Poker Payout Calculator

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Have you ever wondered why payouts are different from the advertised tournament prizes? Unless there are only 2 to 4 entries, tournaments can’t be winner-takes-all games. Each cardroom has its payout structure when distributing their prizes, and it determines how much a player takes home from his participation.

The typical payout structure for a poker tournament depends on the number of entries. If it only has 28 participants, the winner takes home 33% of the pool. However, this percentage goes down as more players participate. In events with 350 to 500 entries, the winner gets 22.5% to 25.5% of the pool.

The tournament winner takes the most significant cut in the prize pool, but it’s not as simple as what many people think. We’ll talk about the tournament payout structure in great detail to help you understand how professionals make money in MTT.

‎An advanced poker tournament calculator, analyzer & dealmaker to give you an edge in tournaments. Pay once and enjoy forever. No in-app purchases/fees. Continual improvement for many years. New: A user interface upgrade for iPhone X-series models. 1) An ICM (Independent Chip Mo. Easy-to-use online ICM calculator. Calculate ICM equity of player stacks for any given poker tournament payout structure. Although most amateur video poker players do not realize it, pay tables play a huge role in the profitability of a video poker machine. In fact, when you are comparing two machines that offer identical games/rules, the pay tables (or 'return tables') are the only way that the two machines' payouts can differ. Fortunately for us, all video poker machines display their respective pay table right. Poker rooms usually payout between 10% and 30% of the field in a multi-table tournament (MTT). For single table tournaments, 33% of the field will typically win money. Here is a typical payout structure commonly used by poker rooms. It shows what the payouts will be depending on the number of entrants. Summary: With Poker Payout Calculator you can calculate the amount paid out to tournament winners. Just enter the total prize pool and choose one of three common payout structures or enter your own percentages. You can save your payouts by emailing them to yourself or other poker players.

Want to start crushing the tournaments? Here is a list of 3 great tournament poker books to become a crusher. Book 1 will teach you a solid fundamental tournament strategy so you don’t make any big mistakes. Book 2 shows you how to crush the final table and book 3 goes through 50 hands in detail when you are deep in tournaments:

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If on the other hand you already know how to play tournaments and want to make it to the high stakes then it will make sense to get in-depth advice from someone who has already won several WSOP bracelets. With over $23,000,000 in the tournament winnings, he is the right man to teach the advanced expert strategies (warning: this poker tournament course is not for beginners, but for those interested to beat high roller games).

Tournaments and Cash Games Comparison

Tournaments and cash games are very different when it comes to the money that a player makes. When you’re participating in a cash game, you join by using your bankroll. Any amount that you win goes directly to you as your actual money.

If you enter a game with a $500 buy-in, you spend $500. The casino takes out a percentage for each pot, and whatever amount you receive after that goes straight to your pocket. So, if you were able to accumulate $2,000 worth of chips, you’re betting $2,000 of your actual money. Your goal in playing cash games is to win as many games in the shortest time possible.

In a tournament, every player joins by paying the entry fee and rake. The rake is usually 10% of the entry fee, but it can go as high as 30% in smaller tournaments.

So if you participate in an event with an entry fee of $100 and a 10% rake, you’ll only lose $110, even if you’re the first player that gets eliminated. However, the prize that you’ll receive for your participation depends on how high your rank will be after the tournament.

Common Tournament Formats

Similar to cash games, tournaments have different formats that can affect the amount that the winner receives. 100% of the entry fee collected from all the entries go directly to the prize pool. The more entries there are in a tournament, the more money there is for the top players to split. To make it easier for you to understand a typical payout structure, let’s go through the different formats that tournaments take.

Freezeout

Freezeout tournaments are the most common format that you’ll find because it’s the simplest to manage. It’s also the easiest to set up because the cardroom only needs to have enough participants. When you participate in freezeouts, you only have to pay the entry fee and rake, and then you’ll receive the chips that you’ll use throughout the tournament.

Players can only join once, and when they run out of chips, they’re out of the game. These chips don’t have any monetary value, and the winner of the tournament will be the player who beats the other players and collects all the chips.

It is also very easy for a casino to calculate how many poker chips are needed for the tournament, as it knows exactly how many people are participating and each of them gets the same amount of chips.

Rebuy

Rebuy tournament is the most complicated of the three because participants have the chance to replenish their chips before a rebuy period ends. In all cases the rebuy period ends before the players are in the money and often an add-on is often possible during the last break, after which rebuys aren’t possible anymore.

In the past, rebuy tournaments are the favorite of many deep-pocketed players because they can join the game with so much advantage.

Nowadays, cardrooms enforce different policies to keep parity and prevent deep-pocketed players from dominating their table.

The most common rule for rebuy tournaments is that players can only rebuy at the start of the game and only when their chips fall below the threshold.

For example, if the rebuy threshold is 20% of starting chips, a player can’t rebuy unless they reach it, or get eliminated from the game. Even if they reach it, they still can’t rebuy in the middle of the game, they need to wait until the current hand is over. Most organizers also prohibit players from rebuying more than the entry amount.

Reentry

Reentry is similar to rebuy, but it’s more straightforward and easier to understand. Players can buy back into the tournament only if they get eliminated. However, instead of allowing the player to continue his game, the organizers will treat it as a new entry, and they will assign the player to a different table (not always the case).

You can buy back into the tournament as many times as you want (but sometimes it is limited to only 1 re-entry), but as it progresses, it’ll be less appealing for anyone to want to re-enter. That’s because players can only buy the same number of chips that they had when they started, while the other players accumulate chips and the blinds increase.

It gets harder for reentries to make a difference in the tournament, especially when the chips that players get is only enough to cover the blinds.

Calculating the Prize Pool for Tournaments

We had to go through the different tournament formats because they directly correlate with the prize pool. Remember, the more entries a tournament gets, the higher the prize will be, and the more money there’ll be for the top players to split.

Each format has its pros and cons, so to help you gain a better understanding of the tournament payout structure, let’s discuss how these formats affect the money that the winners receive.

Pros and Cons of Freezeout Tournament Prize Pool

Since players can’t re-enter the tournament, you can calculate the prize pool as soon as it starts. There will be no changes with the structure, and you already know how much you’ll receive as the winner. When you participate in a freezeout tournament, the organizers will often announce the payout structure at the beginning of the game.

Texas Holdem Tournament Payout Structure

Unfortunately, the prize pool will remain the same throughout the tournament. Although cardrooms will adjust the payout structure depending on the number of participants, a low prize pool will remain the same if they don’t get enough traction at the start. A $100 tournament will only have a $5,000 pool if it only gets 50 participants.

Low prize pools often discourage players from participating, so some cardrooms have a guaranteed prize as a way to entice players to join.

It means that if the number of participants doesn’t reach their target number, the cardroom will cover the difference and still distribute prizes according to the guaranteed amount.

Pros and Cons of Rebuy and Reentry Tournament Prize Pool

If you’re going to participate in a rebuy or reentry tournament, the prize pool will always be higher than the number of initial entries. When organizers use these tournament formats, many players will buy back into the game for another chance to be part of the prize pool.

Since 100% of the entry fee goes straight to the prize pool and players will buy back into the game more than once, the top players will receive more. Despite the complexities that rebuy and reentry tournaments have, cardrooms still use this tournament format to encourage more players to join their event.

Unfortunately, since rebuys and reentries happen in the middle of tournament games, no one can know how much the winner will actually receive. Even if the organizers limit the number of times each player can buy back, it’ll still be impossible to determine how many players will spend more to get back into the game.

Tournament Payout Structure

Now that you’re aware of the factors that can affect the prize pool, let’s talk about its payout structure. Tournaments rarely use the “winner-takes-all” approach when organizing, and they’ll always split it to favor the top players. In fact, a typical tournament will award 60% to 70% of the pool to the top 5%, while the remaining 30% to 60% goes to the top 10% to 20%.

Top-heavy payout structure and many participants mean it might take a while before you realize how good you are at tournaments. And furthermore, you need to be okay with certain things in order to be a professional tournament poker player.

We understand that it can be difficult to visualize the payout structure, so here’s a table to help you figure out how much the top players will get from participating in STT and MTT:

Typical STT Payout Structure

Typical MTT Payout Structure

Of course, these tables don’t represent the structure that different cardrooms use when splitting the prize pool. These will only provide you with an idea of how cardrooms split the prize. However, if there’s one thing that will always remain, it’s that these structures will favor the top-ranking players.

As you can see, most of the participants won’t receive anything, but the prize consolidates as the rankings move toward the top. In single table tournaments, only a third of all the participants will receive their cut in the pool, while in MTTs, it can go anywhere from 10% to 30% of the participants.

The winners’ prize comes from the entry fees of the remaining 67% to 90% of the players. When you’re playing cash games, the money goes straight to your account, and you can take down as many players as you want. Winning the tournament is the same, but you’re managing the risks because you can never lose more than the amount you spent to join.

The prize for winning MTT may seem very small compared to the money that you can make from cash games. In a $100 tournament with 50 participants, the winner only takes home $1,450. In cash games, you can get the same amount for winning one pot. However, comparing the two in terms of the money that you can make is wrong.

One reason is that in cash games, you’re using your actual bankroll to fund your bets. To make $1,450 in a one on one game, you’ll have to risk $1,450 of your money. Even in 9-max games, you still need to risk more to build a $1,450 pot.

In tournaments, the entry fee is the only money that you risk. If you get eliminated, you only lost $100, but you stand a chance to win the same amount.

MTT isn’t for everyone because it’s about managing the risks while maximizing your chances of winning a large pot. It also takes a lot of skills to succeed in tournaments, and you need to protect your stacks to avoid getting eliminated until the money round starts.

If winning $1,450 for an entry fee of $100 isn’t that appealing, you may want to consider a much bigger tournament. The calculation that we provided is only for the typical cardrooms, which only gets a handful of players. However, with the popularity of poker, it’s not that hard to find tournaments with over 500 entries! There are even some events that get thousands of participants.

The payout structure will, almost, always depend on the number of entries. The more participants a tournament gets, the more complicated the payout structure becomes. That’s why most cardrooms only use the freezeout format to limit the number of entries that they get. This format also makes it easier to calculate the amount that each player receives.

The table below will demonstrate how organizers distribute the prizes when there are 500 to 2000 participants. To make it easier for you to visualize the payout structure for large tournaments, we’re only going to look at a structure that pays the top 10% of the players.

MTT Payout Structure to Compensate the Top 10%

If you’re participating in a $1,000 tournament with a 10% rake, you only need to pay $1,100 to join. If you are in the top 10%, you start playing for money. 0.11% of the prize pool may not seem much, but it’s equivalent to $2,200, which doubles the amount you spent to join the tournament.

The payout structure for tournaments varies, depending on the number of players that they’re getting. But the initial goal for anyone is to stay in the game until 90% of the players get bust.

When a tournament has the same structure and gets 2000 participants, your first goal should be to reach the top 200 players—that’s where the money round starts. It guarantees twice the amount you spent, and from there, the cash prizes that you get will increase as more players get eliminated.

That’s the reason why MTT players have a different approach when playing poker. If you’re playing cash games, your goal is to win as much as possible in the shortest time. With that approach, players tend to be more aggressive than if they’re in a tournament.

In tournaments, your skills in playing your hand will determine whether you win the biggest prize. It is a good strategy to take the advantage of your skill early in the tournament when there are still many weak players and you are playing deep. The deeper you are, the bigger your advantage is. Just keep in mind that a mistake can easily cost you, and the next moment you can be out of the tournament.

Conclusion

Tournaments have different formats that can affect the prize pool and ultimately affect the payout structure. That’s why it would be best to understand these formats to help you find a tournament with better compensation.

Regardless of the format that you participate in, the goal when playing MTT is to manage your stack and make sure that it lasts longer than most players. You also need to consider the value that you’re getting from your hands because if you play too tight in the early stages of a tournament, it’ll be tough for you to keep up on the next round.

Playing tournaments is currently the most common way people now experience poker. I have played in literally hundreds of thousands of them and will tell you exactly how they work.

How do poker tournaments work? Poker tournaments differ from cash games in that each player pays an entry fee then competes to win a portion of the prize pool. During the event, the blind levels increase steadily at regular intervals. A tournament officially ends once one player has all of the chips and is declared the winner.

Now, let’s break down every feature and phase of poker tournaments from beginning to end.

How Do Tournaments Differ from Cash Games?

In cash games, the chips represent actual money. So each chip won or lost goes into or comes from your actual bankroll. In tournaments, there is a set entry fee that is paid and, no matter what, that is the most money that you can lose during the event.

Tournament players compete to win a portion of the prize pool, which is made up of all the entry fees.

How Does a Poker Tournament Entry Fee Work?

Every poker tournament has a set entry fee that is the same for all players. The prize pool and the rake (the house fee) are both included in one fee.

Often, the details of the rake are disclosed plainly in how the fee is written.

• If the prize pool portion is $50 and the rake is $5, the entry fee will be disclosed as $50+$5.

10% rake is a fairly standard, however, some smaller live events have rake has high as 30%.

What Is the Difference Between a Freezeout, a Rebuy, and a Reentry tournament?

There are two typical ways that the entry fee of a tournament is structured:

1. Freezeouts – A freezeout means that each player can only buy in one time. Once a player runs out of poker chips, his or her tournament is over. This is the most common type of tournament.
2. Rebuys – A rebuy means that there is a specified period of time at the beginning of a tournament when players may buy more chips if their stack falls below a certain level or they bust out. The cost of the rebuy is usually the same as the entry fee, minus the rake.
3. Reentry Tournaments– A reentry tournament is the same as a rebuy except that a player must be eliminated before buying back in. They also do not get to keep their seat. Instead, it is treated as if it is an initial buy-in and the player is reseated at another table.

What Is an Add-On?

In rebuy events, there is usually a specific number of extra chips offered to players at the end of the rebuy period. This is known as an add-on which typically costs a full entry fee.

How Do Poker Tournaments Pay Out?

Every tournament has a set way that they divide up the prize pool. Almost all tournament payout structures are top heavy. In other words, the top few places usually receive the lion’s share of the prize pool.

What is a typical Payout Structure?

The majority of the field in any poker tournament do not win anything. The number of players who “cash” in an event will vary.

Poker rooms usually payout between 10% and 30% of the field in a multi-table tournament (MTT). For single table tournaments, 33% of the field will typically win money.

Here is a typical payout structure commonly used by poker rooms. It shows what the payouts will be depending on the number of entrants.

MTT Prize Structure Example

How to Read the Prize Structure Chart

The top row tells you how many entrants are in an event. The rows below show you what each place will pay based on the number of entrants.

For example, if a tournament had 22 entrants, then you’d use the “19-27” column. Looking down the column you will see that 5 people would be paid out between 9 and 40% of the prize pool.

When Is the Final Prize Pool Established?

• In freezeout tournaments, the final prize pool is established once the initial entry period ends. Sometimes entries are closed at the start of the first deal and sometimes there is a specified period of time when players may buy-in to the event.
• In Rebuys, the final prize pool is not known until the end of the rebuy and add-on period. The final prize pool will always be much higher than it was at the beginning of a rebuy tournament.

How Is the Winner Determined?

The winner of a poker tournament is determined when only one player has all the chips. The last phase before the end is when two players battle it out “heads-up“.

What are Guaranteed Tournaments (GTD)?

Guaranteed tournaments have a minimum prize pool pre-set before the event. What this means is that if there are not enough buy-ins to meet the guaranteed amount, there is something called an “overlay.” An overlay means that the event basically begins as if several people had already busted out.

However, poker rooms know exactly how many people tend to sign up for a particular tournament, so they offer guarantees based on the usual prize pool. Therefore, overlays are rare and a guaranteed is effectively just a gimmick used to attract more players.

Even so, knowing the guarantee of a particular tournament is a good tool for professional players to use when planning their playing schedule.

How Are Poker Tournaments Set Up?

Most poker tournaments are played on a 9 or 10 seat table. Only one deck is used if there is a dedicated dealer. If the event is a home game or pub poker tournament, there are often two alternating decks in play. Typically, the player in the big blind will shuffle during the hand.

How Is Seating Determined?

Before play can begin the players must be properly seated. There are three typical methods used to determine seating assignments in a poker tournament:

• Random draw is the most common form of seating found in live multi-table poker tournaments. When a player pays his or her buy-in, the seat assignment is randomly given to the player by the table and seat number.
• Player choice is common in casual pub poker tournaments. This allows family members and friends to sit together to enjoy the game.
• Drawing from the deck is how seating is often determined in a single table tournament. The playing cards are typically fanned out on the table and each player gets a card. The high card gets seat one, the next highest seat two, so on and so forth. Ties are usually broken by either redrawing or using bridge order. Spades>Hearts>Clubs>Diamonds.

How Players Are Re-Seated During Play

From time to time, the number of players on the remaining tables will become unbalanced. You may have 9 people on one table, 6 on another, so on and so forth.

It is the job of the tournament director to make sure that the number of players on every table are as close to equal as possible. Therefore, players must be occasionally moved in order to maintain that equilibrium.

Usually, the director will try to move players “in position”. For example, if a person was going to be in the Small Blind, they are moved to the same position on their new table. One thing that directors try to avoid is forcing someone to pay the blind on one table and then pay the blinds again immediately upon moving.

Even so, if more than 3 players are moved there will be a redraw at the new table to determine who has the button.

What Is the Structure in Tournaments?

The structure of tournaments will vary from event to event. Here are a few things that must be established in every event:

• The number of starting chips that each player will get.
• The blind level structure.
• How long each blind level lasts.
• Whether or not rebuys or re-entries will be allowed.
• Whether it is a sit and go event or has a set starting time.

Poker Chip Distribution (Starting Stacks)

This is an area where tournaments differ from other forms of poker. While cash games allow players to choose the buy-in they begin with, tournaments have one uniform starting stack size.

Average Starting Stack Size

The number of chips that poker players get at the beginning can vary wildly from event to event. For lower buy-ins and most pub poker type tournaments, the starting chips are usually in the 2,000 to 3,000 range.

Shallow Versus Deep-Stacked Tournaments

Typically, anything below 3,000 chips is considered shallow stacks and anything above 8,000 is usually considered deep-stacked. However, the effective size of the stack is relative to the size of the blinds and how fast they increase.

Poker Tournament Blind Levels

In poker tournaments the blind levels do not remain static. At set intervals, the levels increase.

This effectively decreases everyone stack size and forces the players to constantly try to increase their stacks. Otherwise, they might “blind out” and not have enough chips to even pay the blinds.

What Are the Typical Blind Levels?

The exact amounts of each blind level can vary quite a bit, but here is a common schedule:

Poker Tournament Speed

Every tournament has a set interval in which the blinds go up. This can range from every 3 minutes all the way up to every 2 hours. In fact, the biggest determining factor on how shallow starting stacks are is in how fast the blinds go up.

Also, hands played per hour has an impact on tournament speed. Live events play much slower than online tournaments. Therefore, the blind intervals have to be treated differently when figuring out speed.

Tournament Speed in Live Events

At most, you usually play about 30 hands per hour in a live tournament. This doesn’t give you much time to pick up premium hands if blinds are going up quickly. With that in mind, here is a commonly accepted breakdown of live tournament speed:

Tournament Speed in Online Events

Online, you can usually see between 60 and 90 hands per hour. This dramatically changes the calculations for tournament speed. Slow tournaments are blind levels of 30 minutes or longer while 15 minutes is average speed. Turbos are typically 5 minutes while hyper-turbos have 3 minute blinds.

Tournament Strategy Is Largely Affected by Speed of the Blinds

Ultimately, tournament speed is controlled by how big your starting stack is and how fast the blinds go up. One way to look at it is to figure out how fast you will blind out of the tournament if you never played a single hand. This “patience factor” is helpful in deciding both what hands to play and how to play them.

One of my favorite authors, Arnold Snyder, explains these calculations in his popular book titled Poker Tournament Formula (click to see Amazon listing). I highly recommend it if you want to improve your tournament speed play.

Poker Tournament Types

There are two basic types of poker tournaments:

1. Multi-Table Tournaments (MTT)
2. Single-Table Tournaments (STT)

When Does a Tournament Begin?

• Scheduled – Scheduled tournaments have a set starting time.
• Sit N Go – Sit N Go (SNG) tournaments only begin once a certain number of plays have registered and “sat down”. Most SNGs are single table events and are often associated with satellites. However, two-table up to 5-table events are common as well.

How Long Does a Poker Tournament Last?

No matter what format, all tournaments are designed to play out until there is a winner. Generally, the winner is determined when one person has won the heads-up match and has all the chips.

Ways Tournaments Can End Early

There are two ways that a tournament can end early:

1. A deal is struck between the remaining players who agree to a final table payout. Once the deal is made, the event is often over. However, occasionally the players will agree to play out the event for bragging rights or for an amount set aside from the prize pool.
2. The event is a satellite with a set number of seats. In that case, there is no point in continuing on once the number of players left equals the number of seats in the prize pool.

Tournament Format Variations

There are numerous variations and sub-variations of poker tournaments. I will cover the most common types that you need to know about. They are:

1. Bounty Tournaments
2. Spin N Go’s
3. Shootouts
4. Satellites
5. Double or Nothings

What Is a Bounty Tournament?

In bounty tournaments (sometimes called knockouts), a portion of the prize pool is set aside as a “bounty”. Whenever someone is knocked out, the person that won their chips is immediately awarded the bounty. The introduction of a bounty alters the optimal strategy and makes loose calls of all-ins more frequent.

What Is a Spin N Go?

First created on Pokerstars, a spin n go is a fast-paced three-person sit n go that features 3-minute blinds and a prize pool that varies from event to event. The prize pool is randomly selected as a multiplier of between 2 times to 3000 times the buy-in. Players start with 500 chips in a winner take all format.

What Is a Shootout Tournament?

Shootout tournaments are basically multiple sit n go’s played over multiple rounds. At the start, there are a pre-set number of tables with between 2 and 10 players each. In the first round, play continues until there is one winner on each table. In the next round, all of the winners start anew on a new table. The rounds continue until the final table is reached and an ultimate winner determined.

Poker Payout Calculator Excel

What Is a Satellite?

A satellite is usually a sit n go where the prize pool is an entry into a larger buy-in poker tournament. Buy-ins to each satellite determine how many “tickets” are awarded. Sometimes only the winner gets a ticket but often there are multiple seats to be won. Satellites can be an STT or an MTT.

What Is a Double or Nothing?

Sometimes called “double-ups”, a double or nothing tournament has a flat payout structure where half the field wins twice their buy-in amount. In another variation is called, called “triple-ups”, one-third of the field wins three times their buy-in.

What’s the Best Poker Beginner Strategy?

How To Use Poker Calculator

A variety of different poker styles have been successful over the years. Therefore, there is not a one size fits all strategy. Even so, I first recommend that you learn the basic rules and fundamentals and then read a book called “Harrington on Hold’em.”

“HoH” is about as basic as it gets for tournament strategy and is a great starting point for learning how to play tournament poker hands.

Once you have played a few hundred tournaments and have a better grasp on them, I suggest that you move on to a more aggressive strategy which is laid out in “Poker Tournament Formula“, which I mentioned earlier.

Do You Recommend an Online Poker Site to Practice On?

To give yourself the best chance of success as a new player, I recommend choosing a poker site that is not too big yet not too small, that caters more to newer or recreational players.

• For players in the United States, I recommend Ignition Poker, which has anonymous games. This keeps pros from tracking your play over the long-term and taking advantage of your weaknesses.
• For players outside the United States, that cannot play on Ignition, I recommend Bodog. Bodog shares it’s player pool with Ignition and also has anonymous games.
• If you cannot play on either of the sites mentioned above, try PartyPoker or 888 Poker.

I recommend avoiding Pokerstars as a new player. They have the toughest games in the world which make it very hard to win for a newer players.

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed this crash course on how poker tournaments work. If there is something I failed to mention or a question that was unanswered, please let me know in the comments.

Tournament Poker Payout Calculator

Thanks for reading and now go win that tournament!

Related Questions

Video Poker Payout Calculator

Who can play in a poker tournament? In general, unless it is a close event anyone that has the entry fee may play in a poker tournament. This is what makes the World Series of Poker so intriguing. Unlike other sports, you can compete against the best players in the world without having to qualify in some way.

Poker Tournament Payouts

When can you call clock in poker? Anyone may call clock on another player at any time during a poker tournament. However, this is usually only done in rare cases when a player is taking an inordinate amount of time to act. Once clock is called, a floorperson comes to the table and gives the challenged player one minute to complete his or her action. If the clock runs out before the “on the clock” player acts, the hand is declared dead and is folded.

What is ROI? ROI is an acronym that stands for “Return On Investment.” ROI is measured as a percentage based on how much money a poker player wins once buy-ins are subtracted from their winnings. To figure out your ROI, divide your net profit by your investment and times it by 100. For example, let’s say you win $15,000 in poker tournaments and paid $12,000 in buy-ins. Your net profit is $3,000. So, $3,000/$15,000= 0.2. When you times .2 times 100, you get 20%. Therefore, your ROI is 20%.