Number of players vs buy-ins

I was always asking myself what kind of tournaments are the best option to participate.

For example there are tournaments with big buy-in and less amount of players and tournaments with a large number of players but with small buy-in. Both of them have cons and pros and sometimes its really hard to choose what is the right one.

I'm usually playing tournaments with micro buyins and now thinking to play tournaments with $20+ buy-in. Will it be a big difference ? it makes me feel that in these tournaments only pro players but may be I'm wrong

Good question.

bankroll: Never play above your head. Poker is a high variance game and you need to have enough bankroll to sustain a long losing streak. Set aside your poker money from your living money, then never play for more than 5% of that bankroll at any one time. (many people will provide different guidelines for this number, but 5% seems reasonable.)

Available time: Obviously, the more players in the tournament the longer it will take. You would never want to put yourself in the position where you ran out of time or got tired or bored. Pick a game where you can stay focused the entire time, even if that means sticking with sing table sit n gos

Field Quality: This is the most important element of poker success. Micro-stakes can seem a little reckless at times, so it might feel right to move up in stakes as soon as you are able. There is good logic to this, but in general terms, you will find better players as you move up. There will always be some players playing above their ability, either because they have unlimited funds and are just playing for fun, or because they themselves are taking a shot at higher stakes.

Tournament Structure: This is very important to me. I do not like turbo or hyper turbo tournaments with very short levels, as it feels like a BINGO tournament, and luck plays a larger factor than poker skill in these. Some people really like the speed and aggressive nature of these, and that is fine, it is just not what I seek. Pick your preference and stick with that, and become an expert.

Good luck

thanks for the tips. About tournament structure I don't like also turbo or hyper turbo but in other hand tournaments with 10min blinds are seems for me really slow especially for tournaments with large number of players

I 'll say too to stay within your bankroll and then try to play the small field tournaments and the structure/format you prefer.

The 5% of BR is way too aggressive and risky for mtt.
I believe that for 45man mtt (which I play a lot) a good BR is 75-125 buy-ins if not more.
For 200+ players mtt I prefer to have 300 buy-ins so variance can't hurt my psychology.
I guess of course that at the end all comes down to the player and how he perceives the game.

I think buy-ins because if there are many buy-ins the amount of places to pay increases while the number of players amount of payment per place remains the same.