With the recent passing of WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) for another year, some ‘MTTers’ are celebrating big scores and maybe even life changing money, while the vast majority of us are licking our wounds, exhausted, dreadfully wondering what could have been. Whether it’s WCOOP, SCOOP, WSOP or any other big tournament series, we as poker players naturally get ecstatic over the huge prize-pools and being one of the few lucky ones that get the glory and bankroll boost that comes with winning an event. Of course, most of us don’t realize our dreams and end up being frustrated, over-worked and – of course – poorer by the end of a series. But even if you brick all the major events, this doesn’t have to be the case.
There’s plenty of ways to alleviate the stress of a major series to ensure you don’t go insane or broke. Playing the right schedule, maintaining diet, exercise and sleep, and using resources to cut down on variance are all simple ways to make life easier during the rigorous grind of a series. Having the right focus and mindset will go a long way in ensuring your WCOOP, WSOP etc. is successful more often than not.
What to Play
Playing an optimal schedule and practicing proper bankroll management is always good, but is especially crucial during a big series. Before it starts, decide what events to play, based on buy-in and how strong your edge is. If you’ve never played Pot-Limit Omaha, don’t play a PLO event, even if it has an affordable buy-in and big guarantee. Adding more expensive tournaments in the middle of a series to chase losses or because you want to parlay winnings from small cashes in other events is a recipe for disaster. Setting your schedule before-hand helps with the temptation of not playing events you shouldn’t, as the stress of playing can cloud judgment and lead to more emotional decision making.
Aside from playing the right events, playing the right side games is also very important. During a big online series, the games are generally a lot tougher than other times of year. This is because a higher volume of pros and high-stakes regulars will be playing. Balancing your game selection with lower buy-ins and playing off-hours (times when the events aren’t running) is a good way to combat this because the top pros will be mostly be playing higher stakes MTTs while the series events are running. This means weaker fields, less variance and most importantly, more profit.
The same applies to a live series like the WSOP in Las Vegas. Take advantage of the juicy cash games around the city, as well as the side events that go on at various other casinos throughout the series. A lot of these events have lower buy-ins with better structures, then some of the smaller stakes tournies at the WSOP.
Whether playing live or online, entering satellites can be a great way to increase profits and lower variance during events. Understanding the rules and structure of a satellite is important in choosing what ones to play. For example, some satellites award must-play seats (if you win a seat you must play the tourney) while others give you the option of taking the cash equivalent of the seat. Some of them offer more value than others by having slower structures or a guaranteed amount of seats in the prize pool. These are all important factors in creating the ideal playing schedule.
What to Do
As important as choosing games is, playing in the right headspace is probably even more critical. Like game selection, this is always true, but is even more essential during big events. Because a series can be a long, hard grind, it’s easy to let volume get in the way of everyday life. Things like exercise, sleep and a social-life can easily be put on the back-burner during something like WCOOP or the WSOP. This can be very detrimental to performing at your peak and making good decisions consistently. There’s not much use in committing the hours to grind a series if you’re unable to play your A-game.
To keep yourself refreshed, make sure you schedule days off. Spend time with friends and family, doing things that take your mind off of poker. Also, stay on top of errands and personal relationships. Things will start to add up and you don’t need any additional stress during a series because you’ve put the rest of your life on pause. Utilizing your time off for rest should also be a priority. Getting enough sleep during your off-time will go a long way in preventing you from burning out before the series ends.
Diet and exercise is another important thing to stay on top of. The long hours make something like regular exercise an attractive thing to skip. The same goes with eating healthy meals. Doing a little planning will go a long way in both of these areas. Schedule exercise before you start poker for the day. Trying to fit it in afterwards will result in too many missed trips to the gym. Working out is the last thing most of us want to do after a long session. Planning out healthy, quickly prepared meals at the start of the day will also go a long way in making sure you get proper nutrition and don’t get hungry mid-session. There’s plenty of resources available online to help with your eating, sleeping and exercise habits so you can optimize the way you function.
Another thing you can do to alleviate the stress and variance of a big series is to sell or swap action. Often times, investors are interested in buying pieces of poker players in a given tournament. Selling action allows you to play higher-stakes games more affordably and can cut down on short-term variance significantly. Swapping action with other players at your skill level is also a great way to lower variance and increase your chances of having a big sweat. Taking advantage of these resources, as well as everything that was previously mentioned will help the next time a big tournament series comes around.
SkandarYunes
that was great, congrats.