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  • Randy Saylors aka Toom
Texas Holdem / Poker Strategy Author
Texas Holdem / Poker Strategy Author


Browse all of Randy's poker articles

INTERNET TEXAS HOLDEM : THE BOOKS

Internet Texas Holdem : Winning Strategies of an Online Pro | Texas Holdem Odds & Probabilities

 

The MTT Scene - February 2006
The world of online MTTs continually gets more exciting. This is especially so for ITH members, who have recently had good showings in several of the larger online tournaments. There have even been a few appearances in World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour events.  This month, read about the new ITH Poker League, which will award an entry to the Main Event at the 2006 World Series of Poker. The biggest daily and weekly online tournaments are mentioned, along with over $5000 in daily freeroll prizes.

ITH Poker League kicks off February 1, Sending Players to WSOP

ITH Members can participate in the all-new ITH Poker League, which is a series of online tournaments (including some freerolls) that will award over $15,000 in prizes, including entries into World Series of Poker events.

A $12,000 Main Event package and a $2500 travel and tournament package will be awarded to top league finishers. Additional prizes include stakes in Matthew Hilger's World Series entry, free Poker Tutor lessons, and cash. Full details and restrictions are found on the ITH Poker League homepage.

ITH Members Take Home Big Cashes and Play in Big Live Tournaments

Mclelands recently bested 604 other players to win over $4500 in a $30+3 MTT at PokerStars. This followed Ikeee's $4600 win in a $50+5 PokerStars MTT. Congratulations to both of you!

Our most recent big finish in the popular PokerStars Sunday tournament was Tanya Peck's 24th place finish (out of almost 4000 entrants) for a $3100 prize.

The Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas was the site of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. ITH Members Suited_Jock and Osmosis participated, but were unfortunate to finish out of the money despite good showings.

Finally, Primitive played in the recent European Poker Tour’s Scandinavian Open, where he finished 36th of almost 300 entrants.

Paradise Masters Week

Paradise Poker recently completed an exciting nine days of online tournament action. Over $3 million in prizes were guaranteed for the nine events in Limit Holdem, No-Limit Holdem, and Pot-Limit Omaha.

The series culminated with the $1000 buy-in Masters IV, which guaranteed a prize pool of $1 million. Over nine hours of online play reduced the field to the final table of ten, when play was paused. Those ten and their guests will be flown on an expense-paid trip to the beaches of Costa Rica to play the final table live on February 11. The first place finisher pockets more than $331,000.

The date of the next Masters tournament has been set for April 9.

World Series of Poker Satellites

Summer of 2006 is approaching quickly, and Las Vegas is gearing up for the World Series of Poker. More sites have announced WSOP satellites. If you cannot win the ITH poker league, you might want to take a shot at one of the many online sites’ qualifiers. The newest, most exciting group of WSOP is that offered by the Prima Network sites.

Omaha Hi-Lo players can participate in the WSOP’s Event 24, July 15, a $3000 buy-in Limit Hi-Lo tournament. The Prima Sites are offering a $5900 travel package (including entry, travel, hotel, and spending money). Players can qualify in three steps (1 of 10 advance to the next level), starting at $5.90+.50, followed by $59+5 and $590+50. Any level can be entered via a qualifier or direct buy-in.

Seven-card stud players will appreciate the $7936 package to Event 28, to be held July 19th. Qualifying levels are $31+2.50 (1 in 8), $248+20 (1 in 4), and $992+80 (1 in 8).

Limit specialists will want to check out the Event 36 qualifier for the July 24 $1500 Limit Holdem Shootout tournament. These qualifiers are even easier to enter. One of eight runners from step one ($21.50+1.25) advances to step two ($172+10). From then, one in five make step three ($860+50), and one in five win the tournament entry and travel package.

Prima’s package to the Main Event, event #39, might be the richest offered by online sites. Valued at $14,500, it includes travel, hotel, buy-in, and spending money. One of every ten entrants in twice-daily $14.50+1.30 MTTs continues to a Saturday $172+10 tournament. Twenty percent (1/5!) of those entrants continue to the monthly final, where 1 in 20 players wins the big prize.

The Prima Network tops everything off with the most complete WSOP package available anywhere. This prize package is worth more than $130,000, and includes travel, 60 nights’ hotel, $3500 spending money, and buy-ins to as many WSOP events as possible. A series of qualifying MTTs leads up to the May 20 final, but only 1 in 150 will win.

Other sites currently running WSOP satellites include Absolute, UltimateBet, Paradise, and Pacific. The Sites with the most qualifiers in recent years (including PokerStars, Party, PokerRoom, and Full Tilt) have yet to begin satellites.

Freerollin’

As always, the largest freeroll around is the Paradise Poker Million Dollar Freeroll. The next big tournament is in July. Entry is obtained by finishing in the top nine places of one of three daily free tournaments. As many as 2500 players enter each qualifier, so the odds are long, but the potential payoff is huge! As with all large Paradise Poker events, play will pause when the final table is set, and the ten players will be flown to a mystery exotic location to play the final table live in paradise.

A tour of the daily freerolls at various sites:
Poker Network sites(Most notable PokerRoom) has three $500 freerolls daily. Prima Network sites feature 4 daily $1000 freerolls. Empire has 5 tournaments daily, awarding $1600 total. PartyPoker’s nine daily scheduled freerolls include $9400 in prize money.

Big Money Underwear Poker

“Underwear Poker” is sometimes used to describe internet-only games, since there certainly is no dress code. Several sites have huge weekly guaranteed prize pools for their “underwear” tournaments. Here’s a recap including site, day, time (EST), buy-in, and guaranteed prize pool:
  • Pacific Poker, Sunday 1600, $65+5, $50,000.
  • Absolute Poker, Saturday 1630, $150+12, $100,000.
  • PokerStars, Daily, 2215, $11 rebuy, $45,000.
  • PokerStars, Sunday, 1530, $200+15, $750,000.
  • UltimateBet, Wednesday, 2100, $200+15, $75,000.
  • UltimateBet, Sunday, 2100, $500+30, $125,000.
  • Empire, Last Sunday of the month, 2100, $250+20, $200,000.
  • Empire, Daily high rollers, 2230, $500+30, no guarantee.
  • Empire, Daily high rollers, 2330, $1000+50, no guarantee.
  • Party, Sunday, 1630, $200+15, $500,000, minimum of 400 places paid.
  • Party, February 18, 1630, $600+40, $1 million.
  • Poker Network, February 11-12 (2 day tournament), $1000+0, over $600,000.
  • Poker Network, Sunday, 1400, $300+20, $80,000.
  • Prima Network, Sunday, 1530, $50+5, $100,000.


The biggest change to this lineup is the increase of the PokerStars guaranteed prize pool from $500K to $750K.

Poker Network sites are running a month-long series of tournaments called Ace of Aces. The $150+12 tournaments are held twelve times monthly. Any player winning 4 of 12 automatically wins a World Series Main Event entry. Over $10,000 in additional prizes are awarded to top finishers on the monthly leaderboard.

Upcoming Live Tournaments with Online Qualifiers

PokerStars is sending players to the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo, March 7-11. The $16,000 prize package includes buy-in, resort accommodations, and cash.

The World Poker Tour Championship is April 18-24 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Sites running qualifiers include PokerRoom, Paradise, and PokerStars.

Prima sites are awarding a $7600 entry/travel package to the WPT World Poker Challenge March 27-30 in Reno. The three stages of qualifying start at $7.60+.70, and one tenth of entrants advance in each level.

PartyPoker is awarding $5000 travel/entry packages to the European World Series of Poker, to be held March 2-5 in Vienna, Austria.

The fifth annual Party Poker Million cruise sets sail March 12 from Fort Lauderdale. Stops include Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. On board will be a Limit Holdem tournament with an expected prize pool of $7 million. Qualifying MTTs have ended, but sit-and-go Cruise Steps can be played to win a prize package.

St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles is the stop for the World Poker Showdown, April 29-May 8. Online satellites will be announced soon at multiple sites.

Full Tilt Poker offers a Winner’s Choice tournament for live tournament hopefuls. The Saturday $200+16 tournament gives winners the option of several packages, all worth $12,000:

  • WPT LA Poker Classic, February 17-21, Los Angeles
  • WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, February 27-March 3, San Jose, California
  • WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, April 6-9, Foxwoods Casino, Connecticut
  • WSOP Circuit event at Caesar’s Palace, April 12-14, Las Vegas


Strategy Corner

Since qualifying for larger tournaments is the main focus of this month’s MTT Scene, perhaps a look at qualifier strategy is in order.

Early round play in qualifier MTTs is quite similar to cash prize tournaments. It is the bubble play that changes dramatically. When several players all win the same prize, finishing with the most chips holds no meaning.

When the bubble of a qualifier approaches (when approximately two thirds of the remaining players will win), the largest stacks should generally stop playing all but premium hands and let the smaller stacks knock each other out. The exception to this general rule is against a very small stack player if it will be heads up. The value gained by knocking out one more player is worth the risk of calling a small all-in, even with less than premium holdings.

Middle stack players must take careful note of the aggressiveness of the remaining players in the tournament. Some players seem to take no notice of the flat prize distribution, and seem to be playing for first place. If this is the case in a qualifier, a middle stack player is often best served by playing very conservatively, since the aggression of the other players will often end the tournament quickly. It is important to watch the other tables (if there are enough players remaining) to note the aggression level of the other table(s).

If middle stack players notice the tournament becoming passive, they must change gears and become aggressive in stealing opportunities. Any hand can be raised if the player is first to act on a hand. Caution must be exercised, though, if the players left to act behind have either very small or very large stacks. Other medium stacks are usually the best to attack.

Finally, small stack players have a tough decision to make. If the tournament is very active, sometimes 10-15 hands can eliminate 3-4 more players. If this is the case, very tight play is possibly in order. However, if the tournament slows to a crawl, a short-stacked player must take a stand at some point, going all-in with any decent hand.

Discuss qualifier (and all MTT) strategy in the ITH MTT Forum.  To talk with the author about these tournaments and others, or to ask questions about this article, visit this thread in the ITH Forums.
 
Randy Saylors aka toom's Texas Holdem Articles