- About Tournaments
- Tournament Types
- Tournament Rules
- Prize Structure
- Satellites to Live Tournaments
- Tournament Leader Board
- VIP Tournaments
- Weekly Round-2
- Online Tournaments
- Sunday Million
- Sunday Warm-Up
- More Sunday Majors
- WCOOP
- SCOOP
- WBCOOP
- WCP
- Live Events
- EPT
- PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
- APPT
- LAPT
- UKIPT
- NAPT
- RPT
- CSPT
- IPT
- ANZPT
- PokerStars Macau
- WSOP
- WPT
- Aussie Millions
World Series Strategy
Playing the World Series of Poker* is the pinnacle of many poker players’ careers and it’s vital to think about what strategy you will use to qualify online, and then how you will negotiate the Main Event once you make it to Las Vegas. And who better to pass on that knowledge than Team PokerStars Pro.
First, EPT London winner Vicky Coren take us through how to qualify via multi-table satellite tournaments on PokerStars, and then current WSOP* Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate passes on invaluable tips on how to play the big one.
How to play WSOP* multi-table satellites
By Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren
The first thing to say about super-satellites is that they are a variant of poker as different from normal tournaments as 2-7 triple draw is different from Hold’em.
A professional player has the option of running three parallel careers: cash poker (to make bread-and-butter living money), tournament poker (to go for the big glorious win) and satellite poker (to try and reach the big events cheaply). And he or she would have to play three different styles, for each of these parallel careers.
The absolute key, in a super-satellite, is that you are not playing to win the tournament outright. You are playing to be one of the five or ten or hundred people who collect an identical prize: a seat in the WSOP, for example. It doesn’t matter if you finish the satellite with 100,000 chips or 1. The result is the same.
Therefore you must play tighter, and gamble less than you would in a standard play-to-win tournament. You must also keep a close eye on the PokerStars lobby at all times, to gauge other people’s chip counts. Far more than usual, you are playing against everyone in the tournament, rather than everyone on your table.
At the start (assuming there are no rebuys), there are two ways of calculating how many chips you need. To work out the average chip count required to win a seat, divide the total chips in play by the number of seats available to be won. But there's a simpler way of doing it that will be a no-brainer for anyone who’s good at maths but super-handy for anyone who isn’t: if you know that 1 in 10 players will win a seat, just multiply your starting stack by 10. If 1 in 20 will win a seat, multiply your stack by 20. And so on. So, let's say 1 in 15 will win a seat and you start with 3000 in chips: 3000 x 15 = 45,000 and that will be average chips when the tournament ends. That’s your ultimate target, not first place.
To begin with, you can play a “normal” game, aiming to accumulate the target amount. But if you get close to your target, you should forget “normal tournament” strategy (which would have you bullying other players with your big stack) and tighten up, playing a defensive style to protect the chips you have.
Once the number of remaining players is only double the number of seats to be won, you must never take your eye off the chip counts in the lobby. If your stack is in the lower half, you must take a stand while you have enough chips to put pressure on your opponents. But if you have a big stack – where in a normal tournament you’d increase the aggression to lock up first place – you must be super-tight, especially if you are higher up the chip count than there are people to be eliminated (eg. you’re in the top five, with only four left to be knocked out). If you are chip leader, that’s the one time in poker when – faced with a lot of action, involving all-ins and other big stacks - it can be correct to pass aces before the flop.
Never forget you are trying to win a seat, not win the tournament. That premise should define everything you do. And if you need encouragement: I know a guy who’s qualified for the EPT final in Monte Carlo with only 10 FPPs. That’s what it’s all about.
The best way to play the Main Event
By Team PokerStars Pro (and current World Champion) Peter Eastgate
A question I have been asked repeatedly is: “What is the best way, from a strategy perspective, to play the WSOP Main Event?” I think the Main Event is a unique tournament. The number of players is more than in any other big buy-in tournament and the quality of the players is also very varied.
A lot of recreational players play the event, either through qualification online or because it is THE tournament to play if you are going to take a shot at fame and fortune. This makes for a unique tournament and unlike a PokerStars EPT tournament, or a WPT event, it is very hard to come up with a pre-tournament strategy.
My personal strategy when winning the event last year was that I had no pre-tournament strategy! At a big event like this, there are so many unknown variables, such as table draw, quality of the cards dealt and, most importantly, the immediate emotional state of the other players at the table. I think you have to pay close attention to what is going on at the table - and how the other players are reacting to playing in such a big event.
It is very important to be in tune with your opponent’s emotional state and base your decisions on how you feel he or she is feeling in any given situation.
The key to playing in a long and hard tournament like this is to find the balance between accumulation of chips, and maintaining your chip stack. Obviously, the best way to maintain a healthy chip stack is through accumulation, but it is important to keep in mind what kind of risks you are willing to take in order to accumulate chips. In last year’s tournament I was proud of the fact that I was only all-in (with the chance of losing my entire chip stack) twice.
The reason this was possible was that the structure of the tournament is nice and slow. I had an above average chip stack most of the tournament and I did not play many hands where I had a lot of chips invested in the hand pre-flop. I played a kind of small-ball strategy that has become very popular among some of the better professional poker players, which in essence is a strategy that tries to control the pot size. This strategy was not pre-determined, but was the best feasible approach considering my table draws.
I have spoken to several very good young professional tournament players, who told me that they had tough table draws, in that the overall level of aggression on their table was very high, thus creating a much higher volatility. I was very lucky that my tables were fairly soft, which allowed me to slowly chip up and control the pot size, since very few of my opponents played back at me.
It is also important to understand that no two people are the same. When playing a long and grueling tournament like the Main Event it is very important to know yourself and your habits. Some people like running 10K before they play; some people eat fruit or smoke a pack of cigarettes. You have to do whatever makes you the most alert and physically fit to withstand the pressure of the tournament.
To sum up, I do not think there is a correct pre-tournament strategy that will guarantee success. Take every situation and evaluate throughout the tournament what strategy fits best to the situation you are faced with. That way you will have the best possible chance of making it far in the tournament. Always think a couple of steps ahead when you play a hand. “What will happen on the river if I call the turn?” And: “What amount will my opponent likely bet?” But always remember that there will be more tournaments in the future and that putting too much pressure on yourself will make you more tense.
You need be relaxed to make the right decisions, and stay cool when the money and pressure increases.
* WORLD SERIES OF POKER and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC ("Harrah's"). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerStars.com or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.
