I've been playing lots of $1-$5.50 tourneys online where the field is 2,000-5,000 and going pretty deep, like less than 100, but still the payouts are lousy. What am I doing wrong? Just the other day I finished somewhere around 25th in a $5.50 out of 2,245 runners and got something junky like $28?! Are the payouts that insanely distorted or am I playing the wrong tourneys and not maxxing out on my style of play? Yes, I know the top 3 is the lion's share but this is ridiculous.

tourneys are very top heavy.

Maybe play tourneys with smaller fields and lower variance/gtd and see how that works out.

Agreed, there are lots of tourneys in that price range that might get 300 runners or so and are much more tolerable. Fighting through large fields is going to produce killer variance. Regardless, the money is on the FT. You can also try some of the sit and gos, like the 45/90/180-mans.

My other suggestion would be to just stick with the top of your affordable buy-in range. Playing 4 hours to win $2 is a freaking waste of time.

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I'm guessing you are on Pokerstars, I don't think this is good if you are playing on just one site as almost every micro MTT has thousands of runners and obviously extremely top heavy payouts. This is why I am playing on just Party and 888 for the time being as I like their 200-500 runner $5-$12 dollar MTTs and I don't have the time or patience to play for 5-6 hours for a tiny cash.

I play on 888 as well. The selection is decent and the play is very passive.

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I'm a member of other big sites as well but it seems that PS offers the best "value for $", if I'm making any sense, like for example on PS $5.50 gets $10K gtd vs PP the gtd is probably much lower. I assume that PS offers the best T deals, right?

How do I choose Ts w/ "lower variance"? That means only lower # of runners, right? So would a good strategy be just play the most expensive Ts I can afford, presumably because the field is smaller?

There are a lot of factors to consider: size of field, speed, rebuys or not, bounties or not, etc. Each factor affects the flow of the tournament and the variance, depending on your skill set. For example, I only play turbos because I don't have 8-10 hours to devote to a tournament, but the variance is naturally higher in turbos.

I like to look for tourneys with good guarantees relative to the size of the field. That way you get a good prize pool without having to work through thousands of runners.

I find that I'm not so good w/ turbos (5mins), so need 10mins at least. If the stack is bigger the better, at least 5,000. I can afford as much time as possible though.

What's your example of good gtd relative to runner size? I can't be bothered to look at historics but is that how you choose Ts, looking at past field size? My present field is already 2,000-5,000, so I'm not sure how much smaller it can get unless I buy much more expensive.

plenty of 2 - 5 dollar buy ins with low gtd so a low amount of entrees

Obviously the massive guarantees will attract big fields but there are plenty with reasonable guarantees and smaller fields (although I play turbos exclusively so that might be a factor).

I don't look at completed tourneys to judge field size I just look at the number of entrants right before start time. If a tourney starts in a couple of min and has 250 runners, you know you won't end up with 2000.

On 888 for example you can find some tourneys in the $3-5 range with $1k or $1.5k guarantees that only get 250-300 runners. On Stars you can get a better guarantee relative to entry fee with only slightly larger fields. I think a lot of players focus on the big ones and ignore many of the smaller ones.

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I think that's part of my "dilemma" and contradiction, I want a lower field to reduce variance, but at the same time I don't want to get "ripped off" paying for a T that has a lower gtd when I could be paying the same amount and getting a higher one (even though it would definitely attract more runners).

It's a difficult balance to find but if the thing you're struggling with most right now is variance, it might be worth sacrificing larger prize pools for smaller fields...at least until you get good some cashes under your belt.

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I dunno if I'm suffering from variance or just not finishing even deeper through happenstance...not sure what else I can do to make that 'jump' from 20something to FT.

Either way you're getting frustrated about your min-cashes, which essentially means you're annoyed by the variance. But it could also be a problem with your approach. A high percentage of min-cashes can be a sign of too much weak-tightness during the mid-late stages. It might be worth doing a review of your tourneys to diagnose the problem. Do you find you frequently get off to a decent start and build a stack early, only to see your stack dwindle during the mid-late stages until you shove your shortstack and bust out? If so, that could mean you're not opening up your game and making aggressive moves enough.

this^

Play smaller MTTs (whether that be off peak times an pokerstars or smaller sites) until you have a decent bankroll and some decent scores.

Tx, sure there's variance but maybe it's just not enough luck...or maybe it's the same thing? I'm usually ok w/ how I finish, it's often under "acceptable" circumstances, like I shove Ax LP w/ 11bbs and bb has KJ and decides to call w/ a bigstack. I usually maintain an avg stack throughout. I'm pretty deep like the #28 out of 2,343 or whatever example....just miffed that I'm so deep but still not deep enough for where the real $$$$ is. So, not mincash, but obviously not FT. In terms of placement, it's really really deep but the payout's still lousy, despite being 4 or 5x the buyin, it's still peanuts vs the $1 or 2k for 1st place.

That's the problem with the top heavy payouts: it really doesn't matter whether you finish 28th out of 3000 or 128th, the increase in pay for the time you put in doesn't seem worth it. All the money is on the final table. So when you're playing these MTTs your mindset has to be focused on making the FT or bust, because nothing outside the FT is really worth the time. So I would suggest looking at spots where you might be able to up the aggression, or even make some marginal calls for flips, for the chance to double-up and help you make that final push.

I guess there's no way getting around this...all Ts are set up this way?

Tx Darth. I'll try my best. GL at the tbls!