Last week, Full Tilt Pokerrolled out multi-entry tournaments. The new tournament type allows players to register multiple times for the same event, essentially affording the opportunity to multi-table one event. The tournament structure will take center stage during Full Tilt Poker’s upcoming Double Guarantees Weekfrom January 24th to 30th. PocketFives.com sat down with Full Tilt Red Pro Aaron GambleAB Bartley (pictured) to discuss basic multi-entry tournament strategy.

PocketFives.com: Thanks for talking with us. What were your first thoughts when you found out that Full Tilt had launched multi-entry tournaments?

Aaron Bartley: I thought it was a pretty cool idea and one that would appeal to a wide variety of players: multi-tabling regulars who want to get more tournaments going in their sessions, players who only play a couple of tables who would like second and third chances in a tournament, and recreational players who would jump at the chance to play larger field tournaments with much bigger prize pools.

PocketFives.com: Critics might say that the multi-entry format gives solid players an advantagebecause they have multiple cracks to win a tournament. How do you respond?

Aaron Bartley: It’s true that the best players are going to be able to multi-entry to the max and, yes, that takes away a bit of equity from a middle-of-the-road winning player, but it’s not like one or two people are going to destroy everyone’s equity. Just like those guys are going to have four shots in a tournament, so are the regulars you’re better than and so are the losing players who add to everyone’s equity.

I think that on a per-entry basis, your ROI is going to be lower than in a traditional freezeout, but by utilizing the ability to multi-entry, you’ll see a higher return than in a normal freezeout. For example, let’s say that your ROI is 30%. For a multi-entry tournament to be worse for you than a normal freezeout, your ROI would have to have dropped all the way to 7.5%, which it’s not going to. Just on the basis of a 30% ROI, there aren’t enough players who are better than you and can take up all of those spots to plummet your ROI that much.

PocketFives.com: Should you always buy in for the maximum number of entries right away or should you wait until you bust?

Aaron Bartley: I think it depends on your style and how many tables you are comfortable running at once. I personally prefer to max my entries from the start. If you go with the second, third, and fourth chances, you could run into a spot where you have a middling stack near the end of the late registration period. Then, it doesn’t make much sense to try to get super aggro in order to rebuy and you also aren’t maximizing your equity since adding another table or two would put you with several below average stacks.

I think that strategy has merit if you are running near the maximum number of tables you’re comfortable with and your plan is to play super aggro from the beginning with the idea of trying to run up a large stack and rebuying if you bust, similar to how you would play a standard rebuy tournament.

PocketFives.com: Are there any tournament types where buying in for multiple entries wouldn’t be to your advantage?

Aaron Bartley: The only time I wouldn’t have max entries would be in tournaments that were super small, like under 100 people registered, since the odds of you being merged are pretty high. Even then, I don’t think it’s that bad since merging doesn’t really affect your equity much since you are sacrificing an entry for additional chips very late in a tournament.

PocketFives.com: How have you fared so far in multi-entry tournaments?

Aaron Bartley: Pretty well. The fields aren’t super strong and there are still definitely soft spots at all of the tables. It’s a little disheartening to cash and still lose money overall, but you can’t look at it as “I have four entries in this one tournament.” You have to look at it as four independent tournaments.

It’s similar to a rebuy tournament. If you have very bad luck and rebuy 10 times, it’s still +EV to rebuy that last time. You can’t look at it like all of your rebuys and buy-ins are one whole entry. Each entry in multi-entry tournaments and rebuy in rebuy tournaments is its own entity with its own EV and ROI, so you can’t look at it as part of a whole, you have to see it as its own entity.

Visit Full Tilt Pokerto learn more about multi-entry tournaments.