How many players do you prefer in a multi table tournament

[nummerfire]

Monday night (mid day EST, 6 pm european standard time) I played a 20+2 nl tournament on PokerStars.

There was over 300 players (where do they all come from, there used to be only 100 or so in those tournaments), which i tend to think is to many.

Maybe my EV is better because wíth more players there are more bad players. But I wont get to the money very often. (Maybe I am just bitter, I had a big stack, moved in on a lesser stack with top pair on the flop, he calls and hit his kicker, and later he won an before the flop all in situation against me as a 6:4 dog. Then he proceded to give what used to be my chips to everybody else).

My preference would be either around a 100 players or a single table tournament.

Kim

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The more,the merrier. The way I look at it, if I'm in the zone of playing well and running well, might as well get the prize pool as big as it can get.

One observation. The $20 + 2 on 'Stars last night (8 PM EST)had over 350 people (as opposed to the usual 275). The tournament finished at about the same time as last week which had far fewer people. That tells me the extra players are gambling early, so if you keep your head on straight before the first break, the additional entrants shouldn't make hitting the money any tougher than it already is.

[ohkanada]

Given a choice I would pick somewhere from 80-140.

But in reality it really doesn't matter. The strategy doesn't really change if it is 80 or 839. You still play based on the blinds, your stack size and your opponents stack sizes.

Ken Poklitar

[DannyP]

So far I prefer single table to the big ones. I'm in the money 50%+, and while the payoff isnt huge, it is reliable. But, if I'm going to spend 3+ hours folding almost everything in a multi-table, it may as well be for the biggest $ possible, so let 'em join!

I think the analysis of "it takes the same amount of time = the added players aren't any good" is fallacious, though. The added tables run simultaneously in the low limit rounds and the later rounds seem to move quickly enough that identifying what really is "the same amount of time" is problematic to start with. Also, adding stronger players could actually cut the time, as I would think they are capable of separating the fishies from their $ faster than the average+ player like me can.