Poker Tournament ROI & ITM Calculator
Enter your tournaments, average buy-in, winnings and cashes. You get ROI, ITM and average cash, plus a margin of error, because over a few hundred tournaments ROI says much less than it seems.
A whole number.
Buy-in plus fee, in your currency.
All prize money you received, not counting buy-ins.
Tournaments in which you won a prize.
Standard deviation of one tournament's result in buy-ins. Take it from your tracker; the value shown is only an example. Leave empty to skip the ROI range.
- ROI
- 12%
- 95% range: -12.8% to 36.8%
- ITM (in the money)
- 16%
- 95% range: 13.9% to 18.4%
- Profit
- 1,200
- Total buy-ins
- 10,000
- Average cash
- 70
The lower end of the range is below zero: this sample cannot yet separate a winning ROI from luck.
The ROI range is a normal approximation and is only as good as the spread you enter; tournament results are heavily skewed, so treat it as a rough guide. The ITM range is the Wilson interval.
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How ROI and ITM are calculated
ROI = (winnings − total buy-ins) / total buy-ins, where total buy-ins is tournaments × average buy-in. ROI of 12% means you earned 12 cents of profit per dollar invested.
ITM = cashes / tournaments. It shows how often you reach the prizes, but not how big they are: a high ITM with a low ROI usually means small cashes and few deep runs.
The ranges show the uncertainty. The ITM range is the Wilson interval for a proportion. The ROI range is ± 1.96 × spread / √tournaments, with the spread measured in buy-ins; it narrows slowly, so thousands of tournaments are needed for a precise ROI.
Worked example
1,000 tournaments at an average buy-in of $10 means $10,000 invested. You won $11,200 and cashed 160 times: profit $1,200, ROI 12%, ITM 16% (about 13.9% to 18.4%), average cash $70.
With a spread of 4 buy-ins the 95% ROI range is 12% ± 24.8 points, from about −12.8% to +36.8%. Even after 1,000 tournaments the data does not exclude a losing player.
Questions and answers
What is ROI in poker tournaments?
Return on investment: profit divided by the total buy-ins you paid, as a percentage. +10% means ten cents of profit for every dollar of buy-ins.
What is ITM?
In the money: the share of tournaments in which you finished in a paid place. It does not show how big the prizes were.
How many tournaments do I need to trust my ROI?
A lot more than most players expect. The margin of error shrinks with the square root of the sample, so halving it takes four times as many tournaments. Use the range the calculator shows, not the single number.
Do I include rake in the buy-in?
Yes. Use the full price you paid, buy-in plus fee, so ROI reflects your real profit. Rakeback and other bonuses are not included here.
Related guides
Poker is a game of skill and chance. The calculator is an educational tool and does not guarantee results. Play responsibly: responsible gambling.