playing squeaky tight isn't optimal. However, my experience suggests that the average HU cash reg is much tighter pre and postflop at 100BB than the average HUSNG reg at 75BB. This means fewer flops to play and as a result, fewer opportunities to impart a skill edge. Moreover, ranges are better defined and consequently, handreading is easier. This is especially true since slowplaying is more frequently a mistake deeper due to the inability to get stacks in without being aggressive on every street. Thus, it may be the case that 75BB play offers a higher skill edge than 100BB play in the context of practical play. Furthermore, it suggests that cash game regs are simply not fighting for pots as hard. This is natural since the driving force to win blinds is less significant. When players aren't fighting for pots as hard, reads and hero calls become less critical due to lower bluffing frequencies. The way many HU cash game regs win is merely by waiting for their opponents to overplay hands. The interesting consequence of this is that HUSNG players have to be more attentive to everything their opponents do. They must use the right reads when it matters most because inevitably, many spots will come up where they or their opponents are making big moves (especially shallower like ~30BB). While it's important to wait for better spots, there's also less time to do this in HUSNGs and that's why there's more action. Similarly, reads developed earlier can be even more profitable at shallower stacks than deep because the relative magnitude of the mistake is higher. For instance, if someone cbets 100% and folds to a checkraise 65%, this is a much larger leak at 30BBs than 300BBs. Also, if facing a weak passive player afraid of risking elimination even in profitable spots, double barreling is more profitable at shallow stacks because each pot is a larger proportion of the buy-in. Likewise, reversing some tendencies your opponents expect from your deeper play may be surprisingly profitable when shallower. The game constantly changes as a function of stack depth and a player skilled at one stack depth but not another is leaking a great deal of money. With all the poker material out there, many have become competent at 100BB play while getting lost in the myriad of changing variables at lower stack depths. HUSNGs prey on this failure to adapt. Interestingly enough, the deeper stacks argument falls flat for several other reasons. First of all, there are deep stacked HUSNGs which test the full gamut of a player's skill and start much deeper than HU cash. More importantly, the standard raise for many HUSNG regulars even 75BB deep is a minraise. This means the pot starts out being only 4BB and that the BB is forced to play more postflop to avoid getting run-over. On the cash spectrum, a minraise is typically not correct and this isn't simply because it fails to build the pot or apply pressure in position. The main reason for opening 3X and taking the pot down preflop is that rake is a serious problem. Hence, HU cash pots usually start at 6BB. Already, the effective stack to pot ratio is larger for HUSNGs, making them effectively deeper (75/4 = 18.75, 100/6 = 16.67). Since HUSNGs aren't raked on the basis of hands seeing flops, decisions like limping or minraising are made in a vacuum based purely on merit. Another common feature of HU cash games, is a 3/4 pot CBET (or even larger). Once again, this makes the SPR smaller and the game plays as if shallower. In the end, it doesn't matter which is more complex and it's also a question of opinion. What matters is hourly and preference. As Mersenneary and many other successful high stakes players will attest, there's a decent edge even at 25BB or less if you're willing to learn the intricacies of the format. There are nuances that players used to deeper play simply don't appreciate. And if one can get in two dozen superturbos in an hour at a lower ROI but with the overall result of a higher hourly, then that's the smart thing to do. No one cares if you're playing the divinely deemed most complex form of poker and your wallet prefers you play what's most profitable instead. In my case, there's such a huge edge in regular speed HUSNGs that I would be wasting money by switching to deep stacked HUSNGs. I don't need that much time and patience to destroy players making big mistakes at every stack depth and the ROI is unlikely to double in deep stacked HUSNGs. There's a point of diminishing returns from increasing stack depth and for me, this probably occurs in deep stacked HUSNGs. For other players, this occurs in regular speeds and they play turbos instead etc. One needs more than twice as high of an ROI to play a format that takes twice as long (due to rakeback benefits). In many ways, I see cash games as having reached and far exceeded the point of diminishing returns vs most opponents. What's exploitable at 100BB+ can be exploited at 75BB and it's still deep enough to have play on all three streets. Even if theoretically the potential edge is higher, the time needed to realize it lowers hourly. I have immense confidence in the HUSNG format because it's exciting and offers a vast array of options. Tournament formats with a clear winner provide a sense of accomplishment and importance. Wins are more enjoyable for me and I think the same is true for recreational players. It's probably why there tends to be more action in HUSNGs than similar HU cash levels. Recreational players may also find it more satisfying to brag about beating top player X in a concrete way rather than saying they won a certain number of BB. And of course, it's easier to schedule. One can always hit-n-run cash games but it's not the same as knowing you'll either win or lose X amount a certain game and that such a result will take a maximum of Y minutes. If playing a new opponent, it typically has to be for at least as long as the duration of an HUSNG because reads are developed even slower due to fewer pots being played postfop. Plus, a good percentage of the time, those reads are wasted because as soon as a recreational player wins a significant pot, they stop playing. In HUSNGs, it's not so easy. This leads to another benefit for the games. Given one can't decline action, regs at a certain level need to be more competent or they'll get sat by better regs. As such, the pool of weaker players will be the domain of fewer regs than is true for HU cash games where there are frequently a dozen regs sitting at a table and getting no action. This keeps games very juicy for longer. The options from 25BB to 150BB are vast and suit all manner of styles, temperaments and schedules. There will always be a lucrative HUSNG structure. Moreover, I truly believe that deep stacked HUSNGs are one the most testing poker formats. They traverse every stack depth and require high versatility so even if the edges are eventually reduced in other poker formats, the deep stacked HUSNGs will always offer a sizable edge.