Its a $100 tourney with unlimited rebuys, for an extra $100 you can add on for 2x starting chips ONLY at the end of the rego period.

I max late reg with add-on every time, typically I get around 40BB to start with. To me the very large chance of busting and having to rebuy seems to outweigh any chips I get relative to the add-on.

So there's more 'dead money' but I feel like I'm being deprived of the chance to make the very deep run compared to the folks that will have 2-3x more chips than me when I join.

Am I wasting my money and should I just stick to freezeouts?

I look at this like its a $200 tourney.

I don't get why you don't start on time/early. The thing about $100 live tournaments is that there are a lot of bad players. Some of them are so bad that when they bust they don't rebuy. And some won't do the add-on.

But the main point of playing with bad players is that their chips are there for the taking, mostly early on.

Also, this sounds like a great tournament to take chances early as a rebuy is really costing just 50% of the ultimate buy-in.

They aren't live tournaments.

Well my rationale is this...

The starting stack is $100 for 10k, and the addon is $100 for additional 20k.

Even if you have an amazing session and triple up between the start and add on period, your stack after add ons will only be 50k compared to 30k for a newcomer. Instead of having 3x a newcomer (30k v 10k) stack in a freezeout MTT, you only have 1.65x (50k v 30k) with add ons.

Yes you still have more chips, but your edge is much smaller now, and idk if a 1.65x starting stack (in an amazing scenario) really is worht the risk and cost of potential rebuys. I have no mathematical proof for this though.

I'v asked a few ppl about this but nobody seems to really know much on this issue...

I buy in at the last minute. I can't see how anything else could be good.

If it is a reentry, there is a lot of value in buying in early as the play is bad / reckless.

I can argue either side of the fence on this

Virtually every live mtt I play now (or did play pre COVID) is a re-entry. Many have add-ons. Few are freeze outs.

I don't think it's worth registering before the add-on with less than around 75BB. If there's half an hour before the add-on break, just wait for that and buy in for max.

Same goes if you bust early - if you're allowed to reenter at the addon point then wait for that - (note: if you're not allowed to reenter at the addon point, then don't even reg until addon).

But if you have an edge vv field deep stacked then by all means try to run up a stack early.

If any event has a bonus add-on structure (we have some $550 entry for 20K chips and $200 addon for another 20K chips) then i'd highly recommend buying in for your first entry at the add-on stage every time. Who wants to pay $0.2166 a chip for 60K chips when you can pay $0.1875 a chip for 40K chips? Instant >$EV.

Ofc if you feel like playing then by all means play - sometimes we're there and we'd lose more if we sat on blackjack for two hours

Yes, I absolutely agree with you Oldsilver, I also think people tend to overestimate how profitable the 'play deep stacked vs fish' theory is.

I am just loving that really expert players will wait until the addon.

Thanks!

yvw

It’s not even close either. Almost every local pro I know buys in for $750 at the break in the $550+200 ME sats. Just consider there’s likely a reason for that

Oh, but sats are not even question - from ICM perspective you should always late reg with or without add ons.

I could see somebody arguing regular MTTs are so top heavy that the rebuys you spend would be less than the extra EV from having a bigger stack at the addon period, but I don't think I would agree.

well if you're raked twice then last minute late reg doesn't sound that great either.

in general it's probably good practice to not play an event whose structure induces questions like this one

but I hate add-on events and other gimmicky structures so maybe I'm just biased.

I would strongly disagree, the fact there is probably an optimal registration strategy means that someone who has worked it out will have an edge.

For example, I'v seen on many occasions people register with 20bb 1-2 levels right before the add on period, and that is inarguably terrible as you end up being in a 'bubble' spot, trying to survive until you can take the very profitable add-on.

Anything that gives villains room for making mistakes means theres a potential edge. Indeed, satties are often so profitable because you have people registering halfway between the start and end of late rego, which means they miss out on BOTH the 'playing deep vs fish' argument as well as the 'increased ICM$ from previous bustouts' argument.

yeah but if youre raked twice the optimal strategy might just be to pass

Just because there's an optimal strategy doesn't mean its a profitable one

In fact, I'll go on record saying that if you are raked twice you should not play this event bc its merely a cash cow for the house.

Are you really that confident you can generate an 18% edge (and shame on them if they are raking 10% and not the customary 9% on $100 entry fee events) super late regging this event?

Where does 40bb land you in terms of stack distribution amongst the field? If its below median, this seems like a losing proposition.