How to Prepare for the 2010 World Series of Poker
by Bodog Poker | Nov 12 2009
The great thing about waiting four months for the November Nine to decide who the
WSOP Main Event champion is going to be is that we don't have to wait a whole year for the
WSOP to start up again.
Play will resume in late May of 2010, unless there are some major schedule changes, and before we know it bracelet mania will be back in the headlines. That gives you over six months to get ready for the 2010 WSOP, and you don't want to waste any precious time.
It's never too early to start training for the biggest tournament of the year, even if satellite paction for the WSOP is limited at this time.
Obviously you want to be practicing your deep stack tournament play. The WSOP events have been starting with deeper stacks in the last two years so players get more for their buy-in money. Deep stack events should be approached with more reserve than a tournament where blind levels will become a factor after a few rounds.
In deep stack events you want to play smaller pots that don't put your tournament life at risk, unless you have the absolute nuts. Wait for monster hands and let the natural aggression of the other players dump chips to you.
The important thing is to not make big calls with second-best hands that will cost you a big percentage of your stack. Wait for favorable situations where you have your opponent dominated.
It will also help you to get ready for the WSOP if you practice your final table skills.
You can't duplicate a final table situation unless you get to one in a tournament. At a real final table chip stacks will vary in size, and you can't start any tourneys with varying stack sizes. What you can do is play in single table sit-and-go action to practice adjusting your play to the number of players at the table. Bodog has lots of sit-and-go tables around the clock, so scheduling them around your agenda will be easy.
The best thing to do is to schedule some deep stack events each week, preferably WSOP satellite tournaments. Most online casinos will start offering heavy WSOP satellite action in the New Year, but for now you can practice by playing Bodog qualifiers for the $100K and Flight Club events.
Finally, it will help you to get in some live action. Get out to your local
poker room and play with real people. Practice your timing and poker face so you're not dumping tells to professionals that will be seated across from you at the WSOP.
Practice studying your opponent's actions as well as their betting patterns, and adjust your level of patience to a live setting where play is much slower.
It's also not a bad idea to keep any winnings from all this WSOP prep action to put toward your trip. The goal will be to win a seat, but you can always use more spending money in Vegas.
