Friday, March 23, 2007

Tournament BuyIns are Strange

When I played the 26k Guaranteed this week at Full Tilt, I selected it on a whim mostly. I was looking at the tournament list, it was coming up in 15 minutes, and the fee was about what I had won in cash games over the weekend. I thought the worst and most like thing that could happen is that I would end up with a backroll about the same as it was the Friday before. So, not thought really given to the buyin or how it related to the guarantee.

Looking over the guaranteed tournaments last night, it struck me as odd the way some of them are priced:

$26 for the 26K
$75 for the 22k (double stack)
$26 for the 3k (limit)
$163 for the 40k (double stack)
$26 for the 19k
$26 for the 2k (limit Razz)
$33 for the 14k (rebuy)
$11 for the 10k (rebuy)
$109 for the 30k (double stack 6 max)

I just do not see a pattern to the buyin to guarantee ratio. What are their goals when setting the buyins for these things? Or are they just experimenting to see what gets them the best return?

1 comment:

KajaPoker said...

They don't make any sense. The only thing with the higher buy-ins is that you get less players and higher payouts to the final table. It's also a function of the time they run these. They change the guarantee from time to time to match the demand. Good job on taking 3rd!