I have been having real trouble with this myself.

I have heard things on EV such as "if you are better (skill wise) than 1/2 the field... your EV is twice the buy-in"...

However, I'm having a very hard time quantifying my results. Last week I played very well/ got good cards and took first in a 2300 person PP MTT. That's like $5,000 for 5 hours of work.... if I'm just being results oriented... this one win will scew my numbers for a long time to come.

I wonder how the pros track/justify their time and expense to play in tournaments.

Is it soley a "I'm in the black or red for this year" type of mentality.