Questions for people who play MTT for a living

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WillieBoi89

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Hi all,

I am thinking about taking poker more seriously. In the last couple of years I have played around 400 MTT's with an average buyin of $13 and a ROI of 30%. I know this volue is very small, I am only a recreational player that will play a couple of games at the weekends.

I would like to know if anyone out there makes a living off playing MTT's. I think I might start playing roughly 8 hours at the weekends to dramatically increase my number of games to see if my ROI is correct. I only typically play up to 3 tables at a time so think I will need to be able to play more at once to get my volume up.

My questions are below


1. How many tables do you typically play a day and at once. I would imagine the more tbale you play, the less concentrated you can be and thus your average ROI will reduce. I'm curious how many MTT's do people play in a month?


2. When you play MTT's, typically how long do you start and end your session? Obviously you want to go long because that would mean you go deep. I'm curious how everyone's schedule would be like for this and if someone could tell me how their schedule would be like. Such as okay start grinding at 9am or 2pm depending on your time zone.


3. How do you cope with big down swings, looking at some articles of bankroll management you should have 200-500 buyins but I have heard downswings can be even greater than this. If you have to go down in stakes a couple of times due to bankroll management how do you make enough money to live on?


4. I mainly play turbo MTT's, however, the ROI is supposed to be much lower on these tournaments. The problem i see with normal speed tournaments though is how do you get enough volume in each day?



5. Can someone who plays MTT's for a living online and plays low-mid stakes post how their typical daily and weekend schedule would look like? I assume this isn't asking for a lot? I would assume it would include all the bigs and turbos etc but curious what other tournaments you play. How many tournaments would you play on average in a month?



6. Same a question 5 for high stakes players.


7. To those that play many tables say 20 tables, I assume almost everyone of you are going to be playing pretty tight right? Are there any lags that play that many tables? Is it hard hard to play a loose style if you are playing 20 tables.



I appreciate you reading my post and hope to get some thorough posts from the Cards Chat community.

Thanks,

Will
 
Acesinthebig

Acesinthebig

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1. You should only be playing one table at a time until you start to feel more comfortable. You want to make sure you are optimizing every opportunity. As you start to improve you can increase the number of tables and still maintain the same level of play.

2. MTT's are long, typically 6-8 hours for normal 200 to 1000 person tornaments...longer for bigger fields. Turbos are typically 2.5-3 hours

3. Downswings can be huge and it would be tough to start supporting yourself right away if ever. Keep your day job and play at night, would be my advise.

4. Not about volume, more about quality. Turbos have way more variance but you can also use this to your advantage. Regular speeds take quite a commitment.

5. Just depends on how much time you want to put into it. If it's a full time job I imagine you could play between 10-15 a day, but the average player with a full time job may only play 3-5 a day.

6. Don't know

7. You can still play loose playing 20 tables, some times too loose in my opinion. Can't play hands 100% optimally in multi tabling, or at least very hard until you become an expert.

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Acesinthebig

Acesinthebig

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If you are asking these questions you are not ready, but the only way to improve is to play and study!
 
Farseer

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1. How many tables do you typically play a day and at once. I would imagine the more tbale you play, the less concentrated you can be and thus your average ROI will reduce. I'm curious how many MTT's do people play in a month?

1-6 at a time, 10-40 tournaments per day. Depends quite a bit, 500-700 in full month usually.

2. When you play MTT's, typically how long do you start and end your session? Obviously you want to go long because that would mean you go deep. I'm curious how everyone's schedule would be like for this and if someone could tell me how their schedule would be like. Such as okay start grinding at 9am or 2pm depending on your time zone.


From 3 hours to 8 hours.

3. How do you cope with big down swings, looking at some articles of bankroll management you should have 200-500 buyins but I have heard downswings can be even greater than this. If you have to go down in stakes a couple of times due to bankroll management how do you make enough money to live on?

I have for over 5 years had 1000+ buy-ins bankroll. Currently having two-folded bankroll, with basic bankroll covering that and about as large "risk bankroll" to take +EV shots.

4. I mainly play turbo MTT's, however, the ROI is supposed to be much lower on these tournaments. The problem i see with normal speed tournaments though is how do you get enough volume in each day?

Game selection. Many ways to go.

5. Can someone who plays MTT's for a living online and plays low-mid stakes post how their typical daily and weekend schedule would look like? I assume this isn't asking for a lot? I would assume it would include all the bigs and turbos etc but curious what other tournaments you play. How many tournaments would you play on average in a month?

Mainly small-medium fields and most turbos or hypers. Wouldn't play any pokerstars Bigs or Hots or actually _any_ Texas NL MTT in pokerstars.com / eu (does play a few in stars.fr).

6. Same a question 5 for high stakes players.

Currently I mainly 1- or 2-table after value for 109+$ events. Just best of the best, due to promotions, overlay or exceptional soft fields.

7. To those that play many tables say 20 tables, I assume almost everyone of you are going to be playing pretty tight right? Are there any lags that play that many tables? Is it hard hard to play a loose style if you are playing 20 tables.

Not myself playing, but as I understand and know few who do they play really soft fields and ABC-poker with shortcuts because they have no time to adjust.
 
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ekgbeat

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I have questions for those that have answered.

How do you demonstrate proper BRM if you play poker for a living? If you should have 40 buy-ins for any given tournament, then how do you have a BR for multiple tournies?

What buy-ins are you sticking to?

What is your process for taking money out of your poker BR and into your life BR for living expenses and taxes?
 
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kozong

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I have questions for those that have answered.

How do you demonstrate proper BRM if you play poker for a living? If you should have 40 buy-ins for any given tournament, then how do you have a BR for multiple tournies?

What buy-ins are you sticking to?

What is your process for taking money out of your poker BR and into your life BR for living expenses and taxes?

hope this helps
 
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ekgbeat

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That was a good link. Thanks for posting. I do have a couple questions about the article.

The BRM guidelines are geared towards online poker, how would this change for live pros?

For MTTs - The article says that you need $106,000 for playing in $530 MTTs. I can't think of too many people that would have proper BRM with those guidelines.
 
Farseer

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1000 buy-ins for any larger field MTTs + 6-12kk worth of additional cash for living should suffice. You can also make two-fold bankroll, one which has enough money for grind and secondary roll for shots, if you are up for more variance when good value larger buy-in tournaments appear.
 
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