The money up top

When I was playing massives (my nickname for MTT NLHEs with a buy in plus entry fee of a mere 1,000 play dollars, nicknamed such because of the massive fields they attract), the money "up top" (i.e., the payout for coming in first) wasn't massive at all. For instance, the largest field of any massive I ever played in was 1,464 players, but the money up top was a paltry $79,238. Puppy food! When I started playing higher BI+EF (buy in plus entry fee) MTT NLHEs, my eyes grew "as big as saucers" (as the saying goes) when I saw how big the money up top could grow to be. For example, the largest field of any $20,000 BI+EF MTT NLHE I've ever played in was 893 players, and the money up top was a whopping $2,470,600. I wanted some of that action! The trouble is, the bigger the percentage of the total prize pool the money up top represents, the worse the scenario is for a steady and skillful player like me. Why? For the simple reason that, to inflate the money up top, money must be stolen from the lower places in the payout structure. That's how you can get situations where players can actually lose money by "making the money". I decided to take a good hard look at my results in the $20,000 BI+EF MTT NLHEs, and the upshot couldn't be clearer - I must stay away from the big up top money tournaments at all costs. Since I make the money at better than a 40% clip, I want every money finish to actually earn me some money. For whatever reason, the tournaments on PokerStars with a buy in of $16,500 and an entry fee of $3,500 have huge money up top, and the lowest "paying" places actually lose players money. The tournaments on PokerStars with a buy in of $18,000 and an entry fee of $2,000 have much more modest money up top, and every money place actually earns players money. Those are the tournaments I'll focus on from here on in.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    58     651  135    52    31100
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    95     315   81    10    85000
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    30     556  117     -        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    56     274   72    65    32000

delta: $68,100
MTT NLHE balance: $828,248
2016 balance: $-371,434
balance: $10,328,930