Tournament Bankroll

Irah

Ok, So after playing online poker for just over one year, I have decided to stop playing cash games, and focus solely on tournaments. I have accounts at all the major sites, and have found that I like poker stars the best, and since they offer the most ( best IMO) tournaments, I will play there.
I have had some tournamnet success there in the past, finishing at several final tables with large fields( > 800), but have never been able to win a tournament outright. So, I have decided to focus 100% of my efforts on playing large MTTs with a max buy in of $20. If I only play one to two a night, what is a reasonable starting bank roll?
I realize the more the better, but I dont have unlimited money, so I'm leaning towards the lower end of acceptable.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

cheers.

funkymunky

I'm probably the last guy to be giving advice, but how about playing cash games for your tourney fees? (I know, you dont want to play them anymore, but it seems like the easiest way to go)

SirWatts

I don't know a rule of thumb for this but in my experience I think you want at least $1000 because you can go on some pretty bad runs playing big multitables. I wouldn't be surprised if the "real" answer is around $2000 because I think 50 buy-ins is ok for small buy-in SNGs but there must be a lot less variance in those than in big multis. I would feel comfortablle on a grand though I think.

Irah

I think I you are right 2000, or more is probably "correct", but I will feel comfortable enough with 1000.

I think Ill also pick up Harrington on Holdem Vol. 1 and 2. Just to study up on my big mtt strategey.

thanks

GTA Poker

If you want to be an online low-limit MTT played I'd sugest learning some other games other than holdem. You get to play smaller fiields, even on stars the omaha games usually have less than 200 or so in them, and this decreases your variance quite a bit...also some variety can be nice when trying to grind through huge fields.

BTW I'd say a great way to start is the $3 rebuys on stars, you get much more dead money in there and a much better return on your investment. Buddy of mine placed 5th the other night for $900 or so.

As for bankroll, I'd say you could likely go a month or so without a significant cash even if you're a good player...you can do the math.

GL!

Tigerscott

I have different advice!

Don't give up cash games yet..

One way to cover the buyins on MTT's is to use cash games.
What I like to do is basically this:

If I wanna play in a 20+2 mtt I'll got make 30 or 40 dollars at a cash game first!  then you got 8$ - 18$ positive BR growth for the day regardless of the mtt result.
7 days later you have enough for a big tourny!

If you can make a minimum of 16$ over the mtt buyin you wanna play at the end of 7 days you have enough to play in a $110!

The Idea behind this is to keep a positive BankRoll growth at all times..
So if you start with 2000$ you have a $3/$6 or $2/$4 Bank roll covered! It's pretty easy to make money at these limits.
If you fail to make the buyin at the cash game do not play in the MTT!! If you loose 40$ in the cash game then throw another 22$ away on a MTT it's very poor money management. Sure you could win you could cash but you could also bust on the 1st hand!

ScottyZ

Mark Blade's generic recommendation in "Professional Poker: The Essential Guide to Playing for a Living" is to have a tournament bankroll of 100 buy-ins.

This excellent book answers just about every bankroll and/or win-rate question you would ever need to know the answer to, and includes plenty of critical discussion of of why generic recommendations, including his own (e.g. 100 buy-ins), are flawed; and how to think about poker bankroll considerations, and poker on the whole, intelligently.

ScottyZ