poker tournament formula

More poker competition leads to greater prizes

When online poker first started hitting our screens faster than a Renault Formula 1 crash there were perhap three or four poker rooms that really stood out. They got there first and quite rightly took ownership of the majority of players. Those poker rooms are still around today although they are starting to feel the brunt of other poker rooms that have now come onto the horizon as players seek fresh competition, new tournaments and a new experience.

The bigger poker rooms provide the bigger more world renowned tournaments but the smaller poker rooms are making their mark by offering different types of tournament with different styled tournaments and even better freeroll entry to gain these players. Some stay, others do not, some even have so many poker sites bookmarked they probably have difficulty in remebering all of their passwords, you could these players serial pokerists!

New poker rooms such as Cool Hand, Lucky Ace and WildJack have looked at the bigger of the poker giants and decided that they too could perhaps compete in this area by not offering the obvious in poker prizes but also good loyalty bonuses for sticking around including points picked up during gameplay which can then be used to purchase such items as t-shirts, mugs or even free entry to larger tournaments.

The question is how long can these prizes keep getting bigger and bigger? There will be a certain structure that will need to be adhered to else it could bring the game down, certain poker rooms obviously have great TV rights meaning there are likely to still be around in the distant future but the smaller poker rooms must be careful not to push to far to get a larger percentage of the world poker market.

The top 10 online poker rooms will always be basking in the sun as with every 18th birthday comes a posible new poker player who perhap will join their site, whether the smaller poker sites get their first is the main question that will remain unanswered for the forseeable future.

About the Author

Ben Carso is a freelance article writer currently working on the online casino list.

Earning Money in Multi-Table Poker Tournaments

Earning Money Playing Multi-Table Poker Tournaments?

Tournaments are the life and blood of poker.  Most new poker players are attracted to tournament poker. And events such as the WSOP and EPT have proliferated the glitz and glamour of poker around the world. 

However the question over how much you can expect to make playing tournaments has always been speculated.  To first answer this, we must identify how we can calculate our tournament earnings.

Calculating Earnings in Poker/Tournaments

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 Cash game players have traditionally been able to measure their success and profitability through the famous BB/100 scenario (i.e. how many big blinds they win per 100 hands sitting at the tables) or BB/hour (how many big blinds they win per hour).

However in tournaments a different calculations/formula is required.  This takes the shape of either your ROI (return on investment) or ITM (In the money finish).  Your ROI can be calculated by your average profit rate from each tournament.  If you play $10 tournaments and earn an average profit of $1, then your ROI would be 10%.  In conclusion, this method is the most widely used for measuring someone's success in tournaments because it shows how profitable they are on average.

ICM %, on the other hand, is an entirely different method of calculating your success in tournaments.  Rather than calculating your average profitability, it instead shows how successful you are a finishing "in the money" in tournaments on average (that is, in what percentage of games you finish high enough to receive a payoff).

Both of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages.  For example, your ROI can vary significantly if the payoff structure for a tournament is top heavy. As well as this, your ROI is a percentage of your entry fee, and doesn't really paint a true picture of how much someone is earning altogether (for example a 30% ROI in a $3 MTT could be worse than a 10% ROI in a $50 MTT).

So, How Much Can I Earn in Tournaments?

Of course this question depends highly on a number of factors including poker tournament strategy, field sizes, how often you play, tournament structures, and tournament stakes.  However we can definitely provide realistic projections for how much you can make, through some simple observations and the calculations above.

A completely new beginner who brushes up on basic tournament strategy can expect 10% ROI in the long-term.  If he plays only 5 x $1 games per week (around 260 per year), he can expect to earn $26/year.

A good player can expect to earn 20% in MTTs.  If he plays 10 x $5 games per week (around 540 games per year; with a total of $27,000 in entry fees), he will earn around $5,400/year.

A professional poker player can earn up to 50% ROI in tournaments.  In 30 games per week at the higher $100 buy-in level, he can make $78,000/yr. 

About the Author

Find where to play the best value overlay poker tournaments here.