"I cash in three out of ten events — how am I still down?" This is often the first puzzle players meet once they start tracking properly. The answer lies in the difference between two numbers: ITM rate only says how often you are paid, while ROI says whether what you were paid covered your costs.
What ITM rate is
ITM stands for "in the money".
ITM rate = Cashes ÷ Entries × 100%
Seven cashes from 40 entries is 17.5%. Most events pay roughly 10% to 15% of the field, so a player chosen at random, ignoring skill, would land somewhere in that range.
Why a high ITM rate isn't profit
Because payouts are extremely uneven. A min-cash is typically only 1.5 to 2 times the buy-in, while the top three places can be worth dozens of buy-ins. Compare two players who each play 100 events at $100 per entry:
| Player A | Player B | |
|---|---|---|
| Entries | 100 | 100 |
| Total cost | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Cashes | 22 | 12 |
| ITM rate | 22% | 12% |
| Average cash | $350 | $1,100 |
| Total prizes | $7,700 | $13,200 |
| ROI | −23% | +32% |
Player A cashes almost twice as often as B and still loses. Most of A's cashes are min-cashes, while B busts more often but frequently goes deep once in the money.
The number that links them: average cash
ITM rate and ROI are separated by a single figure — how many buy-ins you collect, on average, each time you cash.
ROI = ITM rate × Average cash (in buy-ins) − 1
Checking the example: Player A is 0.22 × 3.5 − 1 = −0.23, and Player B is 0.12 × 11 − 1 = +0.32. The formula shows at a glance which side the problem is on: not cashing often enough, or not getting far enough once you do.
Reading your own numbers
High ITM, low ROI
You are good at surviving, but may be playing too tight around the bubble and after it, leaving you too short to reach the places where the money jumps. Check whether you often enter the money with a very short stack.
Low ITM, high ROI
Your style leans toward building a stack and going for deep runs, which makes sense where payouts are top-heavy. The price is bigger swings and longer cashless stretches, so your bankroll management needs to be more conservative.
Both low
Check your sample size first. With few entries this may be ordinary variance. With several hundred, it is worth asking whether your level is too high.
Both high
Good — but again, look at the sample size before you decide to move up.
Re-entries distort ITM rate
Should the denominator be entries or events? Both are used, but you must pick one and keep to it. If you cash in an event after three bullets, that is 1/1 by event and 1/3 by entry. To read ITM alongside ROI, use entries — every bullet counts once — because that is how ROI counts cost.
Don't forget sample size
ITM rate settles faster than ROI, since it only counts yes or no and is not moved by one large prize. After roughly 100 to 200 entries it becomes reasonably informative, while ROI needs many more. See variance and sample size.
Try the matching tool: Poker ROI, ITM Rate and Hourly Rate Calculator