Hoping to step up from Boot Camp to WCOOP? Here are 4 poker skills you should work on before the prestigious series kicks off…

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Stepping up from a WCOOP Boot Camp to the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is a leap that requires more than just a basic understanding of the game. 

To succeed in this prestigious series, players must hone specific skills that go beyond the fundamentals. From mastering bankroll management to developing a healthy routine that sustains you through the grind, these four essential poker skills will not only prepare you for WCOOP but also help you thrive in the highly competitive environment. 

Let’s break those poker skills down. 

Bankroll management

No ifs, ands or buts. This is the number one skill all players need to master because no matter how good at the game you are, you can no longer play if you go broke.

Playing within bankroll management rules takes the pressure off and lets you have fun throughout WCOOP, rather than playing too big and feeling like you need to chase losses.

PokerStars Team Pro Sebastian Huber told us: “Focus on your bankroll management. There are enough tournaments for every bankroll and don`t feel rushed to play anything bigger. 

“On the other side, there is nothing wrong with taking a shot on a bigger tournament or playing satties. Just try not to overdue it, once in a while is fine.”

Huber provides some great tips on game selection, adjusting at different stakes, dealing with losses and more in the article below.

From $100 to $10K: How to build a bankroll by Sebastian ‘peace&loove’ Huber

Healthy routine

WCOOP is a long series and playing several days of week can lead to burnout without a healthy daily routine in place.

Exercise. Fresh air. Good food. Lots of water. Standing, whenever possible. Study. Play. All of these things should be factored into your WCOOP routine. Taking care of yourself is one of the most important poker skills.

“My daily routine will be quite simple and easy to repeat during that series,” Huber told us.

Check out his full daily routine, plus a bunch of other useful tournament series tips, right here.

Satellite poker skills

Satellites are a fantastic way for players with lower bankrolls to access major tournaments, particularly throughout a series like WCOOP where there are big events every day and buy-ins can quickly build up.

If you can win your way into a tournament that you could never normally play due to bankroll management (see above), you not only have a shot at cashing for an amount that can significantly boost your bankroll, but you also get to play with better players giving you the experience to learn from. Let’s be honest, the bigger the tournament the more exciting it is to play, too.

So improving your satellite skills could have a big impact on your WCOOP. The thing is, many players approach satellites the exact same way they do regular MTTs and this is a big mistake. 

What is the main difference between playing satellites and regular tournaments? It’s not that the prizes are tickets to another event rather than a cash; that does not affect expected value and each ticket has its monetary worth. 

The main difference is that, in satellites, the prize pool does not increase incrementally from the start of the pay-out structure to first place. Rather, the top X players all receive the same reward – entry into the bigger event. It is, therefore, not winning that constitutes the goal of satellites, but surviving longer than most of the field. It might be that the top 20 from a field of 300 will earn a ticket and so our goal is to outlast 280 players, even if we have just one chip left when the bubble bursts.

Let’s learn how we can improve our chances of survival:

3 Top Tips for Playing in Poker Satellites

How to Satellite into High Stakes Tournaments

Dealing with downswings

Poker is great when it’s all going well. It’s the best game in the world and it feels like you’re never going to have a losing session again. However, the reality is very different. 

There are very few graphs that trend continuously upwards without any significant losing periods. This is poker, there is variance and there will be downswings. It’s how you deal with one that really counts, but it’s one of the toughest poker skills to master.

Before we get into the main ways to deal with a downswing, it’s important to note that you can do some overall work to help avoid them – or at least make them less severe – in the future. 

The solution is simple, you can’t play your A-Game all the time, so you need to work on improving your B, C and D game, heck even your X, Y and Z games. Raising the floor on the worst version of yourself will help improve your bottom line just as much as improving your A Game. Putting that into practice takes a lot of work though. 

Now let’s take a look at how to deal with a downswing and come out the other side of WCOOP with a bankroll still intact.

How to deal with Downswings

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