Maximizing tourney ROI

Something I've been wondering about but haven't seen much discussion here. I'm sure it is something serious tournament players consider.


You've got a ticket to the 1100. 100 for the fee and 30 for the staff so 970 to the prize pool for approx 12% 'rake'. 600 players so prize pool just short of 600k. Min cash is 1800 I believe. 88% of the players get 0. 12% get this or better. I think 2% get 18k or better. If you are the luckiest/best player, you get approx 110k after 3 days of work.


Some idiot offers you 1800 for your ticket. Basically, you can do the equivalent of a min-cash with 0 risk and 0 effort. If you turn this down, you are exchanging something worth 1800 to participate in something where your share of the prize pool starts at 970. Are you agreeing to an effective 46% rake if you play?


At what point does a serious player sell his ticket?*


You can further complicate this if you have sold some of your action at a healthy markup. Investors probably aren't interested in a 50-75% ROI. They want the big score, even though this is extermely unlikely. To them it is like playing the lottery. If you sell, they might not invest in you next time, even though they make more money in this case than 90+% of investors. Do you care?


Now, move this tourney to Vegas. You won't pay taxes on your profit from selling the ticket but you will if you win anything in the tourney (ignoring the 5000 threshold for now). At what point do you sell now?


Has anyone considered any of this?



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Comments

  • i haven't really put a lot of thought into it, but after some recent talk on here lately it did come to mind.

    would be interesting to consider just grinding the "easy" satellites for a bunch of tickets and just selling them all for above value. idk, it seems viable.

    EDIT: although it would have to be only for tournaments that sell out, so that would be one hindrance.
  • I think that the fact that people will pay over face value for entry into a poker tournament proves that there are still a lot of stupid poker players out there.
  • moose wrote: »
    I think that the fact that people will pay over face value for entry into a poker tournament proves that there are still a lot of stupid poker players out there.

    That makes the tourney more attractive!

    So at what price do you sell? This tells me what kind of rake you think is beatable...

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  • if they have the same ticket policy next year at Fallsview, I definitely will buy a few $1k seats and just re-sell them. Its a good way to freeroll into the tournament. Of course you will get the friend discount :)
  • Why freeroll? Pump those profits into a game with something less than a 50% effective rake.

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  • If I wasn't committed to my entry (as I won it through OPT), I would've sold for less than 1800
  • It's an interesting discussion to have. I would definitely sell it . . . and it would not require $1800.00, either. If I won entry through a satellite (what was the cheapest for the $1100.00 that would get you a spot directly?), then face value is a profit, right? Wes's entry (via OPT) would be wasted on my alleged "skills" so I would consider transferring my "win" for increased equity (were that allowed by the rules, of course).
  • There are people already doing this. Either buy a $1100 seat or win it through a satellite. Sell it for $1500 (you can buy like 4 tickets and do this for an easy $1600 profit), then buy a $2500 seat for $2300. Then sell off 40-50% action with or without markup. Cheapest way of playing a $2500 tournament.

    Only at Fallsview, and only in Ontario this happens every year. Thank you AGCO.
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