Re: Variable Buy-In tourney: what would you chose?
I think you'd need more info to answer definitively, since it would depend upon 1) payout schedule, 2) your relative skill level vs. field, and 3) size of the field.
An extreme example:
Total # of players = 11
Payouts = 40%/30%/20%/10% of prize pool for 1st-4th
If you buy in for the max $100, it would be possible to be a guaranteed loser even if you win (if the other 10 happen to buy in for $10 you would end up contributing 50% of the toal prize pool). So you wouldn't buy for the max in that scenario, but for some amount less.
In general though you'd obviously want to buy in for the minimum if you are a worse player than the field on average. Barring that, a larger field and/or top-heavy payout structure would nudge you toward buying in for the max.
I'll venture a guess that there would be some tipping point in terms of 1) the max % of prize pool you end up contributing and 2) the min/max % you could win that would make it game-theory correct to buy in for the max, but I'd have no idea how to compute that.
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