Odds, equity and theory
ROI (return on investment) in poker
Definition
Your profit in tournaments as a percentage of the total buy-ins you paid.
ROI = (prizes − buy-ins and fees) / buy-ins × 100%. A 20% ROI means you earn $20 of profit for every $100 of buy-ins.
Tournament ROI is very noisy: it takes thousands of tournaments to estimate it reliably, because the results are dominated by a few big cashes.
Example
You spent $1,000 on buy-ins and won $1,200 in prizes: ROI = 200 / 1,000 = +20%.
Related terms
- BB/100Your win rate in cash games: how many big blinds you win per 100 hands.
- Buy-inThe amount of money required to sit down in a cash game or to enter a tournament.
- MTT (multi-table tournament)A tournament with many players spread over several tables, which merge as players are eliminated until a winner remains.
- VarianceThe swings in results caused by luck, the gap between your expected result and what actually happens in the short term.