Optimising Personal Tournament Buy In

T

The Nuder

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I've been playing poker online for about a year. (I have played offline in the past.) I've probably won over a dozen online tournaments with the biggest prize being $580 and probably half a dozen others over $100. I've also final tabled a reasonable amount and I got to the stage where I knew I'd be top 5% in most tournaments I played - if I played carefully.

The problem is I play low buy in tournaments and a top 5% finish often means covering stake or less only. The chance of the odd few hundred quid win isn't all that inspiring - if I then get bored and blow it.

I've noticed the quality of opposition seems much higher in a $20 plus buy in than a $5 buy in. Which makes sense.

I'm just wondering how to optimise my buy in. The reasoning is that I can probably play better against better opponents? If there aren't constantly 2 or 3 people at the table twitching to go all in at the first opportunity.

I guess I'm thinking out loud and just interested in what others found when they raised their buy in comittment?
 
C

cotta777

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I've been playing poker online for about a year. (I have played offline in the past.) I've probably won over a dozen online tournaments with the biggest prize being $580 and probably half a dozen others over $100. I've also final tabled a reasonable amount and I got to the stage where I knew I'd be top 5% in most tournaments I played - if I played carefully.

The problem is I play low buy in tournaments and a top 5% finish often means covering stake or less only. The chance of the odd few hundred quid win isn't all that inspiring - if I then get bored and blow it.

I've noticed the quality of opposition seems much higher in a $20 plus buy in than a $5 buy in. Which makes sense.

I'm just wondering how to optimise my buy in. The reasoning is that I can probably play better against better opponents? If there aren't constantly 2 or 3 people at the table twitching to go all in at the first opportunity.

I guess I'm thinking out loud and just interested in what others found when they raised their buy in comittment?


it sounds to me you need to stick to slow blind levels, You wont get too many sketchy players going all in. This is very bad for good players who have alot of moves in their arsenal but dont play push or fold (I made the switch and never looked back)
I have exactly the same problem, for most parts i'l make 100-150 dollers on a good day and break even on a bad day grinding, this is no more than 4 tables.
Take for example friday I played from mid day till 10pm cashed around 230 dollers on 18 and 45 mans,
A. I got bored
B. I lost concentration.
C. I used all this money medium buy in tournaments, looking for the 4 figure cash.

I find it really hard to get motivated to grind for a few coins each day, im like at the end of a long week, looking at my bankroll and its only growing by 200-300 dollers - which for me is £200 tops not enough.

If I had a 2,500 bankroll I'd be over the moon, motivated playing 50NL and some 100NL on a strict bankroll making enough to come out of work.
 
loafes

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I'm guessing you're talking about 888s tournaments right?

The main problem with 888s MTTs is that they have small fields, this lowers variance but at the same time it also means the prize pools are quite small and can feel like they aren't meaningful. In reality these are more variance filled and more attune to shot taking than grinding
 
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cotta777

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I'm guessing you're talking about 888s tournaments right?

The main problem with 888s MTTs is that they have small fields, this lowers variance but at the same time it also means the prize pools are quite small and can feel like they aren't meaningful. In reality these are more variance filled and more attune to shot taking than grinding

for me I play stars, 45 mans and under for the most part but I have to take shots since I cant invest the time needed to achieve a five figure bankroll from grinding.

I agree with 888 soft tournaments, but the sit n go's arent frequent regular tournaments are but at best your odds are less than 20 to one on a top 3 finish no matter who you are in a 300+ field
 
Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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See, I've noticed I don't do well in the micros ($1 and under) and I won't blame the other players, I'll blame myself. It is just not inspiring for me to grind for hours to show a profit of between $15-$80. after I win or go deep...I immediately feel joy at playing well and then quickly feel remorse for spending so much of my day that way. So basically I lose patience and patience is key!

I need a buy in that is meaninful to me. For me that happens between $3-$20 online or between $200-$1,000 live. at that level the field is much harder, so my actual chances seemingly have gone down...but I'm engaged and on point and really I play much better when I know there is enough cash at the finish line to change my weekly or monthly budget.
 
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