I want to play in the WSOP next year and need a plan ...

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verneer's Blog

July 16 2011

I want to play in the WSOP next year and need a plan ...

For the first time in my life, I really wished I was in Vegas during the WSOP. There are three main reasons for this:

1. No major online poker. Huge bummer, especially when Full Tilt shut down world wide. More and more avenues for participating in poker were shut off and I found myself living vicariously through those immersed in poker - at the WSOP.

2. Twitter solidifying it's role in the poker universe. Yes, people used Twitter last year during the WSOP, but it seems like just about everyone was on Twitter this year - updating on a regular basis. This made anything happening easy to follow in real time. Yea Twitter! It's also really good at making you feel left out of a party. Damn Twitter.

3. Discussion of the soft fields. Since I've never played a live MTT, I'll just have to take people's word for it. Supposedly any solid online player has a major edge in some of the more popular events.

Now here is the kicker - not only do I want to play in the WSOP, I also want to not suck. In fact, I want to more than not suck - I want to feel good about my game.

My background is pretty much all online cash games at stakes up to 200NL. It's a mixture of 6-max (40%), FR (45%), and HU (15%) in terms of volume. I tend to have solid, steady results with limited variance. I have almost no MTT experience.

So my first question is ... assuming online poker doesn't get regulated in the next three months, what's the most +EV use of my time?

1. Move to Canadia, grind online MTT's.
2. Move to Vegas/LA/(?), grind live MTT's
3. Move to Vegas/LA/(?), grind live MTT's & Cash Games
4. Watch Moneymaker and Jamie Gold's victories, take it all in and mimic.

Entry Tags:

1670 Views | Comments(13)

July 16,2011

#4 for sure. You definitely need to learn how to luckbox to do well at the WSOP.

:)

Przytula

July 16,2011

I play live cash a fair amount and have grinded some live MTTs. I would guess that option 3a grind live MTT's, cash games, and grind online MTTs is the best choice. I have to imagine that everyone is right in saying a solid online player will have big edge in this tourney. But there are a lot of things about live poker that are different or simply absent from online. So you will need to get acclimatized to those. Tells is the obvious truism but let me give you an example. You need to be able to known when someone is acting and giving a genuine tell. Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes it is not. If you interpret feigned unhappiness as real unhappiness things can go disastrously wrong. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to put in the volume to improve recognition since you aren't going to be in some situations often and the pace of live is a crawl. But yeah, you will also need to play some sundays 10-20 tournaments depending on your stamina so that you can grow fundamentals that aren't going to be fostered when you play live. Anyways... I also have the goal of playing the WSOP next year. Gl to us.

GarethChantler

July 16,2011

oh they have live poker in canada btw.

GarethChantler

July 16,2011

move to canada

kiwikola

July 16,2011

Gareth - are you in Canada right now?

verneer

July 16,2011

Move to Ottawa and learn about the magic that is Poutine. Also real estate has gone down twice in 50 years since Ottawa is a Government city being the capital. 3 bedroom houses roughly 1700 sq feet go new for 240-320k.

Gakn29

July 16,2011

you need to amp up your aggression and get a little luck and should do very well, but ur way to nitty IMO!

Foticcine

July 16,2011

Grinding only live mtts would be tough. I mean you could go an entire month or two without cashing at all, so mixing in some cash games would be a good call.

jonmon101

July 16,2011

If those are your only 4 choices, it's not even close. Canada. If you move to Las Vegas with a primary intent of grinding live poker, and have never done so full-time prior, you'll quickly realize the perception of such a thing is vastly greater than the reality of that life. Canada, Pawel.

KnoxItAll

July 17,2011

Vancouver, Canada seems best to me. Online/live options.

calbiotech

July 17,2011

Honestly I'm surprised there are so many pro-Canada comments. Forgetting the circuit route, living in Vegas should give you the opportunity to play 2 MTTs per day (3 if you get knocked out of one early), plus a good variety of stakes for cash games. Hell, eve here in Tulsa, I can do that, as there are 3 casinos and daily tournaments start at 9:30am, 10:00am, 1:00pm, and 7:00pm... but the buyins are too low to try to make a living at it ($40-80). I would think the options are better in Vegas.

Mark74105

July 19,2011

1 seems like your best option. most daily tournament have super high rake and you'll play for hours without cashing. you'll see fewer hands with less economic upside. you could always grind online and play live in canada, or take a few trips to vegas.

lana

August 04,2011

I would opt for a modified option 1. Visit Canada long enough to set up a mail drop. Get a Poker Stars account. Return to the US and play through ghost server in Canada.

There are three problems though. It is really hard to get money into and out of your account. You have to trust Poker Stars won't pull a Full Tilt. If you are caught you really can't claim ignorance.

Perhaps the better alternative is to promote the heck out of Lock Poker to get their volume up enough to make playing MTTs worth while and hope they don't go the way of Full Tilt before the next WSOP.

IMHO playing live MTTs is very very and the blinds advance much too fast compared to on-line. I have played live MTTs with 10 people to a table where the first blind raise happened before I got to the blinds the first time.

PaultheBigFinn

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