ITH Poker Forum

[Bullajami]

My brother from another mother, Piscivorous, and I have both been working on our MTT game for the past several months. Being cheapskates, we stay almost exclusively below $10+1 buy-ins. Fueled by years of bonus chasing, we are always looking for the best value for our poker money. He and I have been sharing thoughts and notes on where the best cheap MTTs can be found for months now, and we recently decided that:
1) we should share our findings with other ITHers, and
2) find out what other ITHers know about good cheap tournaments that we do not.

Here is my initial dump for the tournaments I play regularly. I can only play in the evening US east coast time, so all of my suggestions will be falling into that time zone:

Absolute Poker:
I like the 7 pm $2K GTD; it's a $5 freezeout (no rebuys). There are normally about 410 - 450 entrants, so it normally goes over the GTD prize pool. It pays out to 45 places when the number of entrants falls in that range. (Tonight there were 440 entrants and the lowest payout was $8.00)

AP also runs a $2 freezeout at 8:15 pm every night. It normally gets from 500 - 650 entrants, paying down to 63 places. It is full of donks who play it like a freeroll, and once they are gone it is full of tighties that you can run over.
.

And my last AP entry is the 9 pm $8K GTD $3 rebuy and add-on. Because it starts so late (and I have a real job) I can only play in this one on Fridays and Saturdays (and holidays). Usually 650-750 entrants at those times. Unlimited rebuys the first hour and single or double add-on at the first break. On the weekend there are normally about 2,000 rebuys and add-ons, and the prize pool always exceeds the $8K guarantee. If you can catch cards in the first hour, you are virtually assured action and some doubles and triples. Because there are so many rebuys there are lots of chips in this tournament and the blinds/stack ratio favors the better players after the first break. I managed a second place finish recently, so my ROI in this tourney is a little over 2100%

That's enough for one post. I have more to add later.

[mash_tun]

There are also great values to be had at Bodog in the $10 and less range. Many of the guaranteed MTTs will also have good overlays more often than not. Usually one starts in this buyin range every 2h or so.

One that I will mention specifically--even though it is above $10 buyin--is the $2.5K guaranteed that runs every morning at 10am EST. This is a superstack MTT for $15+1 that usually ends up having about 150-200 players. It starts you with 5000 in chips and 5/10 initial blinds. BIG value if you want to play a very slow MTT on the (relative) cheap. But, because of the relatively small field, it still finishes in about 4-5h.

[Piscivorous]

When Bull and I started discussing what we wanted to accomplish with the small buy-in tournament posts, I was immediately eager to start sharing my favorite spots and small buy-in MTTs with the ITH community. Although I know that it might upset the delicate donkfest eco-structure I call my stomping grounds, I can’t help but realize that added infusion of ITHers into the realm of MTT poker is more important than worrying whether some ITHer just stole some chips off me.
My initial offerings are from my favorites on various sites,

Absolute Poker:

$1500 Guaranteed Rebuy, 5PM EST, $1 entry fee, with unlimited $1 rebuys during the first hour. This one has a nice added boost of a double add-on option at 1st break of 2000 chips each [4,000 if both add-ons taken], each costing $1.I will generally rebuy when I am first seated and dependent on luck and circumstance, will add-on twice. It’s not uncommon for me to spend $4 on this tournament, I have spent as much as $9 in the past. Words of warning: Lots of donkeys in this. You will also see some tremendous beats. Shrug them off. 1st place runs between $375 and $450 on average. Also, this tournament will take some time to start dispelling the bad players. Be patient. I’ve made the money a few times, but never deep.

Bodog Poker:

$3,000 Guaranteed Freezeout, 4PM EST. Buy-in is $7+$0.70 and guarantee is never reached. Expect somewhere between $400 and $600 in overlay. Players range from sheer donkeys [or is that sheared donkeys?] to some decent players. I’ll play this occasionally, when I can fit it into my busy ITH work schedule.

Full Tilt Poker:

I like Full Tilt because not only do they run a lot of MTTs, but their software is very good and MTT menus are easy to manipulate. They run many $2 to $10 MTTs daily with payouts for 1st ranging from $200 to $1,000. This translates to roughly 300-500 players in these generic freezeouts and you’ll start getting in the money towards the end of the 2nd hour. The $10 MTTs have some very good ABC players, but if you take notes, you’ll start pulling in a good read on them. One drawback to Full Tilt is their lack of good cheap guarantees. Players will need to usually fork-up $26 or $69 buy-in for guaranteed MTTs running from $3K to $18K. Unless you satellite in, they are out of the reach of the players we are focusing on here. There is one exception:
Full Tilt’s Midnight Madness. Midnight EST This is a freezeout MTT with a buy-in of $10+$1 and a guaranteed prizepool of $8,000. It’s never $8K. It is usually $12-15K nightly. It gets traffic that high. Last night’s 1st place payout was nearly $6,000.

Poker Host:

I’ve only recently re-introduced myself to the wonder that is MicroGaming [Prima] poker. I’ve played a little over a dozen MTTs at Poker Host and love the results I am seeing. My favorites are both the $3+$0.50 rebuys and freezeouts, having had enormous success at each. These run throughout the day. I have played a total of 7 of these since re-joining Prima in late May. I have final tabled four of them. This is the result of absolutely horrible players and unskilled maniacs.

Poker.com:

Poker.com runs tournaments daily from freerolls to their Sunday $20,000 Guarantee. They generally don’t see more than 100 to 200 players with the lower end more predominant. They have some very good freerolls, however. Their best tournament, by far, is their $55+$5 Sunday $20,000 Guarantee. They generally see around 500 players in this. It runs each Sunday at 5PM EST [Be careful, they haven’t adjusted for Daylight Savings]. Why am I telling you about this huge buy-in tournament? Because my favorite Poker.com tournament is:

The $2 Rebuy Turbo satellites that run a few times daily. The fields are generally in the 25-30 range, and they always guarantee one $60 satellite coupon. More likely, they will usually garner, especially on Saturdays, three $60 coupons and 2-3 $11 coupons. The play is so bad, that despite not being a turbo player, I have grabbed four of those $60 coupons in 6 tries. Then you can play the very lucrative $20K on Sunday and have a shot at a nice payday.

Poker Stars:

Stars has a lot of great low buy-in MTTs. They also have such large fields that getting into the money, let alone the good money takes a lot of patience, luck and determination. Narrowing down to one choice is impossible, so I will narrow to 3:

$10,000 Guarantee, $3+$0.30 Rebuy. This runs daily at 11:15AM EST and the guarantee is always surpassed. Sometimes the guarantee swells as high as $30,000 or more on Sundays. Lots of donkeys. Although rebuying can take you over our $10+$1 mark, the ultra-lucrative nature of this tournament makes it worth the occasional times you will pay more than that.

$8+$0.80 Freezeout. Although I believe there are two of these daily, the one I play is the 4PM EST daily. There are a number of reasons really like this tournament. The weird buy-in was what first attracted me. Then I realized a few things about it. First, it usually flies under the radar of the better, serious players, having a sub $10 buy-in. Second, because of this, the player pool is more in line with players you can beat consistently. Third the fields are somewhat smaller than the average Stars MTT. Finally, the payouts are pretty decent.

$15,000 Guarantee, $10+$1 Freezeout. This starts each day at 7PM EST. This is definitely one to graduate to. You will definitely run into some very competent players in this. You also need to make sure your game is such that chip accumulation and aggression are second nature to you to play consistently. Although I consider myself a good low nuy-in player, I only take occasional shots at this. I have had a few decent results in this.

Ultimate Bet:

$800 Guarantee, $1+$0.10 Rebuy. Runs daily at 5PM EST, and the guarantee increase to $1500 on the weekend. I have averaged over one Final table here each of the last seven months. This is my Ultimate Bet bread and butter. This tournament is schizophrenic. Some days the field will barely number 100. Other days as much as 400. What makes this rebuy so good [and I have to imagine all of their rebuys], is that any tournament player should see his/her chips over 10K starting the 2nd hour. There are reasons for this, and I will walk you through them:

1. Ultimate Bet offers double re-buys any time you are at or lower than the starting $1500 chips. Initially there is a trick to this. If you rebuy when they set you down initially [sometimes as early as 15 minutes before start], DO NOT rebuy. You will be offered only $1500 in chips for $1. Wait until the first hand is dealt. “what if I get dealt a great starting hand like aces? If you do, you’ll normally double or more up and won’t need the rebuy anyway. More likely, you’ll get some off-suited trash that you’ll be folding anyway. By waiting you’ll be offered the same dropdown menu for rebuying as normal. However, click on the down arrow and you’ll be offered a double rebuy for $2 and you’ll have $4500 chips in front of you. If you bust during the rebuy period, make a single rebuy for $1500 chips followed by a double rebuy and get back into the game with $4500.

2. Ultimate Bet offers a double add-on during the break, in the same type of drop-down menu. Click the arrow and grab your $6,000 chips for $2.

3. You should have $10,500 chips or more going into the 2nd hour. And you don’t even need to have played any hands. The blinds are 50/100 leading off the second hour. That’s 105 BB. If you prefer HoH’s M, that’s an M of 70! So get in there and play poker.

As I come across more of my favorites, I’ll add them to this list. Perhaps somewhere down the road, we can split this off the MTT forum. Until, then I’ll pressure Poker_Elmo to sticky us.

[maf66]

Full Tilt Poker:

I like Full Tilt because not only do they run a lot of MTTs, but their software is very good and MTT menus are easy to manipulate. They run many $2 to $10 MTTs daily with payouts for 1st ranging from $200 to $1,000. This translates to roughly 300-500 players in these generic freezeouts and you’ll start getting in the money towards the end of the 2nd hour. The $10 MTTs have some very good ABC players, but if you take notes, you’ll start pulling in a good read on them. One drawback to Full Tilt is their lack of good cheap guarantees. Players will need to usually fork-up $26 or $69 buy-in for guaranteed MTTs running from $3K to $18K. Unless you satellite in, they are out of the reach of the players we are focusing on here. There is one exception:

I am also a big fan of FTP. My favourite MTT is the $11k Guar which has a $24+2 buy-in. However I play quite a lot of the $6+0.6 or $8+0.7 (turbo) 2 table SNGs in order to win $26 satelitte tokens, so I can get in cheap.

If you fancy some practice, but want to avoid a crapshoot, then try one of the 90 man SNGs at FTP. I decided to try one of those out this week. They are double-stacked, so you get $3000 in chips instead of the usual $1500 and the blinds starts at 15/30 IIRC. However, it's amazing how many players still donk off a 100BB starting stack so quickly. They also have a 20% payout structure. A good chance to play some 'real' poker without risking too much of your stack.

$8+$0.80 Freezeout. Although I believe there are two of these daily, the one I play is the 4PM EST daily. There are a number of reasons really like this tournament. The weird buy-in was what first attracted me. Then I realized a few things about it. First, it usually flies under the radar of the better, serious players, having a sub $10 buy-in. Second, because of this, the player pool is more in line with players you can beat consistently. Third the fields are somewhat smaller than the average Stars MTT. Finally, the payouts are pretty decent.

I've played these a couple of times, and they're not bad. I admit, I had to do a double-take when I first saw them to check it wasn't a rebuy or satelitte.

This thread is a good idea. Maybe the results could be put into a sticky or table perhaps.

[Zool1]

One drawback to Full Tilt is their lack of good cheap guarantees.

There is the $2500 GTD every day at 8am EST, which is great if your current occupation is "Stay at home dad (to the cat)" From what I've seen before, it usually lands somewhere between 300-400 players, with around $1000 for 1st.

[loyo1]

Gonna sneak this in quick from work. Forgive typos, and times given are from memory (could be off). Also, all times are CDT.

Carbon has a 5.50 with $1000 guarantee every nite at 6:30 CDT. It often has a whisker of overlay.

If you are willing to spend a tad more, both 16.50's at 7:30 and 10:45 CDT have guarantees. $2000 for the early and $1500 for the late. Last nite there were 110 players in the early, and 85 in the late. Let you guys calculate the overlay.

Through the day, they have an assortment of small buyins, some with guarantess. Have no idea why, but at 8 am CDT, they have both a $200 and $250, both with a 2.20 buyin. At 9:15 there is a 4.40 with $500 guarantee. There is something around noon I think, and another around 2-2:30 that is odd----not a turbo, but it has either 7 or 8 minute blinds instead of the usual 10.

Also, for the first 14 days after an initial deposit, you can have a crack at the daily first depositor's freerolls---$500 prizepool, fields in 180-200 range. There is no playthrough required in order to cashout winnings from these---you just have to leave the money in you account for 7 days.

The old Wingows (haven't checked out the new version yet) has a slew of tiny buyin (1.10, 2.20, 4.40, 7.70) buyin tournaments, a couple with guarantees during North American primetime hours.

[Bullajami]

There are also great values to be had at Bodog in the $10 and less range.

I remember that from when I was playing there long ago. I am somewhat avoiding them as they gooned me on some sports betting affiliate issues several months ago. But, I would be willing to play there again if I were offered a reload.

[Bullajami]

This thread is a good idea. Maybe the results could be put into a sticky or table perhaps.

I'll see what I can do with my awesome magical site admin powers.

[mfreemba]

Ultimate Bet:

$800 Guarantee, $1+$0.10 Rebuy. Runs daily at 5PM EST, and the guarantee increase to $1500 on the weekend. I have averaged over one Final table here each of the last seven months. This is my Ultimate Bet bread and butter. This tournament is schizophrenic. Some days the field will barely number 100. Other days as much as 400. What makes this rebuy so good [and I have to imagine all of their rebuys], is that any tournament player should see his/her chips over 10K starting the 2nd hour. There are reasons for this, and I will walk you through them:

1. Ultimate Bet offers double re-buys any time you are at or lower than the starting $1500 chips. Initially there is a trick to this. If you rebuy when they set you down initially [sometimes as early as 15 minutes before start], DO NOT rebuy. You will be offered only $1500 in chips for $1. Wait until the first hand is dealt. “what if I get dealt a great starting hand like aces? If you do, you’ll normally double or more up and won’t need the rebuy anyway. More likely, you’ll get some off-suited trash that you’ll be folding anyway. By waiting you’ll be offered the same dropdown menu for rebuying as normal. However, click on the down arrow and you’ll be offered a double rebuy for $2 and you’ll have $4500 chips in front of you. If you bust during the rebuy period, make a single rebuy for $1500 chips followed by a double rebuy and get back into the game with $4500.

2. Ultimate Bet offers a double add-on during the break, in the same type of drop-down menu. Click the arrow and grab your $6,000 chips for $2.

3. You should have $10,500 chips or more going into the 2nd hour. And you don’t even need to have played any hands. The blinds are 50/100 leading off the second hour. That’s 105 BB. If you prefer HoH’s M, that’s an M of 70! So get in there and play poker.

I played in this tournament for the first time last Sunday...I played nothing but solid ABC TAG poker for the first hour (I did catch some good cards) and had over 23k in chips heading into the second hour all for an investment of $4 (I was in about 8th place out of 345 at this point). I hit a set on a loose wild player to win a big pot...and another player at my table taunted him in chat and that sent him on mega-tilt and he started going all-in preflop with any two and then doing the rebuy and double rebuy to get another 4500 chips...after the first hour I used poker tracker and he had done about 25 rebuys+addons...I might add he was out of the tourney early in the second hour. Unfortunately I went card dead in the second hour and I also made a couple of very poor plays that cost me about 10k in chips and I ended the tourny in 77th place. But as Piscivorous said this is a tourney with an excellent struture and lots of wild bad play....It is a cheap tourney that is +EV if you play well and I plan to play it again often on the weekends.

[PauliF]

can this be a sticky please

[Bullajami]

can this be a sticky please

Anything for you Champ!

[PauliF]

LOL

love my new title

[jrspm]

We should do some sort of fun MTT challenge involving only the tournies in this thread.

[Piscivorous]

We should do some sort of fun MTT challenge involving only the tournies in this thread.

I have actually been thinking of pitching an IPOY [Internet Player of the Year] Junior Circuit for next year. Buy-ins of under $16 or so, on a daily/weekly basis, where those of us who haven't improved our bankrolls to become fixtures on the regular IPOY can still be a part of an IPOY-type structured environment.

However, for the rest of the year, what do you suggest? Should we target something for August?

[clabbers]

Would love to see IPOY by game - Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, HORSE, Razz ...