Value poker tournaments
June 18, 2007
Let’s take things one at a time. First of all you must understand what the term value tournament refers to. In my opinion the term is rather self-explanatory. But jut to make sure, it refers to getting full value for your buy in. These games are beneficial and highly profitable. Numerous online sites offer such tournaments, more so those who don’t have the huge numbers of players online all the time. The buy-in is fair most of the times. But the poker rooms add money to it and it can go as high as $800 for a large guaranteed payment tournament. What makes it a lucrative option is the fact that the number of registered players is minimal at best.
Let’s take a look at an example. You decided to play the $2500 GP at a $20 buy in. You can easily see the registration go up to well over 500, on some of the larger networks. There are 540 players in the tournament. By using the basic payout structure, you would get a 20.5% payout of the prize pool if you place 1st. You would thus receive a payout of $2624. You won well over $2000 and all you had to do was pay the $20 buy in. There’s no doubt about it, these tournaments can prove to be very profitable. But can you do this on a regular basis? Do you have what it takes to win again and again?
Let’s take a look at another example. This time a smaller room is involved. A smaller, low traffic room is offering an $8000 GP at a $20 buy in. There are 150 players in the tournament. By using the basic payout structure, you would get a 26% payout of the prize pool if you place 1st. You would thus receive a payout of $2080.
I am guessing that right about now you are saying something like this: Why bother with a low traffic room when I can make a larger profit on the other site? After all, the profit is $600 larger on the bigger room. This is where value comes in. The high traffic room offers a huge prize pool that looks appealing, but in order to get it you will have to face some serious competition. This can prove to be a daunting task at a registrant of 500+ players. At the low traffic room on the other hand your odds of winning first prize look better. There are fewer challengers, and for the same buy in you get to win a prize that is almost equal to the one offered by the larger room. It is obvious that you get better value at the smaller room.
You will have to shop around in order to find the best value tournaments. Do not dismiss large games altogether. Instead try to look at all the aspects of every game, for money management purposes. You can spend all your bankroll very quickly by playing a field of 500+ players every tournament.
