Game selection is a very important part of a poker player’s arsenal. A very good player can actually be a losing player against the wrong opponents. So choosing the right games to sit in can be the difference between winning and losing. There are essentially two things to avoid in a live poker tournament:
High Vig:Buy-in Ratio
“Small stakes” live tournaments (buy-in of $50-$300) are often a terrible proposition because of the huge entry fee. When a casino spreads a $100 tournament, they won’t make much money off of the players unless they charge a very high entry fee. It is not uncommon for casinos to hold a $125 buy-in tournament where $25 of that money is retained by the casino as a fee. This esssentially means 20% of the prize pool disappears before the cards are ever dealt.
Additionally, these smaller buy-in tournaments usually have a bad structure. Casinos don’t want to spend hours and hours worth of resources on this event when they can cut a few corners to make the tournament end quickly. So not only is the entry fee very high, but the tournament structure is so fast that you don’t have ample time to extract a meaningful edge over your opponents.
In general, it would be wise to avoid playing live tournaments with a buy-in of under $200.
Sharky Fields
Some poker tournaments are to be avoided because of the sharky playing field. World Poker Tour (WPT) events are extremely sharky nowadays since online poker rooms no longer send fishy satellite winners to the events. The WPT is now basically filled with good “regulars” who are tough to gain an edge over.
Even the WSOP in Las Vegas is beginning to get quite tough. The Main Event is still very soft, but many of the preliminary events are filled with solid competition. Casual players no longer participate in these events as much as they used to. Recently, a global recession has only aggrivated this issue.