The tournament scoreboard — enter your volume, buy-in and cashes to get ROI, net profit and in-the-money rate. Instant, in your browser.
ROI is the profit you make for every dollar you put in play: a 30% ROI means you turn $100 of buy-ins into $130 back on average. Strong online tournament regulars live in the 10–30% range; anything sustained above that over a big sample is elite. Two health warnings: tournament ROI is brutally high-variance, so it takes many hundreds of events to trust, and your ITM% alone means little — min-cashing often can mask a losing ROI, while a lower cash rate with deep runs can crush.
Cashes and deep runs are exciting, but only ROI tells you whether it all adds up. It's the tournament player's bottom line.
Cash games measure edge in bb/100; tournaments measure it in ROI — return on investment. It answers the only question that matters over a career: for every dollar of buy-ins, how much comes back? A 20% ROI means $100 in becomes $120 out on average. Because it folds together how often you cash and how deep you run, ROI is the single honest scoreboard for a tournament player.
It's tempting to chase a high in-the-money percentage, but ITM% alone lies: a player who min-cashes 25% of the time can still be a long-term loser, while an aggressive player who cashes less but runs deep can crush. ROI captures what ITM% misses — the size of the cashes, not just their frequency. Track both here, then stress-test the swings behind them with the variance simulator and size your roll with the bankroll calculator.
Enter volume, buy-in and cashes, read your ROI.
Put in how many tournaments you've played and your average buy-in including the fee — a $20 + $2 event is 22.
Enter your total winnings across all those tournaments, and how many times you finished in the money.
You get your return on investment, net profit, total invested and in-the-money rate — the full tournament scoreboard.
You've played 100 tournaments at $22 each (a $20 buy-in plus the $2 fee), so you've invested 100 × $22 = $2,200. Across those events your cashes total $2,860. Net profit is $2,860 − $2,200 = $660, and your ROI is (2,860 − 2,200) ÷ 2,200 × 100 = 30%. That's an elite-looking figure — a professional online MTT grinder often lives in the 10–30% range. But 100 tournaments is a tiny sample for a format this top-heavy: one deep run or final-table finish can carry that whole number. Treat 30% as an encouraging estimate, and keep logging events before you bank on it.
Verdict — a 30% ROI looks elite, but over just 100 events treat it as an estimate, not proofFix Min-cashing a quarter of the time feels good but can still lose money. ROI weighs the size of your cashes, not just how often you reach the money.
Fix A hundred tournaments barely registers. It takes many hundreds — often a thousand or more — before ROI reflects your real edge rather than one big score.
Fix Most of the prize pool sits at the final table, so you can run below break-even for a long time. Bankroll and mindset both have to survive that.
Fix A $20 + $2 tournament costs you $22 every time. Leave the fee out and your invested total is understated and your ROI comes out flatteringly high.
Three quick checks. Decide, then see the math.
You invested $1,000 in buy-ins and cashed $1,200 total. What's your ROI?
ROI = (cashes − buy-ins) ÷ buy-ins × 100 = (1,200 − 1,000) ÷ 1,000 × 100 = 20%. It's your net profit as a share of what you paid in.
A high in-the-money percentage guarantees you're a profitable player.
False. Min-cashing often can still add up to a losing ROI, while a lower ITM% with deeper finishes can be far more profitable. Judge results by ROI, not cash frequency.
What counts as a strong ROI in online multi-table tournaments?
A sustained 10–30% ROI is a strong, professional-level result online. Higher is possible in soft or small fields, but only a very large sample makes any ROI trustworthy.
You scored 0 / 3. The more you drill this, the faster the maths becomes instinct.
ROI (return on investment) is your net profit divided by the total you've paid in buy-ins, as a percentage. A 30% ROI means that for every $100 of buy-ins, you make $30 profit on average. It's the standard measure of a tournament player's edge.
ROI = (total cashes − total buy-ins) ÷ total buy-ins × 100. Play 100 tournaments at $22 each ($2,200 invested), cash $2,860, and your profit is $660 — an ROI of 660 / 2200 = 30%.
For online multi-table tournaments, a sustained ROI of 10–30% is a strong, professional-level result. Higher is possible in softer or smaller fields, but tournament variance is so high that only a very large sample makes any ROI trustworthy.
ITM% is how often you finish in the money. It's useful context but a poor standalone goal: min-cashing frequently can hide a losing ROI, while a lower ITM% with deeper finishes can be far more profitable. Judge results by ROI, not cash frequency.
Many hundreds, often a thousand or more. Tournament results are extremely top-heavy — a single big score can swing your ROI for a long time — so a small sample tells you almost nothing about your true edge.