The least bad way to register a 0th place

As I've stated many times before, I hate 0th places. There is a sure-fire way to avoid them, but I don't have the patience to avail myself of it as often as I should. All you need to do is wait until there's only one minute left in the late registration period before joining the tournament. That virtually guarantees that the late registration period will expire before you come anywhere close to hitting the rail. Last night, the only 6max on offer at the time I was ready to play poker had two things going against it:

1. it was a toy train

2. it hadn't started yet

Still, those disadvantages were more than offset by the fact that it was a 6max. As I think I've also stated before, I never want to play 9max again. So, what's the least bad way to register a 0th place? By playing a tournament with a lower buy in than your usual one :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000   5000       6      57   15     -        0

delta: $-50,000
MTT NLHE balance: $31,127,768
2021 balance: $7,756,000
blue distance: $50,000
balance: $85,421,453