Introduction to ROI and SnG Bankroll management

Return on Investment (ROI) is the way in which the profitability of SNG tournaments is measured. This is shown as your profit per game and is expressed as a percentage of the buy-in after the rake (or fee) is removed. For example someone making an average of $2 per game at the $10+1 level would have an ROI of 18.2% ($2/$11 = 18.2%)

Hourly Rate simply takes your expected ROI and number of games you play per hour and gives an average hourly 'wage' for your efforts. Using the above example an 18.2% ROI at the $10+1 level and 4 games per hour would give you an hourly rate of $8. These two concepts are heavily related. Increasing the number of games per hour (by multi-tabling) may decrease your ROI but increase your overall hourly rate and therefore increase your BR.

After much reading I came up on a type of "chart" concept which was done by the best SnG players in the world. These should be your target ROI expectations if you in fact want to be a winning player on SnGs:

11s - 20% ROI
20s - 15% ROI
33s - 10% ROI
55s - 8% ROI
109s - 7% ROI
215s - 6% ROI

The key to these numbers is the significant sample size over which they were gathered. To explain this, we shall use a 100 SNG game sample.

Imagine our player has an ROI of 18.2% after 100 games at the $10+1 level. This represents an overall profit of $200. Now we change the outcome of just 5 Sit n Go bubble hands, all of which our player won in the sample we look at.

This time - instead of winning 5 bubble 'coin-flips' each was lost resulting in getting 4th place and no money. While originally winning these 5 flips enabled our player to get 2* 1st, 2* 2nd and 1* 3rd place. The total for these finishes was $180... so now instead of $200 profit we have just $20 – that is a significant change for just 5 hands.

What this should teach you is that there are LARGE swings of luck in SNGs and that a 100, 200 or even 500 game sample can be easily affected by just a few hands.

So what are the other factors that can affect your Sit N Go ROI?

1) Number of winning players at your table can have a large impact
2)Your ability to make good decisions at the bubble is critical. Each 'bad' decision (in terms of prize pool equity) will cost you money over time.
3)The key to a good hourly rate is to play several tables at once.
4)The type of SnG you play. While turbo SNGs may have less time for your skill advantages to come into play you can play more games per hour increasing your hourly rate.
5)The level at which you play. Having a ROI of just10% at the $30+3 level is better than 20% at the $10+1 level, and will obviously bring you more profit over time. Bankroll management is critical here. (Remember those 5 bubble coin-flips before? They could have a HUGE impact at the higher levels)

Hope this helps everyone looking to increase their BRs using the SnG multi table startegy along with a good ROI strategy :)

GL all,

USC