When to stop regging online tournaments

Dara O'Kearney shares a system he employs for making sure he is focussed on the right things in an MTT session.

I recently discussed how I manage tables online when I am heads-up in a tournament. I will sometimes play 16 tables at once, which could make it hard to focus on the heads-up match.

First of all, I make the heads-up table bigger and make it my main focus.

However, I circumvent the focus problem by stopping registering for new tournaments when I get close to the final table.

If it's a small tournament, I stop registering new MTTs when we get to two tables. If it's a big tournament, I might stop registering new MTTs with three tables left. Before that, maybe with four tables left, I only register tournaments with overlays.

I've learned the hard way that it's so important to give final tables your full focus.

The reason for this is that I have a realistic view of how MTTs work.

The way to think about ROI

People look at the Sunday Million and focus on the big first prize, but to me, it's just a tournament where I have, let's say, a $40 expectation.

That may sound good, but my expectation once I have made a 'smaller' final table might be $2,000 at the time.

It is not worth regging for that $40 in EV if it distracts me from the final table where my EV is 50 times greater.

The deep runs and final tables don't come around as often as any of us would like. When they do, you need to treat them with professionalism.

Your expectation multiplied by the number of tournaments you play will be your average profit in a year. The profit might come in one big score, or it might come via lots of small results.

Yes, it makes poker seem more like a 'job' to think of expectation in this way rather than the headline first prizes, but this is how you maintain a focused and professional mindset.

It's what separates the amateurs from the professionals.

You can get Dara's free book on effective poker study by joining his mailing list.