How much does size of the field matter?

[IgorSmiles]

Playing in a tournament with a field of 1000 should be twice as hard to beat as a field of 500. But is it? And assuming the same percentage of the field is paid. Is it equally difficult to cash regardless of field size?

Should be equally difficult since in a 500 person tourny ~50 will get paid and in a 1000 tourny ~100 will. The toughness of the field really depends on the tournament though I think.

I think that your odds obviously decrease but not as drastically as you imply.

You're not actually busting out the extra 500 players yourself, so I don't think you can use a simple linear multiplier (2x) to determine your odds. If that were true, it would take twice as long to complete a tournament when the field is doubled, and I know that isn't the case.

There are also other variables such as the skill and experience of the additional 500 players that will play a more important factor in determining the difficulty to money. Did they all buy-in directly (much tougher field if at $100+9) or did they qualify through satellites (the $200+15 weeklys could be softer even with the higher buy-in).

I'm not one of MTT's math guys, so I could be wrong. This might even be better posted in the Probability board.

John

[SheepCookers]

I think the size of the field matters more in the payout vs getting in the money since most torneys pay top couple of spots most of the pool. So you have a higher chance to win less money in a smaller field.

[IgorSmiles]

Maybe the question should be, how does the size of the field effect your EV? And in what ways?