WCOOP Main Event Strategy

Ok, seriously this IS NOT a brag. However, as some of you may know, I qualified for this $5,200 buy in event last weekend. My history in MTT's is pretty poor, sometimes I make it to the money, often I don't and very rarely do I make it deep. So there will be approx 2-3k players and a big proportion of them will be the best players on the planet. WTF am I going to do to get to the money? Serious responses please and a summary of how you decent MTT'ers approach MTT's. ANy help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dude, I suck at MTT's, so no advice, but I couldn't resist saying congrats on qualifying...

Suggest clarifying whether your primary interest is in making the money (which in this event is a significant chunk of change relative to your investment in qualifying, I assume) or going deep, and prob pm'ing the MTT gurus to post here...

Rex is the only member here I can think of who has experience playing consistently in higher level MTT's. I am not sure high high he has played - I know he has played a lot of Sunday warm-ups and millions that these guys play in. He has played in higher buy-ins too. I also know he has had some cashes in them recently.

I will pm you.

Play tight!! Don't bluff all your chips away... This will be a deep stack tourney, so you don't have to worry about being eliminated early. You should be able to get close to the money by playing good cards. You are still going to need to catch a big hand or two in order to get deep, but if you are patient you should be able to get there.... TAKE IT DOWN!!!

Strip your game down, back to basics. Play only premium hands, patience, patience, patience.....live to play another hand!! Avoid races, don`t play small pairs in middle position......most of all IMHO AK is OVERRATED!!!! Best of luck!!!!

Take the tourney $ and run. Your edge likely isn't big and the variance is gonna suck.

He doesn't have that option.

This ^^ +1


Snow

What I said lol.

OK what she said


Snow

If you win a WCOOP ticket it has to be used for WCOOP events.

Well bleh. Obviously, you should probably be a bit more conservative than normal, since minimizing variance would be in your interest. Normally, small cashes in a MTT don't affect your bankroll or ROI much. But assuming you satty'd in, your ROI is going to be huge if you cash at all. So minimizing your variance and ensuring you cash is probably the best route.

Especially considering the structure is so slow, you can nit it up and find good spots for your chips.

Cant you just sell the W$? you will take a loss but its still better than playing the tournament and losing

No he cant. He asked pokerstars and they said no but u could split the ticket up and play some smaller ones but thats not a option either for him.

Just nit it up imo, 400BB starting stacks and 30min levels means you have a tone of time to get in the groove of things before u have to make a move.
Your edge is never gonna be big(or any at all, no offence)in the long run in this so just avoid high varience plays since just mini cashing would be a nice chunk of change.

But yeah i suck at MTTs so my advice is probably rubbish but ones again, GL and TID!!!

Do NOT nit it up: at 400bb you should be in there trying to get the most from your massive implied odds.

If you only play big hands deep stacked people are only going to give you action when the crack your overpair, as you will have basically announced what your hand is by your tight play.

Some random advice (all of which I'm sure you already know):

1. Try not to play out of position with one pair hands like AQo. If you do, play a bit more passively, and keep the pot small.

2. Play ALOT of hands in position, especially against the weaker players at the table, or those that you think you have a line/read on their play.

3. Don't be afraid to try to make some plays: squeeze, float, 4bet steal, etc. If they don't work out, well, you should be deep enough that your 'M' wont be effected too badly early on.

4. Force yourself to think WAY MORE about your opponents hand/range than your own in this tournament, more than you ever have before-- you will be surprised how often you find spots where your own cards don't matter in the least. The more you can do this, the longer throughout the tournament you can maintain the discipline to do it as fatigue sets in, the better you will do.

4. Identify your target: value bet the calling stations, bluff the weak-tight nits on that third flush card. NOT the other way around!

5. Make sure you have some sort of "endurance plan" whereby you are not going to get tired and hungry throughout the long event. Have food, drink, chamber pot, and masseuse nearby.

6. Run good.

U have to adjust ur strategy in order to be successful on a regular basis.
Maybe the most important advice is to be VERY careful with bluffs.
Beginners are often very loose and feel obliged to call even with a weak pair or another mediocre hand so be careful not to waste chips on that.
Secondly u can use this so called calling stations as a big boost to ur chip stack if u have a strong hand.
Dont slow play too much in general in order to maximize ur winnings if u get a decent hand.
Dont drink too much / let the others do that for u. LOL !!!


Avoid preflop all ins (even with a monster its often a coinflip) and u dont wanna lose ur ships to somebody u can easily outplay.

Stick to those general rules and add a proper preflop selection regardin ur hand and u should easily be in the money.

Yeah thanks for the advice guys n gals. The structure seems a really nice one, 20k starting stacks, 30 min levels as sindri said starting at 25/50 blinds I think.

BTW as has been said, I have to play this event, I satty'ed in and selling the T$ is not an option unfortunately. Can't remember but I think the regional satty cost me $11 and there was WCOOP prizes available, so yeah it's cool I get a $5k buy in, but I was sort of hoping I could sell the T$. Anyways, I'm gonna give it my best shot, and tbh, cashing is my main priority as it's gonna be in the region of $7k I think.

Welldone Jagsti in winning a sat to this unique event. Most of us will b drooling to play in this event, so good luck.
The main thing is that u got into this MTT cheap. SO HAVE FUN!!!
U cant play too tight as ur very very deep in this tourney. N by only playin premium card ur only projecting ur tightness so ur not gonna get much action.
IMO i'd:

1. Play alot of cheap pots with small PP, suited connectors, any 2 face cards in late pos.

2. U gotta b confident in these things. Altho it's online u cant b weak or nitty or the better players will take advantage of u.

3. Pick on the nitty ppl n try moves like floating, stealing, check-raising etc.

4. If u've got a pro at ur table, dont fear him! He's only human and im sure he'll bleed of chips like any1 else.

5. Attack the bubble!! Lets say when the bubble pops u'll get $7K, thats alot of money to ppl who have sattalite there way in and will play snug to win that nice $7K, take advantage of their tightness as this is the best time to start stealing and chip up!!

6. Dont b afraid to get ur whole stack in when ur a fav. Im guessing that this huge tourney will strike fear into ppl when thre MTT life is on the line. (only do this to ppl who u've seen fold have put sum chips into the middle)

7. MAKE NOTES on ppl!!! It keeps u focused on the game and if u do make it onto the 2nd day then u can b stress free from how ppl played the other day n concerntrate on ur play.

8. ermm make sure u turn off ur mobile, tv and tell the world that ur not gonna b avalible for the next 8hours lol. Stock up on red bull, cigs or weed, get some food ready and a chamber pot so u dont have to get up to pee n miss that AA while ur away lol.

Hope this helps mate and the best of luck to ya! Remeber to have fun at the end of the day.

+1 to what AG says here.... especially don't NIT it up in early levels on deepstacks... way too transparent.

I watch alot of the top MTT players in tournaments online and have watched many of their MTT training videos. Alot of the more aggressive players are playing the player... and you'll often see stuff like 3-betting real light & then even 4-bet bluffs (knowing the other players is 3-betting light) (<<<< there's ALOT of stuff like this).

I think it'd also help to know which players on your table are the TOP guys (obviously knowing how they play would be even better, lol).
I'd run Topshark during the MTT to get an idea of who the regs. are (although I imagine almost all of them will be regs.)

Dude-out of context but whats your pokerstars name.. I would like to watch and rail ya.

Had no clue stacks were that deep. And while as you suggest he should be adjusting to deep-stacked play, I still think that he can still nit it up while making these adjustments.

Keep away from the barely break even semi-bluffs, small edges, and high variance plays. Make huge hands and push big edges post flop. Playing nitty doesn't mean sticking to just group 1 hands, it just means that you're not out to push every small edge that presents itself. Especially for the first day at least.

Good post otherwise though, especially the part about running good.

yeah whats ur pokerstars username. i wanna rail u too

Try not to think of it as the WCOOP Main Event, think about it as just another tourney that you would usually play, although this one is longer and a lot deeper stacked so you have a lot more options with what hands to play

Best of luck to you Jag. I admit I got curious and figured out your ps name and am railing you right now. Just watched you min reraise the co from the btn with Q 10 5 flop then check turn and river and fold to a large bet. Hope it starts going better for you!

Been silently railing for a long time but will have to go to bed soon. Hope you are still in tomorrow!

I've never played this size of a buy in tourney before but there is one big error I am noticing: Stop using the auto fold button - especially in the blinds! You notice your blinds, especially your bb is being raised every single time by either the co or mp+2? Because you are doing this - stop it! If you aren't using the auto buttons it sure looks like you are because you are folding so very fast! They are beating up on your bb because of this - stop doing it!!!

OMG you just got so lucky!!! VN! AI PF from mp with KQ os, called by CO with JJ and SB with QQ and flops a K! Nice!!!

Had to do it, getting really shortstacked, and not much room for a raise/fold. Better to be lucky than goot sometimes

I understand - but please stop with the auto folds! You are allowing your blinds to get stolen too often because of it. You're hanging in there and that is awesome!

Yeah I was gutted when that UCP guy went out, I was r/r him a bit with mostly air. But seriously, just nothing to defend with against the others and there all calling stations calling 3bets.

You did good against mp2 (seat 4) - he's backed off since you stood up for your bb and won that hand. The CO - or in other words Seat 5 - he's not going anywhere at all. Anytime you bet he will call and try to bully you. Do not tangle with him again unless you have a good ppr, preferably JJ +. He's got too many chips and is determined to take you out from the looks of it. The flops have been pretty low everytime you tangle with him and I'm assuming you've had face cards? Don't get me wrong - if you end up on the btn again and think you can isolate seat 5 with a premium hand of any kind go for it - you're too short stacked now to pass up a premium hand. Just try to isolate when you shove and know seat 5 is probably calling you with any 2 cards.

*PHEW!!! I told ya seat 5 was calling you down! Very lucky again it was a chop with the KJ os! He did think about it though first - this is a good sign. We need PS to deal you a bigger hand, looks like you're still pretty card dead.
Edit: LMAO! He is actually complaining about that? LOL LOL LOL! He's got over 100k in chips, you've got 10k and he's calling that a bad beat and he's sick of them? What a wuss!!!! Now I'm really hoping you beat him in an ai!

*Suggestion: When seat 3 folded to your all in and guessed you had AA, instead of saying it was either AK, 88, 99 etc; you should have just said Good Read. This way you can pick a spot like CO or BTN and shove ai again if everyone folds around to you so you can steal. People are likely to fold to you, even a shorter stack if they think they are up against a premium ppr. Just a thought - maybe you really did have a big ppr and said that to get them to call and double you up. Not sure but nice job.

He's such a nit, i thought he'd insta call there after me shoving KJo, yeah I had AA.

Whats your PS name? would love to rail ya