Safety in numbers

I've come to the realization that the best MTTs to play are the ones with the biggest fields. This has several consequences. The first and most obvious one is that the buy in can't be the primary reason for selecting an MTT. Another is that the poker flavor can't be the primary reason, either. In practice, you can make both the buy in and the poker flavor primary selection criteria, as long as you choose the smallest buy in on offer and as long as you choose no limit hold'em. That's similar to Ford's choice of model T colors - you could pick any color you liked as long as it was black :-)

A less obvious consequence of playing the MTTs with the biggest fields is that you should join them as soon as you possibly can. The reason why will become clear once I explain why it's so important to pick the biggest fields. Here's why: the bigger the fields, the more fish (bad players) there are in the pool. If you're not a fish, you're generally going to win chips from those who are. The earlier you join an MTT with a big field, the more chances you give yourself to play against fish; that enables you to build up your stack for later in the tournament, when the fish are all gone.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    31     147   36    52        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    88     551  117    22    41800

delta: $-28,200
MTT NLHE balance: $1,920,648
2017 balance: $-157,375
balance: $11,260,455