Multi-table tourneys: the good, the bad and the ugly

There are many ways to play online, but few (okay, none) offer the promise of the big pay day like multi-table tournaments (MTTS). You can spend a couple hours at a ring game or two, where doubling your stack is cause for celebration (as you get raked into oblivion); while away for an hour or so at a five or ten dollar one table sit-n-go and take down $22.50 and $45 respectively for outlasting the other eight competitors; or you can pony up as little as $5 to take a shot at a cool thousand or more.

With dirt-cheap satellites available for virtually all of the bigger buy in MTTs, you can conceivably win tens of thousands of dollars for an entry fee so small that it's almost statistically insignificant, so ignore the significance of that $2 satellite, 'cause there isn't any.

If you’re like me, the prospect of turning $5 into a grand is quite alluring. If you’re ready to conquer the world of MTTs, or at least maximize the potential payout for your scant few dollars, you need to be aware of a few things.

The Good 

Huge paydays. You can bust out twenty MTTs on the first hand, make a final table on your next attempt, and you’re still significantly ahead…but maybe fold the first hand once in a while. Fail a lot, make a final table once, and all your sins and past transgression are wiped away, not to mention your bankroll can suddenly get all Herculean on your ass.

I recently turned $7 into $350, which is simply ridiculous math, so don’t even bother.  While it's not impossible to do this playing ring games or one table sit-n-gos, pack a lunch, because it’s going to take a long time. Turning $7 into $350 took seven hours; thanks to MTTs, I made $50 per hour, at least on that particular hour. We’ll choose to ignore my less impressive results for purposes of this article pls/k/thx.

The Bad

Making a final table in a field of 700 players will usually take between four and five hours.  However, unlike a ring game in which you bust out, there is no rebuy – if you get knocked out one off the money, you wasted hours of your life just to lose your buy in so gg loser.

Also, to outlast such a large number of opponents, you’ll have to dodge plenty of maniacs who will raise your blinds every turn, go all in at any time (and often for no discernable reason), and in between, you’ll be folding a lot. You need patience and discipline to fold the chaff, resist the all in egg-ons of either crazy or wily opponents, and lastly, you’ll need to win your share of coin flips.

The Ugly

You can play tremendous poker for three and a half hours, make one mistake, and fall from the top ten to the bottom ten, with very little hope of climbing back.

I was recently dealt KK on the small blind. Everyone folded around to me, I three bet, and the big blind raised all in (about ½ of my stack). After I called, it was revealed that the big blind had, you guessed it: AA. I’ve been playing quite a while now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen KK and AA together in the blinds. Of course I lost, took a large hit, and wasn’t able to recover.  But I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t push in that situation? One instance of bad timing, one huge suckout, or an extended crappy run of cards at a hyper-aggressive table, and you, too, could meet the rail.

For the previous three hours I was playing out of my mind: making excellent laydowns, snapping off bluffs and taking down pots with absolute garbage. Every decision I made was the right one. But then.

So… You can make big money for a small financial investment, but it’ll cost you a lot of time… and you’d better be prepared to gear down and play your best poker, make good bets, calls and better laydowns, win coin flips and dodge big suckouts, maniacs and suicidal players…

On second thought, don’t bother with MTTs, keep playing your ring games and paying the rake that generates profit for the site, which can then continue to operate, which can then continue to hold MTTS, so I can continue to brave the elements and enter them to my heart’s, and bankroll’s content.