How do you know you are doing good to advance

I have been thinking about upping my buy in amount for playing tournaments. I am at 1 to 20 dollars right now. I am not sure how ratings work either. I came out of retirement from poker about 3 months ago and I think I have held my own even though those fish get me on the river at important times. any advice would be nice I just got active here again too. good luck out there The_Bandit Chico BO

I am 41 but gave up poker for about 5 years or whenever pokerstars was unavailable. I think I got some left in the tank yet..... Let me know if we have crossed paths on BO The_Bandit

TheBandit said:

I have been thinking about upping my buy in amount for playing tournaments. I am at 1 to 20 dollars right now. I am not sure how ratings work either. I came out of retirement from poker about 3 months ago and I think I have held my own even though those fish get me on the river at important times. any advice would be nice I just got active here again too. good luck out there The_Bandit Chico BO

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Assuming a decent sample size, if my ROI was above 10%, I'd move up. And then, when you do, give it a chance -- there's so much variance in tournaments given that payouts are top heavy. If you find yourself with a negative ROI, try to see how many bad beats and "good beats" you've had. Over the course of 50 tournaments, getting sucked out on the river just twice can make a big difference. Short-term bad luck can definitely make you a loser in the short-run, so if you find your self on the losing end, understand why (luck vs skill) before dropping back down.

on shark scope it is showing my ROI is 215% if I am reading that right. I just won a heads up tournament at 2 dollar buy in and raked in about 90 bucks with the bounties. My Bank roll is sitting at 600 of the houses money now. Maybe I should go up to 20 dollar buy ins. Maybe I am reading my chart wrong IDK my id is The_Bandit on BO Chico. any help would be great Thanks

AJantwan said:

Assuming a decent sample size, if my ROI was above 10%, I'd move up. And then, when you do, give it a chance -- there's so much variance in tournaments given that payouts are top heavy. If you find yourself with a negative ROI, try to see how many bad beats and "good beats" you've had. Over the course of 50 tournaments, getting sucked out on the river just twice can make a big difference. Short-term bad luck can definitely make you a loser in the short-run, so if you find your self on the losing end, understand why (luck vs skill) before dropping back down.

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What is a decent sample size?

AJantwan said:

Assuming a decent sample size, if my ROI was above 10%, I'd move up. And then, when you do, give it a chance -- there's so much variance in tournaments given that payouts are top heavy. If you find yourself with a negative ROI, try to see how many bad beats and "good beats" you've had. Over the course of 50 tournaments, getting sucked out on the river just twice can make a big difference. Short-term bad luck can definitely make you a loser in the short-run, so if you find your self on the losing end, understand why (luck vs skill) before dropping back down.

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As for sample size...it depends.

Check out this tournament variance calculator at https://www.primedope.com/tournament-variance-calculator/

I've seen various figures for what constitutes a realistic ROI, but to be conservative, maybe go with 10-15% (turbos would be lower), plug that in and see if your winnings are in a "likely" range. So for example, if your winnings put you in the 90% range, you're either great, or you've gotten lucky and might want to play some more games to see. If your winnings are in the bottom 10%... you might not want to move up.

As for me, I've seen my ROI change a lot over the course of 100-200 tournaments.

I'm Fine Thanks

Welcome back. The game of poker is also a mental exercise, to know how to seize the opportunities. Bad Beats happen but that is variance of the game. Therefore Low buy-in games is where many dreamers are. I do not want to get rich overnight, but if I get the chance in a big tournament I'll grab it.