Tournament Entry Budget - Where would you play?

Sarge85 · #1 10-11-2004, 11:11 AM

I want to play tournaments -
(but have no prior experience)

I want to be better at tournaments. Both SnGs, and MTTs. Hell I'll even say it - I want to play at a WSOP table. If I do - it will because I've won some satelites - not because I'm going to fork over $10K.

Anyway - I've decieded to order a few books - well at least one for sure: 2+2's Tournament Book. (Any other "must haves"? - I have all the applicable "must have" Limit books)

Secondly - I'm giving myself a modest MTT tourney budget of $100 a month.

Do you all have a set schedule of tourneys you follow? - If you only had $100 to spend a month - how would you do it? I'm thinking I want to stick to the $XXXX Gurantee type tourneys right?

Also - If I'm just learning, should I break up some of my $100 and dedicate it to SnG play?

I know this is very random, but any thoughts would be helpful.

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Shilly · #2 10-11-2004, 02:12 PM

I would use the $100 to play strictly SNGs, hone your skills there, and use your winnings from those to fund the bigger MTTs. Your SNG practice could also help you in one table satellites for the larger tournaments.

Che · #3 10-11-2004, 02:29 PM

I started playing poker with a budget of $100 total and I played the Stars $1/$2/$3 buyin tourneys exclusively until I got comfortable.

After I got comfortable, I started playing $5.50 sng's and I rewarded myself with the Sunday night $22 tourney when I had a good week. Eventually, I gave the Stars $11 rebuy a shot and had some immediate success (luckily) and was off to the races. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

You might try a similar approach, but spending $100/month on $3 tourneys is rather difficult even if you never win a dime, so you could also play some $5.50-$11 buyins on a more regular basis. I think UB has quite a few of these as does FTP, although I'm not really sure.

Good luck,
Che

Roman · #4 10-11-2004, 04:16 PM

100 is very inadequate for MTTs unless you play the 1-3$ ones. I would start with the 5$ sngs, and take half of your weekly profits to MTTs for the next week.

Sarge85 · #5 10-11-2004, 04:30 PM

[ QUOTE ]
100 is very inadequate for MTTs unless you play the 1-3$ ones. I would start with the 5$ sngs, and take half of your weekly profits to MTTs for the next week.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why do you say that?

There seem to be several $5, $10, $20 tourneys out there, some with a $20,000 guaurantee.

I thought I might also do some qualifers into the bigger tournaments as well.

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Roman · #6 10-11-2004, 05:05 PM

the variance in these is so high that playing them with such a short bankroll isn't too smart.

AllUcanEatBby · #7 10-11-2004, 05:24 PM

100 is too small, i would recommend 200$ and play 5$ sng's on stars and the 1, 2 and 3 $ multi tables

Airpoaneman · #8 10-11-2004, 05:38 PM

Okay, honestly, with 100 bucks you cant aford to play ANY MTT's, SNG's but honestly if you have never played SNG's before...you probabally will go broke, until you find out how to play them. So play slowly, ONE TABLE AT A TIME!!! I play about 50 SNG's a weekend off $50.00 a week. So as long as you learn how to play them you will do fine.

Good luck!

Sarge85 · #9 10-11-2004, 05:47 PM

I may not have been clear enough.

I have played SnGs - but more in passing, and don't consider myself a "serious" SnG player. I don't have any hard numbers. I can get to 4th very consistently, 3rd and 2nd occasionally, but its very rare I'll take it home.

When I said $100, that wouldn't be my entire "roll", just what I feel like wagering in any given month.

I'd primarily would like to do MTTs, but I like the idea of doing more SnG's to get more final table experience.

I'm a solid low limit player ($1/$2 and $2/$4).

I was looking to get advice on where the best overlay was for tournaments. As well as advice for additional resources.

So far every suggestion has been good, and I think I'm going to focus hard on SnGs, with a spattering of some inexpensive MTTs.

Keep the suggestions coming...

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Lurshy · #10 10-11-2004, 08:40 PM

Paradise Poker has a nightly $5 buy-in MTT believe it is 11pm est. Usually gets a few hundred people. There are others earlier in the day as well. You could play 20 of those a month.

Satellites can be fun. But they tend to move very quickly (some as fast as 6 minutes per level) also if there are rebuys, you are at a serious disadvantage if you do not intend to rebuy. If you do play rebuy tourneys, Play very tight until rebuy period is over, look for premium hands that hit the flop. People tend to want to see flops and hang early in cheap rebuy tourney's, but as they are going to reload if they lose, they can afford it. Same is true for some of the higher guareenteed tourney's you may get into via the satellite, as these are often rebuys as well.

Keep it under control. The buy-ins can quickly eat up a healthy bank-roll. The variance as other folks mentioned is extremely high. And there is nothing like a Win in a tourney that gets you pushing beyond your set limits...Don't go beyond the 100 (or what you set) even if you hit. You will just give back the winnings. I tripled my bankroll in a cheap tourney. Upped my buy-ins / ring limits. Tripled it again. Upped my limits again, and was busted in two months. Now I am rebuilding and keeping my tourney's to a bare minimum.