The importance of the starting chip stack

Not all tournaments are created equal, even when they have the same buy in. Here are three chief distinguishing factors, given the same buy in:

1. whether or not there is a guarantee

2. the size of the guarantee if there is one

3. the starting chip stack

Let's discuss each in turn:

1. all else being equal, tournaments with a guarantee will always be more popular than tournaments without a guarantee. The reason is simple - if not enough players enter to cover the guarantee, the house still has to cover it. That means that at the end of the late registration period, there may be what is essentially free money floating around in the prize pool - money that has no opponent attached to it. You can't be beaten by players who aren't there :-) In practice, tournaments with a guarantee attract enough players to cover it a huge percentage of the time, but that's okay; every player who enters knows ahead of time the minimum the prize pool will be, so they know up front that playing will be well worth their while.

2. all else being equal, tournaments with a bigger guarantee will always be more popular then tournaments with a smaller guarantee. This one is a no-brainer; the bigger the guarantee, the bigger every payout will be.

3. all else being equal, tournaments with a bigger starting chip stack will always be more popular than tournaments with a smaller starting chip stack. This one is not quite as obvious as #2, but it's just as true. The bigger your starting chip stack, the easier it is to make your tournament last longer; you can wait for premium hands. It's astonishing how little patience some players have; having more patience than your opponents can make you a killing.

Last night, I played two tournaments with a 5 million dollar buy in, but I vastly preferred the first one, since its starting chip stack was 10,000, double the starting chip stack of the second. I didn't make the money in either, but that's fine; I'm happy to bide my time :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     120   20    36         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      65   11    12         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $431,561,468
2022 balance: $346,987,000
blue distance: $10,000,000
balance: $441,830,953