WCOOP – PokerStars World championship of Online Poker on a budget

Tru Grinderz

PokerStars WCOOP has really become the theatre of dreams for online pokers players around the world. Yesterday, the 2012 series kicked off with a bang as PokerStars hosted the first of its 60+ main events in a series that guarantees over $30 million in prizes. The buy ins being set at a minimum of $109 make directly buying into these tournaments a privilege reserved for those with a five figure bankroll. However, Tru Grinderz will explain how even a beginner or new player can grab a piece of this action for a fraction of the price.

If you decide that you want to give this a go, we will now explain how you can do it for as little as a couple of Dollars. If you don’t have a PokerStars account, visit Tru Grinderz to sign up to PokerStars and take advantage of our fantastic Sign Up Bonus promotion, this will bag you a 100% matched bonus on your first deposit. Tru Grinderz will deposit a further FREE $25 into your account within 30 days as part of our $25,000 Poker Giveaway. You could view $25 of your new starting bankroll as a freeroll to use for this. TruGrinderz advises that a deposit of at least $150 would be optimal for this as a WCOOP step 1 entry costs $7.50.

WCOOP Step Sit ‘n’ Go Satellites:

A Sit ‘n’ Go is a single table poker tournament, PokrStars offers step Sit ‘n’ Go’s as a way of qualifying to play for their large tournaments. The idea is to finish in the top few places that offer tickets to play in the next step. Winning a step 2 ticket gives you entry to the next level that is worth $27. Step 3 tickets are worth $82, and step 4 tickets being worth $215. a step four ticket can then be used to enter any tournament with a buy in of $215.

Here is a table showing the Prize strictures for Steps 1, 2 and 3:

	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place	4th Place	5th Place
Step 1 $7.50	Step 2 Ticket	Step 2 Ticket	Step 1 Ticket	$1.50
Step 2 $27	Step 3 Ticket	Step 3 Ticket	Step 2 Ticket	Step 2 Ticket	Step 1 Ticket
Step 3 $82	Step 4 Ticket	Step 4 Ticket	Step 3 Ticket	Step 3 Ticket	Step 3Ticket

As you can see in the table above, once you gain entry to Step 2, you can now finish as low as fourth and still remain on level 2. Particularly at Steps 1 and 2, there are a lot of average players and fish, making progression from these levels very easy. Tru Grinderz would recommend playing a tight aggressive strategy in the early stages of step sit ’n’ go’s, as you will often find players knocking themselves out early on.

Your main aim is to survive until the prize is at least re-entry to your current level. Aim to keep a low profile in the early stages, looking for opportunities to re-raise and build big pots for your big hands. Playing tight aggressively means that you will want to play less hands, and try to only raise when entering a pot. If you don’t feel like you can raise you probably shouldn’t play the hand. 

By playing Tight Aggressive, your goal is to exploit a tighter hand range and gain maximum value from it. If you re-raise, and someone plays back at you don’t be afraid to pull the trigger and shove if you feel it is appropriate. This is part of setting your table image, and it will protect your style of play if the table knows you mean business when you 3 bet. If you are able to make yourself a big stack, you will then be able to exert a lot of pressure on opponents who are simply looking to limp into the money in the later stages. 

There are some big advantages for beginner’s using step sit ‘n’ go’s to qualify for bigger tournaments. Firstly, they allow you to gain entry into tournaments that otherwise would be way beyond your bankroll.

Secondly, they help new players acquire frequent player points very rapidly. Frequent Player Points count towards releasing your sign up bonus. Let’s say you got to step 3, and finished between 3^rd and 5^th three times, and then qualified for step 4 on the fourth attempt. Well playing step 3 generates $7 rake, this is worth over 100 frequent player points. You have played this four times, earning you over 400 frequent player points, making a large dent in the amount of points needed to release your bonus.

Finally, qualifying for a WCOOP tournament for just $7.50, means that you are essentially on a freeroll. The benefit of making the money in the tournament is worth 30 times as much to you as it is for someone who just paid the buy in in full. In the WCOOP event 1 the minimum pay out was $351, generating a profit of almost 46 times the $7.50 it cost you to qualify. You would struggle to make that amount of money from reaching a final table in most $7.50 tournaments. If you are lucky enough to reach the money in a WCOOP event, you then have the luxury of choosing whether to play tight and try to ladder up the pay structure, or to go hell for leather and gamble your way to the win. You have already made 46 times your buyin, this is now a shot to nothing.

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