When is it worth entering a tournament?

[ComboProf]

Let me rephrase the question?

You call up a B&M cardroom and discover they have a
tournament and you find out as much as you can.
In particular you can find out
<ul type="square"> [*]What the buy in is. [*]What the rebuys are.[*]At what levela the Rebuys stop.[*]What the final Rebuy is.[*]What the blinds and Antes are at each level.[*]How long each level lasts.[*]The expected number of players and the number of tables.[*]The number of final positions payed.[*]The expected payouts.[*]How long the tournament is expected to run. [/list]
Using these parameters you decide if its worth your time to
play. My question is which of these parameters are the most
important and what values make it a good or very good tournament
to play.

[Tyler Durden]

Most important to me is how the long the levels are.

[Toro]

If you are a skilled player, the most important factors are the increments of increase of the blind levels and how long each level lasts. If the blinds escalate too fast the Tourney becomes a crap shoot, less attractive for a player with some skill.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

The most critical issues are how weak is the field, and what else can you do with your time.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[ComboProf]

How long do like the levals to be? Whats to short? Whats to long?

[Toro]

Levels: 20 minutes-too short. 45 minutes-just about right

Just my opinion

[jwvdcw]

Those who have mentioned the level length hit the nail right on the head. Additionally, I love playing in big money tourneys that had a lot of satelitte buy-ins, which usually means more bad players.