When Online Poker Tournament Re-Entry is a Good Idea

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Last night, I did something that I seldom do in online poker tournaments. I re-entered into a tournament. While I normally just fire single bullets, this time the tournament seemed ripe enough to where I could justify a re-entry. It ended up working out as I tripled my investment, but that’s not always the case.

Today, we will discuss reasons when re-entry into an online poker tournament is a good idea. You can apply some of these tips to live poker tournaments as well.

You Entered Via Satellite

Many online poker tournament players win their entries via online poker satellites. It’s not uncommon to see someone win an entry for pennies on the dollar. When that is the case, this can present an opportunity to fire multiple bullets.

If you were going to play the tournament regardless of whether you won a satellite entry, then consider adding the save money as an extra bullet. Also, if you won multiple entries in a satellite, you can often use them as re-entry bullets.

You Don’t Have to Move From a Bad Table

Some online poker sites will offer you the ability to re-enter into a poker tournament before removing you from the table. If you’re playing in a tournament where your table is particularly soft and you got unlucky, then you can consider firing another bullet.

Tournament Has an Overlay

While they are somewhat rare, there are times where poker tournaments have an overlay. An overlay is when the guarantee of a poker tournament will not be met and the poker room has to cover the difference. For example, if a poker tournament has a $1,000 guarantee but there are only $650 in entries, then the site must cover the other $350.

An overlay is essentially free money for online poker players. This is a great spot for good players and if you happen to bust out before the money, it may be worth the investment of a second bullet.

You’re Running Well

It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you’re running well, then you may want to consider firing a second bullet. For example, if you’ve recently won a tournament and made four other final tables in the span of a week, you’re running well.

The fact that you’ve been running well doesn’t mean that you will not experience a bad beat or run into another hot player. However, if you’re running well and happen to bust early in a re-entry tournament, consider re-entering. Odds are that you will be able to parlay that re-entry into another deep run.

You’ve Already Min-Cashed

With the rise of multi-day re-entry tournaments, there is a chance that a player can min-cash in a tournament and still have the option to re-enter in a later flight. The Colossus events at the World Series of Poker are great examples of this. There are players that min-cash in multiple flights because they cash in one event, bust, and play again.

If you’re already min-cashed in a re-entry event and bust, why not reinvest that money into another bullet, especially if that min-cash if equal or greater to the buy-in. We mention that because some re-entry events have min-cashes that are less than the initial buy-in. Even then, you can re-enter at a discount.

You can enter, min-cash, and try again. We’ve seen players do this multiple times in an event, effectively playing multiple times on the equivalent of one bullet.

Risk vs. Reward

When considering whether to re-enter into a poker tournament, consider the risk vs. Reward. For example, if you enter a $500 tournament with $500 re-entries, what’s the prize structure. If you re-enter, at what point do you turn a profit?

In my earlier example, the tournament I re-entered was a freeroll. A min-cash effectively returned my investment for the re-entry. For a standard tournament, you basically are recouping at least two entries. If you must make the final table to recoup your money, consider whether you’re comfortable with that.

Players with a win or nothing mentality this works for, but other players may want a shot at turning a profit without winning. So evaluate your risk tolerance before deciding to re-enter.