A costly poker addiction

Recently I've been playing NLHE cash games nearly all the time and I've had good results, I'd guess 8 or 9 sessions out of 10 are returning nice profits. This is good, steady poker revenue. Yet, I continue to spoil things by playing STT and MTT events. Yesterday was a prime example of getting ahead in cash then dumping it back in tournaments.

I got ahead by $180 on Pokerstars playing my usual way at $1/$2 NLHE. Great, I'd happily take around $200 a day, everyday. Just before logging off I see a rebuy MTT about to start, it's Omaha Hi/Lo - I cashed often in this type of event in 2004 and really felt quite confident about making the money again in a small field (for Poker Stars standards).

To cut a long story short, 7 rebuys and an add-on later, I'm out 20 minutes after the break, I played truly awful! I'm almost ashamed to go into any detail, a player on my right was pot raising everything and had rebought about 14 times (seriously) he was lining the pockets of everyone on the table.... apart from me! Everytime I called or re-raised him, I'd miss completely and he'd take it down with 2,5,9,Q rainbow. I suppose I was on semi-tilt, looking for an opportunity to bust him, each time I missed I would be more aggressive the next time, classicly over playing A,2,X,X.

Anyway, $80 down I took my leave until later in the evening, once again I got my tournament fix by trying a $20 STT on Full Tilt. I like Full Tilt, I'm not a cartoon lover or anything! and I think the attitude of some of the players here stinks but I've always done well here and really should play more in this room. I cashed in the STT in 3rd, I recovered to almost equal chips when VERY small stacked when we were 3 handed, sadly I blew it again in a poor play but was happy to recoup some money after earlier that day on Stars. Even better was my good run on the cash tables here at the same time, wiping out my Stars loss and nudging me over $200 profit for the day.

Now, I ask myself:

Why am I playing tournaments when cash games are supplying an endless amount of fun and money?

Why am I playing so poorly in tournaments recently when my record in 2004 was good?

I can answer the first one. The prize money for the top places.
The second one. I've really no idea, I think I'm playing the same cards but I wonder if my slightly looser cash game strategy is carrying over to tournaments, where it pays to be tight for a good long while.

I will limit my tournaments to 3 per week for a while, my love of them from 2004 has spilled over into this year but the results are nowhere near the same, time to cut back a little on that poker addiction.