How to make the most of WCOOP? Learn from the best at EPT Barcelona
For dedicated PokerStars players, August and September represents the very busiest time of the year. EPT Barcelona is a clear “must play”, and the same goes for the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which starts less than a week after the end of the fun in Catalonia.
While some players might prefer a long break before starting a grind on the scale of WCOOP, others clearly feel that getting some momentum going is the best preparation. It’s the only way to explain a Day 4 EPT Barcelona Main Event field that is full of WCOOP veterans.
All of Jerry Odeen, aka “Perrymejsen”, Lucas “Rochinha2011” Rocha, Fabiano “kovalski1” Kovalski, Kelvin “Kelvin FP:AR” Kerber, Juan “B4NKR0LL3R” Vecino, Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs, Jason “jdtjpoker” Wheeler, and Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka played into Day 4 of the EPT, and all of them are very well known, and well decorated, on the WCOOP tables as well.
That’s not even mentioning Tobias Leknes who, as “Senkel92”, has 13 WCOOP titles. The only difference for the Leknes is that he can no longer compete in WCOOP because of licensing restrictions in his home country of Norway. But he will remain near the top of the all-time WCOOP standings for a long time, even if he never plays in the series again.
One of the most decorated WCOOP players around, Tobias Leknes
WCOOP veterans in EPT Main Event Day 4
- 13 WCOOP titles – Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes
- 7 – Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen
- 4 – Fabiano “kovalski1” Kovalski
- 3 – Lucas “Rochinha2011” Rocha
- 2 – Kelvin “Kelvin FP:AR” Kerber, Juan “B4NKR0LL3R” Vecino, Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs
- 1 – Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka
This deep concentration of WCOOP talent offered the chance to grab a couple of these stars to pick their mind about their plans for WCOOP, and their advice to new players preparing for the grind. Lali Tournier, a two-time WCOOP champion, was also on a break from the €3K No Limit Hold’em event and offered some crucial advice as well.
“WCOOP and SCOOPs are the two times of the year where I play pretty much every single day,” says Brazilian star Kelvin Kerber. “I’m always excited for that marathon. My life goes around the WCOOP schedule. I like to play the mixed games and it’s almost the only time of the year that we have this type of tournament running everyday. So I make all my routine around it.”
Kelvin Kerber will be aiming to add to his two WCOOP titles
Kerber won his first WCOOP title in 2017, in a $27 buy-in 5-Card PLO 6-Max event, and says the series still brings memories flooding back of his early days as a pro, when he would play online tournaments pretty much to the exclusion of everything else.
“Usually I just play twice a week these days, but during SCOOP and WCOOP, those are the days I remember my old days where I grinded hard every single day,” he says. “I take the Friday off, as PokerStars lets us, and everything else goes around WCOOP.”
‘TAKE A DAY OFF IF YOU NEED TO’
The same goes for Finnish crusher Jerry Odeen, who had steered “Perrymejsen” to seven WCOOP titles since 2021.
“Certainly it’s a big time of the year for me,” Odeen says. “I play less these days, but it’s basically holy. Both SCOOP and WCOOP have been the main grind for me. I have a family these days, but my wife knows that at these times of the year I’m not that available. You’ll see me three hours a day basically.”
Odeen says he tends to leave it relatively late to analyse the schedule and mainly aims to avoid difficult conflicts.
As “Perrymejsen” online, Jerry Odeen has seven WCOOP wins
“If there are two different mixed games, I think maybe I can’t play both of them because it would be too hard to play them at the same time,” he says. And although he is a seasoned grinder, his main advice to anyone new to WCOOP is to learn when to take a break.
“Take a day off if you need to,” Odeen says. “Playing six days a week, 12 hours a day, for three and a half weeks is really exhausting. So take a day off if you feel like you need to. If there are good tournaments tomorrow, there will be good tournaments the day after tomorrow as well.”
‘LOOK FOR FREEROLLS’
Lali Tournier, who won her two WCOOP titles in 2021, says that preparation is essential — not just for mind and body, but for financial management purposes too.
“It’s a marathon, right,” Tournier says. “I take rests, I try to sleep early and study every day a little bit, before I start playing. I do exercises, work out. On the first day, I’ll look at everything and try to organise myself for the week, to prepare my events for a week.”
Tournier first played WCOOP in 2012, grinding up through the lower buy-in events, developing skills and confidence along the way. She recommends starting small, and looking out for various promotions that can help new players get involved in WCOOP without putting their bankrolls in jeopardy.
Lali Tournier advises looking around for some of the many WCOOP freerolls
“Now I feel much more confident, more prepared, that’s for sure,” Tournier says. “When I started playing, I was not able to play the Main Event because it was very expensive to me. So that’s a big difference for me now, because the Main Event is very exciting.”
She adds: “Bankroll management is very important. Me and Rafa [Moraes, her husband and fellow pro] have a home game, and we give some tickets to WCOOP to people who maybe don’t have a bankroll. We have some tournaments where we can give those away. So look for freerolls.”
No one denies that WCOOP is tough. It wouldn’t be the World Championship if anybody could win it. But this should also be the most anticipated and exciting time of the year for online poker players. Certainly Kerber thinks so:
“Treat it as a major,” Kerber says. “Treat it as a very important tournament. Prepare yourself. Understand it’s a grind. The tournaments are very deep. You get to use all your tools, all your skills, so get ready for it. Use your breaks well. But enjoy it. It’s a very, very, prestigious series, and it’s very fun.”
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