Hi, this is my first post. I am mainly a cash game player. I have been playing semi-professionaly for about 2 years, and I would consider myself a grinder, i mainly play 2-5nl. Over the years i had some success in low buy in daily tournments, mostly with poor structures, but i only played once in a while, in between cash games. This year i decided to concentrate more in live tournments, mostly $300-500 buy ins with better structures, pre- lim , events. Basically my question is, because i am unfamilar with the swings of live tournment players, what is the a normal amount of tournments to go with out cashing, i played about 10 this year without cashing, and im started to wonder if i should just go back to concentrating more on cash games which i am successful at. I planned on playing in about 25-30 tournments in 2009. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou everyone, and I look forward to hearing what people have to say.

10 is not abnormal. kinda depends on method of play. some ppl play to reach the money but rarely win (final 3) some ppl play for win or bust etc etc

Tournaments are very high variance, and that increases as the field gets larger.

I need to grind out SnGs to fund my swings in tournament play.

In the simplest terms, if a tourney pays 10% of the field (which is fairly standard), then just by the math an average player will cash one out of ten times. An above average player will do a little better, a below average player will do a little worse. So to go 10 tourneys without cashing is completely normal and doesn't indicate whether you're a good tourney player or not.

Obviously things aren't always that simple (there are many metrics with which to measure tourney success), but it's a benchmark for you.

I have just pulled up my stats on Bluff Magazine on UB as a reference. I have a +ROI and a cash rate of 18.40%.

Streak Statistics:

Total Tourneys: 701
Longest Streak for Cashing: 3 (5 times)
Longest Non-Cash Streak: 24
Non-Cash Streak of 15+: 3 times

So over 701 tourneys, I have 4 streaks of 15+ tourneys without cashing and one super run of 24 with nada. My average buyin is $40 so you can see I need about a grand to keep a reasonable bankroll. And when I get below $500, I drop my buyin as a precaution.

It depends somewhat on your style: if you play a very aggressive game, you will cash less often but will (probably) finish in the top few positions more often (but still pretty seldom), so your ROI may be higher, but your variance definitely will be.
10 in a row without cashing isn't especially unusual, either way, but if you play a more controlled, less aggressive game you should probably be cashing >20%, so 10 in a row without a cash is definitely a bad streak.
You might want to think about your style and see if you can spot any leaks.

All I know is standard bankroll is 100 buyins. You want your 6 mos living expenses on top of that, of course...

So you say you play semi professionaly? So then we can assume that you either a) have a job or b) have some type of way of getting other money. Its not unusual to go 10-15 tournaments without cashing, especially in the low buy in daily tournaments that most casinos run during the week. They have horrible structures and are usually a shovefest towards the middle of the tournament and definitely at the end. How is your bankroll currently? Will playing in 15 tournaments with an average buy in of 400 hurt you? If you concentrate strictly on tournaments remember that your cash game may need adjusting once you sit back at those tables. Just remember, your variance is going to go way up with the more runners a tournament has. A daily tournament at a local casino with a buy in of lets say 100 may have 60 people with the top 6 getting paid. You only have to make the final table to cash basically. But in a higher buy in tournament with 500+ runners you have to make it deep to cash, and even deeper to actually make any money, most tournaments are top heavy. If you play semi professionally, you may find it ridiculous to play in tournaments that last 12+ hours to bubble or just make the money and barely double your buy in since you dont dedicate all of your time to poker. A lot of the other info that has already been posted is good as well. Good luck.