Rebuy and Reentering Blundaries (?)

I think the best way to look at it is to just pretend any bullets you've already fired never happened (other than considering if you might be tilted and prone to playing bad).

Would you enter that tournament now given the level of the tournament you're on, your skill level and the skill level of the field, your bankroll requirements, etc. putting aside what happened previously?

People like to say something like it's dumb to fire five bullets because you would have to make the final table to get your money back or whatever. But that's a fallacy. If you've already fired four bullets that money is already lost. The question isn't, "can I make back my money by firing a fifth bullet?"

The question is, "will I have an edge to on average make money on that fifth bullet?"

If it's a $1,000 buy in and you on average expect to make $1,300. You can be down $4k but it's still a profitable decision to fire a fifth bullet even though on average you won't come close to recouping all your losses. You're still making money on that one independent event (the fifth bullet). Hope that makes sense.

Edit: Obviously though it's important to know yourself. If you know you're prone to playing bad after three bullets limit yourself to three bullets. Usually after about three bullets in a live tournament I'd be feeling tired and frustrated, so I would just go home.

But if I got sucked out on three times (but still feeling good, and the tournament situation still appears to be profitable) there's no reason not to fire a fourth bullet.

Yeah man this really helps thank you. I took your advice and final tabled one of the Sunday ACR events. I think the live event will be different for sure because it's so much more money. I might determine a bank roll like I have online and treat the live bullets like any other bullet and just go for it. The thing is I don't late reg live Ike I do OL. I am pretty anal about showing up on time for live events whereas with online I prodigiously late reg. Like you, I can see reentering three or four times and being like f*ck it and hitting the road.

How do you approach it if you traveled? Liike for an MSPT or WSOP?

Not sure that it's necessarily the best way, but usually if I travel I'll plan for a certain amount of cash for the series based on how long I'll be there and what I plan to play. I'll look at the schedule and map out a rough plan with some flexibility built in.

Like say I get there on a Friday and there is a multi-flight that runs Friday and Saturday with day two on Sunday. I might plan for up to four bullets. I might limit myself to two bullets the first day, but if I only use one the first day I'll use up to three the second day. If I make it through to day two on Friday then I'll play this other tournament on Saturday instead. Stuff like that.

Then I'll have sorts of backup plans. If I don't make day two I'll play this tournament instead. If I run deep in this tournament then I'll skip that one the next day. That kind of thing.

For the most part I just try to plan for a reasonable worst case scenario so I don't run out of cash on the trip. Then I might have some sort of flexibility. Like if things are going well I'm more likely to take a shot on a main event late in the series that is slightly above my normal bankroll requirements. Or if I'm have a bad series I might play a side event with a lower buy in instead that day.

I don't know, it's not really an exact science. Usually I try to go with the flow. Like in my example above if I only planned to fire two bullets the first day, I could run kings into aces twice the first hour and decide to fire another barrel. Then I might skip a bigger buy-in event later in the series if I'm running low on cash for the trip.

I know coming from an online background you probably think of things more from the perspective of your overall bankroll. I consider overall bankroll too, but I like to have a max that I plan to fire for a given series, even if my overall bankroll might support firing more. That's just me.

It kind of guides me into taking the bigger shots when things are going well and I'm winning and more likely to be playing well/feeling confident. It also prevents me from toasting a lot of buyins if I'm tilted or overmatched.