Ask a player what last night's event cost and most will quote the buy-in. But the buy-in is only part of it. If you work out your results from buy-ins alone over the long run, they will look noticeably better than they are.
Four layers of cost
1. Buy-in and fee
Events are usually listed as something like "$100 + $12". The $100 goes into the prize pool. The $12 is the organiser's fee and never comes back. You paid $112, and that is the cost of one entry.
2. Re-entries, rebuys and add-ons
- Re-entry: registering again after busting, usually for the full buy-in and fee.
- Rebuy: buying another stack during a set period when your chips fall below a threshold.
- Add-on: buying an extra stack at a set point, usually when the rebuy period ends.
All of these are cost. In a re-entry event your real outlay can easily be two or three times the buy-in.
3. Expenses on the day
Travel, parking, food, drinks. Each is small, but over ten events a month they can add up to a buy-in or two.
4. Travel for series
For a series away from home, flights and accommodation often exceed the buy-ins. See tracking poker abroad for how to record them.
A worked example
You play a "$100 + $12" event, re-enter once, take a $30 add-on at the break, and cash for $300:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| First entry ($100 + $12) | $112 |
| Re-entry ($100 + $12) | $112 |
| Add-on | $30 |
| Table cost subtotal | $254 |
| Travel and food | $30 |
| Total spend | $284 |
| Prize | $300 |
Three ways of counting give three very different conclusions:
- Buy-in only: 300 − 100 = +$200 ("two buy-ins up!")
- Table cost: 300 − 254 = +$46, an ROI of about 18%
- Total spend: 300 − 284 = +$16
The first is simply wrong. The second and third are both right and serve different purposes: one measures how you did at the table, the other is what actually changed in your pocket.
The fee and your break-even point
The fee determines how much better than average you must be just to break even.
Fee share = Fee ÷ (Buy-in + Fee)
For "$100 + $12" that is 12 ÷ 112 ≈ 10.7%. Of everything the field pays, only 89.3% returns to the prize pool. A player exactly as good as the field average has a long-run ROI of about −10.7%. You need to be that much better than average merely to break even.
| Listing | Fee share | Average player's long-run ROI |
|---|---|---|
| $30 + $6 | 16.7% | about −16.7% |
| $100 + $12 | 10.7% | about −10.7% |
| $500 + $50 | 9.1% | about −9.1% |
Lower buy-in events usually carry a larger fee share. That is one reason the same player's ROI differs between levels, and it is a number worth comparing when you choose events.
Recording tips
- Log cost as the total you actually paid, fee, re-entries and add-ons included.
- Log the number of bullets separately so you can later see whether you re-enter too often in some events.
- Keep expenses in their own field, apart from table cost, so both ROI and your overall result can be calculated.
- Log before you leave. Add-ons and re-entries are the easiest things to forget afterwards.
For the complete field list see what to track after every session. Once cost is right, ROI starts to mean something.
Try the matching tool: Poker ROI, ITM Rate and Hourly Rate Calculator