It’s not always easy to tell just how far a poker player has come in their career from scrolling through a Hendon Mob profile. Take the first cashes of Justin Bonomo, Isaac Haxton, and Steve O’Dwyer for example. They all jumped straight into playing $10,000 buy-in live tournaments, hinting they were already doing pretty well online before opting to dabble in live poker.

That’s what makes Michael “mczhang” Zhang’s Hendon Mob so interesting. His first tournament cashes come from a string of £15 beginner’s tournaments at his local card room (Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn) throughout 2013, when was just 18 years old. A year later he was still grinding anything from £25 freezeouts to £400 local Main Events.

“I used to sneak off to play £10 tournaments because my parents wouldn’t let me play,” Zhang tells PokerStars Blog, on break from the €10K High Roller at EPT Barcelona.

Desperate to play 15 freezeout at dusk till dawn tonight but cant get there 🙁

— Michael Chi Zhang (@Michaelz123) September 1, 2013

Heading to Birmingham to study maths at university gave Zhang to freedom to pursue his poker passion, and it was there he made the transition to playing online too.

“I’ve always done both, but now I see the High Roller and Super High Roller fields and they seem OK and good EV, so I’m just playing them. It’s been a fun journey.”

From £15 buy-ins to £100,000 buy-ins. Yep, seems pretty fun to us, too.

WINNING BIG

If you’re unfamiliar with Zhang’s résumé, allow us to fill you in. At the young age of 24 Zhang has already amassed $3.1 million in live winnings, plus $3.4 million online, where he plays the highest stakes going under his PokerStars screen name “mczhang”.

Zhang on Day 2 of the EPT Barcelona €10K High Roller

Formerly ranked second in the world online, according to PocketFives, Zhang had an insane year in 2018, cashing for a staggering $1.56 million, making five World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) final tables (winning one title), as well as winning a Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) title on top of a string of Sunday major victories.

His skills proved fruitful on the live felt too, kicking off 2018 with a win in a €50K Super High Roller in Rozvadov — the first ever Super High Roller he had played.

“For sure I had some butterflies,” Zhang reminisces. “It was a bit nerve-wracking. There were times when I could feel myself getting nervous, when I was bluffing a little bit, but I feel like it helped me get a lot of experience. I got to play heads-up, three-handed, four-handed, five-handed, all the way down. It was a great confidence boost and it made me realise that these $50Ks were OK. It might be results orientated, but I used it as positive thought.”

His ascent to the Super High Rollers was capped off when he finished sixth in the £100K Triton Super High Roller earlier this month for £711K, and immediately followed that up with a €25K Super High Roller victory in Rozvadov, good for €350K.

Zhang’s journey from sneaking behind his parents’ backs to being considered one of the best tournament players in the world is sure to inspire some younger players reading this. Zhang himself certainly hopes so.

“I don’t even feel young,” he tells us. “I don’t see age that much, but people get annoyed when I say I actually feel old. It feels different, because when I was starting there were all of these 18- or 19-year-old up-and-comers, and to be honest I’m surprised there aren’t many up-and-comers younger than me these days. In my group of friends there are a lot of players my age who are some of the best players in the world, but the tools are out there, and I don’t understand why there aren’t more. I guess it’s harder to build a bankroll these days from the bottom, but then the tools are all there.”

Want to follow in Zhang’s footsteps? Here’s how he did it.

THE ROAD TO THE TOP

“I was enjoying poker even when I was 16 or 17,” Zhang says. “It all started with a PokerStrategy freeroll, and from there I spun it up a little bit. I was then banned from playing poker by my parents, but when I got to university I was just playing a mixture of live and online. I started with hypers and moved into a mixture of live cash and tournaments, and then I moved primarily into cash games. I absolutely love cash games, but I still love mixing live and online. I felt like I was getting the best of both worlds.”

Zhang’s love of poker didn’t wane over the next couple of years, and he continued to improve with a little help from his friends.

“I was surrounding myself with people who were very driven and worked hard,” he tells us, and in 2017 he experienced his first major live success when he took down the £1,100 GUKPT Main Event in London for £113K. Binking a big tournament didn’t make him simply want to chase more trophies, though.

Zhang talks with Kahle Burns at EPT Barcelona

“I realised that with tournament variance you can’t just get by with just tournaments. Tournament variance is too much, you need to be playing stuff like cash games. I still feel that way today, despite having had success. I would say that to this day 80 per cent of my volume is cash games, but nobody hears about cash games. Tournaments get a lot of attention, but I still play mainly cash.”

Even though he’s been busy with Main Events and High Rollers galore here at EPT Barcelona, Zhang has still found the time for a few cash sessions.

“At stops like EPT Barcelona I’ll play a lot of live cash, and I’ve played some in the USA, but [when it comes to high stakes] I feel like there’s more action online.”

Speaking of online, it was in 2018 when Zhang really introduced himself to the high stakes MTT world, cashing for the aforementioned $1.56 million. Looking back, Zhang says: “Obviously I ran good, but yeah, everything just clicked that year.”

He started to study more with friends, and the results clearly speak for themselves.

“I study very well through other people, and I had a few friends with study groups who were running sims that I could go through with them,” he says. “I feel like cash game knowledge is very transferable anyway.”

Coincidentally, we spoke with one of Zhang’s good friends — Ben “Fabaz” Farrell — right here on PokerStars Blog yesterday when he was deep in the EPT Barcelona Main Event. When we asked Farrell who his go-to guy is for tournament strategy, he didn’t miss a beat before saying Zhang’s name.

Michael “mczhang” Zhang

“Yeah, me and Ben have known each other for years,” Zhang tells us. “We were both in Birmingham when I was at uni studying maths — I quit, obviously — and when I met him I learned a lot from him. He’s always been a good, close friend of mine. It’s been a fun journey with him. He had a big downswing for a year or two, but this past year he’s just kicked off, which has been great.”

Zhang definitely seems like a great person to have in your corner when it comes to talking shop. Now a regular in the Super High Roller world, with an ever-growing list of results proving his place there, it’s no wonder he feels right at home.

“I don’t get nervous anymore,” he says. “I don’t think the stakes affect me at all anymore. I just enjoy it. I don’t even mind busting. After every bust-out now I can smile and it’s like, ‘whatever’.”

As for Zhang’s future, he sees himself continuing to travel the world on the Super High Roller circuit, at least whenever he feels like playing.

“I’m definitely enjoying them right now, but even though it’s high stakes, the hourly rate and variance ratio in high rollers compared with cash games is actually shit,” he says. “But I’m still enjoying them. So when I want to play live, I’ll play live. And when I want to play online, I’ll play online. I just want to enjoy it and get the best of both worlds.”

The time to play online is now among us, with WCOOP 2019 just around the corner (kicking off on Thursday 5 September). Zhang already has one title from last year, and came very close to winning a bunch of others.

“WCOOP is definitely fun,” he says. “I don’t really prepare for many of the tournaments, I’ll just discuss a few things and look through a few ranges. Usually what I’ll do is play a Sunday the week before and I’m fine. In the past three weeks there have been a lot of live tournaments, so I’m kind of in the tournament mindset. When I don’t play cash for a bit it sucks and I feel rusty, but I’m the tournament mindset right now so it’s kind of OK.

“[My favourite WCOOP events are] short-handed. Anything short-handed, and anything with a big ante. Anything where there’s incentive to play aggressive. It’s the most fun in my opinion.”

With Zhang’s poker brain and his tournament mindset in place, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him lock up a six-figure score or two over the coming weeks.

That’s just where he is now. He’s come a long way.

WCOOP is just around the corner, and opening a PokerStars account is easy. Click here to get an account in minutes.

Our photography team, led by Neil Stoddart, will be on the ground in and around Casino Barcelona for the whole of this near two-week festival. Here are a selection of their images so far.

€5,300 EPT Main Event – (click and swipe left/right to view images)

Some more details about the six players eyeing a €1.6 million first prize in the EPT Barcelona Main Event. (With thanks to Jan Kores, EPT Media Co-ordinator.)

Seat 1: Rui Sousa, 28, Maia, Portugal, – 9.1 million

It’s been 10 years since Antonio Matias won the Vilamoura Main Event to become the second⁠, and most recent,⁠ Portuguese EPT champion. But Matias‘ countrymen have been trying hard to join him on the pedestal. Here in Barcelona last year, Pedro Marques and Rodrigo Carmo finished fourth and fifth, respectively, then Carlos Branco and Luis Medina appeared on subsequent final tables in Prague and Monaco, but they couldn’t convert either. Now Rui Sousa and Giovani Torre are in the limelight here this year. Sousa, who comes from a small town near Porto named Maia, is an experienced player whose standout online results include a WCOOP title as well as a Super Tuesday title. Sousa has racked up nearly $300,000 in reported live cashes, with his best results coming at PokerStars-sponsored events. His largest score was $86,400 for a 33rd place in the PSPC, but Sousa will set a new high after he visits the payout desk tomorrow. He’ll collect his third EPT Barcelona Main Event cash, following 18th place in 2015 and 48th in 2016.

Seat 2: Giovani Torre, 36, Funchal, Portugal – 4.45 million

Giovani Torre has played poker for a living for 10 years, from his home in Funchal on the island of Madeira. He splits his time between online and live poker games, but currently favours the live scene due to the current Portuguese legislation. The 36-year-old says he prepared thoroughly for the EPT Barcelona festival, and his summer of study has paid off. Torre qualified to the Main Event for €1,200, winning his seat through a live satellite. He turned it into what he called the “most important result of my career“. He’s already guaranteed to triple his live tournament earnings. Torre’s previous best result was $34,845 for 370th place in this year’s WSOP Main Event.

Seat 3: Simon Brandstrom, 37, Stockholm, Sweden – 18.5 million

If his name doesn’t ring a bell, it might be because Simon Brandstrom used to be known as Persson before he got married. Brandstrom, 37, is roommates with Alexander Ivarsson here at EPT Barcelona. They came close to making the final table together, but Ivarsson eventually bowed out in 10th place. Brandstrom, whose resume boasts more than $820,000 in live tournament winnings, secured himself a seat as the big chip leader in the six-handed finale. His previous biggest cash (€187,880) came six months ago here in Barcelona when he topped his €182,913 payday from the 2013 Master Classics of Poker Main Event. Both of those results came along with a silver medal. Brandstrom’s best result at a PokerStars-sponsored event came in 2016 at EPT12 Prague: he took home €120,090 for a third place in the Eureka Main Event. Brandstrom’s previous biggest score in an EPT Main Event was a 25th place finish at EPT8 Berlin. Now adding a final table appearance to his name, Brandstrom is guaranteed a new career-high score.

Seat 4: Yunye Lu, 41, Shanghai, China – 4.5 million

Yunye Lu grew up in Shanghai, but now lives in Hong Kong. The 41-year-old says he played professionally for several years, but has treated the game more recently as a hobby while he works as an investment analyst. He picked up poker 10 years ago in the United States where he studied at UCLA. Lu revealed that he had previously made some trips to Europe for cash game action, but this is his first tournament experience on European soil. Lu racked up $440,000 in reported live cashes, half of that coming from his second-place finish in the PokerStars-sponsored 2015 APPT Red Dragon. The EPT Main Event is yet to crown a Chinese champion, and Liu is a third player in the last 12 months who has a decent shot at changing that. Last year saw Haoxiang Wang finish second here in Barcelona, and Wei Huang repeated Wang’s feat three months ago in Monaco. While poker is his primary hobby, Lu also enjoys many sports activities, including snowboarding, skiing, and playing tennis.

Seat 5: Marton Czuczor, 29, Budapest, Hungary – 14.45 million

Marton Czuczor has been a familiar face on the European Poker Tour for around a decade, and while the games were arguably softer when he started travelling around the circuit, Czuczor is one of the players who has been able to step up his game. Most of his big scores, both live and online, have come in recent years. Making the final table in the record-breaking EPT Barcelona is a testament to the 29-year-old’s improvement. Czuczor will collect his 10th EPT Main Event cash here. He had a narrow miss at 2016 EPT Prague where he finished second, taking €630,000 after cutting a heads-up deal with Jasper Meijer van Putten. That remains Czuczor’s largest prize to date. Czuczor recently proved his qualities in high roller fields as well. Three months ago at EPT Monte Carlo, he finished third in the €25k High Roller for a €364,460 payday. Now guaranteed another six-figure cheque, Czuczor has locked up a fourth place on the Hungarian all-time money list with over $2.5 million in earnings. A victory would catapult him into the lead.

Seat 6: Diego Falcone, 21, Brazil – 8.6 million

Diego Falcone has a Spanish grandfather and lives in Malaga, Spain, but he officially comes from Brazil and is playing here with his Brazilian passport. He learned to play poker as a 15-year-old and became a professional player when he turned 18. He splits his time between his two homes, going back to Brazil to grind online while playing live events in Europe. Falcone won his seat in a €1,200 live satellite and reaching the EPT Barcelona is by far the most impressive achievement of his career. Nonetheless, Falcone doesn’t plan to focus on just laddering up: he wants the title and prestige that comes with it. “I’m here for the glory,” he said.

With the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2019 kicking off next Thursday (Sep 6), who better to talk to than former $5K Main Event champion Steven van Zadelhoff?

WCOOP is arguably the most exciting time of the year for online poker, with big buy-ins, huge guarantees, and stacked fields making for a thrilling three weeks of poker.

One player in particular who is looking forward to the grind is the Netherlands’ Steven van Zadelhoff. After all, he took down the $5K Main Event in 2017 for a career-best $1.62 million, so he has some very fond memories.

He’ll be looking to do the double this year, but before that we caught up with him at EPT Barcelona, where he has just notched up another career highlight.

PokerStars Blog: Hey Steven, how has your EPT Barcelona been so far?

Steven van Zadelhoff: Really good thanks. I only got here on Monday (August 26) as I was playing online, so I just feel really fresh and energetic.

5th for €209k in €25k highroller Barcelona!
.
AQhh < AK ah well, had fun!!
.
A carreer best, and only the beginning 💪🏻
.
Back tomorrow for €10k 💪🏻🍀
.#poker #barcelona #highroller #grateful #momentum #vikinglife #money #winning

— Steven van Zadelhoff (@svzff) August 30, 2019

Congratulations on finishing fifth in the €25K High Roller earlier this week (van Zadelhoff won €209K for his biggest live score to date). You also had some great online results coming in to this trip (he won both the Sunday HR for $38K and the Saturday PKO for $18K last week). You must have felt confident?

My confidence was really high going in for sure. I made some tweets with the hashtag momentum, and I really think that’s an underrated thing. So I really wanted to keep that ball rolling.

A screenshot a day keeps the docter away…
.
Momentum bla bla bla
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Time to get some sleep, have to fire off this ammo in barca next couple days
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Poker is fun nowdays 😁#poker #luckyviking #vamosalaplaya #barcelona #profit #adiosollanda #onlinepoker #champatwork #brainfuel pic.twitter.com/br7uNkMMZA

— Steven van Zadelhoff (@svzff) August 26, 2019

Momentum isn't bought, it's built. Another $18k in the pocket 💪🏻🍀
.
Rounding up last training sessions before flying to Barcelona on monday. Hope they bring some bigger guns to Spain, we can hardly call this a warm-up anymore 🤣🙈🍾 #champatwork #mentalgame #eatrealfoods #fuel pic.twitter.com/a83nUTPTDH

— Steven van Zadelhoff (@svzff) August 24, 2019

WCOOP is just around the corner. How are you going to prepare when you leave Barcelona?

van Zadelhoff at EPT Barcelona

Hopefully I’ll have some time to run errands and get stuff done which needs to be done. I’ll be arriving back home after 13 weeks of travel, so there will probably be some stuff to do at home. Checking my set-up is still good and whatever. Then it’ll be a month of full time grinding. I’m ready, I can’t wait. Somebody has to win the WCOOP Main for a second time, so why not me?

Thirteen weeks? That’s a long time.

Yeah. We went to Montreal before Vegas, then after the World Series of Poker (WSOP) we just stuck around in the Netherlands.

You’ve been very open about your fitness goals and nutrition on Twitter. Do you ever find it hard to stick to a good routine when travelling?

We were just talking about it [at the table] actually. For me it’s a lot easier now, because I feel like I’ve trained my system so much that I automatically do what’s good for me rather than what I want to do. That doesn’t mean I don’t splurge from time to time — a couple of days ago for example I had a bottle of wine and a big bag of Doritos and whatever.

For my 40th birthday today, here a little #10yearchallenge overview! 🙂
The full story is on my facebook, but it goes like: i was chubby, then grew fat and unhappy, then starved myself. Then i got rich and fat again, and then finally strong and happy. The end. Love you all x pic.twitter.com/bK8wbGrLe6

— Steven van Zadelhoff (@svzff) March 1, 2019

van Zadelhoff: I heard a good analogy when talking to Alex Foxen in the gym a couple of days ago. He said that if you build a strong machine…just imagine a well-made wood shredder for example, the machine can handle some small pieces of metal sometimes. But if you just start cramming in steel pipes it will jam at some point. It’s a very good comparison. So just make sure you build a strong machine, then it matters a lot less what you do.

Champions are not made at the breakfast table..
.
Back in Barcelona for the best EPT of the season.
.
Must be my 15th trip or so to this gorgeous city. Let's make it a good one 💪
.#tanktoptuesday #wifebeater #momentum #vikinglife #nutrition #poker #onlinepoker #barcelona pic.twitter.com/eI7CmynXlS

— Steven van Zadelhoff (@svzff) August 27, 2019

With the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship coming to EPT Barcelona next year, do you have any tips for first-time visitors looking to stay healthy?

Steven van Zadelhoff

I know my way around, especially here in Barcelona where I’ve been like 15 times or whatever. There’s a little shop where I can buy some healthy stuff, I know how to smuggle my food into the casino, it’s completely automatic. I don’t even have to think about it now.

I order a lot of healthy stuff online which I take with me when travelling, some snacks like peanut butter, MCT oil, some good sea salt, stuff like that. Nothing too special, just stuff I like having around. It doesn’t take a lot of effort, it’s just in my system now. I feel like less of a freak than I probably am!

Opening a PokerStars account is easy. Click here to get an account in minutes.

While you’re tuning in to the Main Event live stream and furiously hitting refresh on updates from the €10K High Roller, you might have noticed some other tables scattered around the room featuring some of the best players in the game.

They’re playing in (what’s commonly referred to by the high roller themselves as) the “Trip Saver”; one final €25K tournament which kicked off yesterday (Aug 31) and — with a speedy format and relatively small field — will come to an end today.

Why is it called the ‘Trip Saver’, you ask? Well, because it could potentially get one of the remaining high roller regulars in profit after what has been an action-packed (and no doubt expensive) grind here at Casino Barcelona.

This one got started at 7pm last night, giving everyone who had already busted the €10K High Roller one last shot at a big score (hence its nickname).

With unlimited re-entries registration remained open until the start of Day 2 today, and when those doors were closed we’d seen 60 total entries (including 19 re-entries). That created a prize pool of €1,440,600, which was to be split between the final eight players.

Trip Saver payouts

The problem is, when we started writing this article, there were still 11 left.

Those still in the hunt were Sam Greenwood, Charlie Carrel, Alex Foxen, David Peters, Daniel Dvoress, Danny Tang, Michael Soyza, Elio Fox, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Cary Katz, and Mikalai Vaskaboinikau.

The least we could do is follow along with the action until the bubble bursts, right?

THE (QUIETEST) BUBBLE

This tournament didn’t save anything for Daniel Dvoress.

A few orbits prior we saw Alex Foxen open the cutoff, Dvoress jam the button, and Michael Soyza isolated from the small blind. After Foxen folded, Dvoress showed pocket nines up against ace-queen, and flopped a nine to double.

Daniel Dvoress

An almost identical set up took place not long after. Foxen opened the cutoff again, Dvoress jammed on the button for 17 big blinds, and this time it was Cary Katz in the big blind who isolated for his entire 29-big-blind stack. Foxen folded once again, but there’d be no flip this time. Dvoress’ pocket threes were in bad shape against Katz’s pocket nines, and when another nine hit the felt, Dvoress said his goodbyes.

Kisacikoglu would be the next to fall, setting up both the final table of nine and the stone cold bubble.

Or did it?

Soyza bubbled…we think

No, as it turns out. Lost in the commotion, we then discovered Michael Soyza had also busted over on the other table, meaning all of the remaining eight sailed straight into the money, locking up €57,620. Here’s a look at how they stacked up:

1.Alex Foxen – 160,000
2.Danny Tang – 360,000
3.Charlie Carrel – 430,000
4.Sam Greenwood – 530,000
5.David Peters – 180,000
6.Elio Fox – 365,000
7.Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – 220,000
8.Cary Katz – 570,000

David Peters was then the first to leave with a payday. He shoved over a Cary Katz open with pocket nines from the small blind, only for Katz to snap call with pocket aces, which held.

Peters kicked out by Katz

That leaves us with seven.

And that’s also where we’re going to leave things, for now.

Head over to our EPT Barcelona results page later this evening to find out who will potentially save their trip with a €432K win.

The EPT Barcelona Main Event raced to its conclusion today as 37-year-old Simon Brandstrom became the fourth Swede to win the title at European poker’s most popular spot.

Brandstrom followed Alexander Stevic, Kent Lundmark and Sebastian Sorensson to triumph here but earned more than all of them, banking €1,290,166 for overcoming Marton Czuczor heads up, the last of a 1,988-entry field. Czuczor, from Budapest, Hungary, had seemed destined to win this one right from the off as he knocked out three players within the first level.

But even though Brandstrom was up against the ropes in the heads-up stage, he won an enormous double up in a grim boat-over-boat coup, and then spiked four outer to chop another pot that would have put Czuczor back in the ascendancy.

Eventually, Brandstrom found pocket sixes when Czuczor had king-queen. They got it all in pre-flop and the pocket pair held.

“One hundred out of one hundred,” Brandstrom said, describing his feelings on having won the biggest EPT Main Event ever held. “It was tough, for sure. I don’t think I played my best in the heads up but otherwise pretty happy with my game.”

Simon Brandstrom: Pretty happy

Brandstrom has been in and around the EPT scene for many years, mostly under his pre-married name of Simon Persson. He was a former runner up at the Master Classic in Amsterdam, and also finished third in a huge Eureka event in Prague in 2015. Railed by friends and countrymen Alexander Ivarsson and Anton Bertilsson, Brandstrom showed characteristic calm as fireworks flew very early on, then moved into top gear at the conclusion.

Marton Czuczor: What might have been

For Czuczor, it’s a case of what might have been. Again. He has gone close before, finishing second in the Main Events in Prague in 2016 and 11th both here in Barcelona and in Vilamoura. He also has a third place in an EPT High Roller.

But though his €1,253,234 takes him to the top of the Hungary all-time money-list, he wanted the trophy badly. He actually becomes the second Hungarian to finish second twice on the EPT, while still none has won a title.

He will be the hot bet to change that when he gets the next chance.

But back to the start of today…

Final Table players (back, l-r): Giovani Torre, Yunye Lu, Marton Czuczor; (front l-r): Rui Sousa, Simon Brandstrom, Diego Falcone.

Barcelona has seen some epic struggles at the final table, taking us well into the small hours and beyond. But today’s finale showed every sign of being the precise opposite, and we lost three players within the first 40 minutes of play. That, of course, was half of the returning field.

On the very first hand of the day, Yunye Lu, China’s latest big hope for EPT triumph, found himself in a tough spot on the button. The chip-leading Brandstrom opened to 325,000 with 9♥7♥ in the cutoff, and Lu looked down at K♠J♥. That was worth a call.

Yunye Lu: A tough spot on the first hand

But there was now value to be had for the players behind and Marton Czuczor called from the small blind with A♣2♣ and Diego Falcone also called in the big blind with 10♠4♠.

The flop thinned the field when it came J♣6♠5♣. That gave Lu top pair to Czuczor’s flush draw. And Czuczor bet, Lu jammed and Czuczor called (the others getting out of there). Then Czuczor hit the K♣ on the river to fill the flush. That was the end of that for Lu, who won €295,520 for sixth. He spent a long China still awaits its first winner.

Yunye Lu’s first-hand elimination set an early tone

Czuczor hit the ground sprinting, and it only continued two hands later. This time, he found A♣K♦ on the button and opened the pot, only to see Giovani Torre three-bet shove from the big blind with K♣J♣. There was an ace on the flop and nothing else significant, and that meant Torre was toast. He won €364,660 for fifth, having successfully laddered one place from the overnight short stack.

Giovani Torre was Czuczor’s second victim in quick succession

Such was the haste from the outset that it seemed positively insulting for the players to then go something like seven hands without a knockout. But they soon remedied that and played a flip for Falcone’s life.

Falcone had managed to live a charmed life yesterday, hitting whatever cards he needed to keep himself afloat, even when there was only one of them in the deck. Anyone who hits a one-outer to survive can’t be too disappointed to be eliminated in fourth, but there was still a slight pang of regret for the Brazilian.

Diego Falcone’s time at the tables was finally up

In what turned out to be his last hand, Czuczor opened to 550,000 from under the gun with 8♠8♥ and Falcone looked down at A♥Q♠ on the button. He pushed for 5.1 million, around 21 big blinds, and Czuczor called.

The flop brought what looked like another survival card for Falcone. It was 10♣Q♦2♦. But the 8♣ on the turn was a dagger to his heart and he was finally drawing dead. Falcone took €436,760 after a thrill ride.

Falcone prayed for another miracle that didn’t come

Though it had taken less than 40 minutes to cut the field in half, the tournament structure meant that level length was now supposed to be reduced to 45 minutes, while pay-jumps were getting serious. Czuczor, who had knocked out all three opponents, was now the dominant leader, with 29 million chips to Brandstrom’s 17.85 million and Rui Sousa’s 12.75 million.

They looked at the numbers for a prolonged period, but couldn’t agree on a deal. (It seemed like Czuczor wanted a bit extra that nobody was prepared to give.) So after about 20 minutes, they opted to play on, with the next man out guaranteed €607,400.

There was every chance that a slowdown could now occur, but again it was not to be. Before the level even reached its conclusion, Sousa became the next man out.

This time, it was Brandstrom who did the damage. He opened to 525,000 from the button, sitting with J♣J♠, and Sousa called in the big blind with 10♥8♦. What was already an unequal match-up just became cruel after the 4♣8♠3♥. Sousa was still way behind but had reason to think he might not be. Sousa checked, Brandstrom bet 500,000 and then Sousa unveiled the check-raise to 1.4 million. Brandstrom then pushed and Sousa was now committed to calling his last 6.625 million.

The 7♥ turn and 4♦ river were both blanks and Sousa went looking for his €607,400.

Rui Sousa became second Portuguese player to fall short

“Marton sent them all out so I was just sitting back watching him,” Brandstrom said of that part of the day. “When it got three handed, I could do my thing.”

Having failed to secure a deal three-handed, the remaining two quickly began to renegotiate once more. Bradstrom’s big knockout of Sousa drew him all but level with Czuczor again, and the parity was reflected in the near equal chop they quickly agreed. Czuczor locked up €1,253,234; Brandstrom secured €1,212,706, with the €77,460 left on the table the amount that would decide the champion.

Deal done beteen Czuczor and Brandstrom

Though they started pretty even, it was quickly one way traffic again. Brandstrom couldn’t hit a barn door, while Czuczor couldn’t miss. And when Brandstrom did connect with the flop, it hit his opponent even harder. In one particular coup, Brandstrom’s Q♠8♠ hit top pair, but so did Czuczor’s Q♣4♠. The turn was the 4♣ and Czuczor leapt into the lead, and even got a big value bet paid off on the river.

Heads up in Barcelona between Simon Brandstrom and Marton Czuczor

Remarkable as it sounds, the first scheduled tournament break only came about after they had been playing heads up for a good while. It was enough for Czuczor to have opened up a lead of 42.65 million to Brandstrom’s 17.125 million, and also quick enough that the TV crew were worried how they were going to fill the rest of their broadcast schedule. This was the deciding factor in keeping the levels at 90-minute length, with a big blind average of around 100.

And then the fireworks really started. Czuczor’s momentum was such that he must have thought he could do no wrong. However, the dealer soon ironed him out. Brandstrom found K♣3♥ against Czuczor’s 6♠3♠ and they played the pot on every street as the board fell K♦3♣3♦6♦10♥. That was a flopped full house for Brandstrom and a turned full house for Czuczor. When Brandstrom shoved the river, Czuczor snap called expecting to win the title, but instead he lost more than half his stack.

“That was a crucial pot for me, for sure,” Brandstrom said.

Simon Brandstrom has the bigger boat

Czuczor was also desperately unlucky soon after when he flopped a straight and needed to fade only a double belly-buster straight draw to double up. If Brandstrom hit the top end of his straight, he would win. If he hit the bottom end, he would chop. And lo and behold, he hit the latter to maintain a big chip lead.

The conclusion came very soon after. It was, again, cruel on Czuczor who played remarkably well. But it was also a final table of two halves, with Brandstom really hitting his stride when it mattered most. Czuczor will no doubt try once again.

Simon Brandstrom tells Anton Bertilsson and Alexander Ivarsson about his victory

EPT Barcelona Main Event
Dates: August 26-September 1, 2019
Buy-in: €5,300
Entries: 1,988 (inc. 499 re-entries)
Prize pool: €9,641,800

*denotes heads up deal

CLICK FOR FULL RESULTS

Pictures by Neil Stoddart and Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive

If you’ve been following poker at all for these past few months, you won’t have been able to avoid the name Danny Tang.

The Hong Kong native has been on an absolute tear of late, winning his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in a $50K High Roller event for $1.6 million, and following that up with a €100K Super High Roller third-place finish here at EPT Barcelona, good for €847K.

We caught up with Tang on break in the €25K ‘Trip Saver’ final table, where he’d later lock up a €118K score for his fifth-place finish.

PokerStars Blog: Hey Danny, congratulations on all your recent success. Is there anything in particular you would attribute it too? A change in study, perhaps?

Danny Tang: Honestly, I’m just pretty friendly with a bunch of these guys who have been playing high stakes for a while. Speaking to them and talking hands with them has taken my game to another level, I guess. I’ve been on the right side of variance and I’m riding the heat, getting more and more good results.

You took down your first WSOP bracelet earlier this summer. That must have been quite special?

Oh, it was amazing. Winning a bracelet is the dream of all poker players, y’know? And to win the first bracelet for Hong Kong is just a dream come true. I’m proud to represent and put Hong Kong on the map in the international circuit.

You’ve also had a great EPT Barcelona, coming close in the €100K Super High Roller. How has the trip been overall?

It has been great. The Super High Roller would have been a nice one to win. I’ve never had a big result here at EPT Barcelona. I think my biggest result here was last year in the Main when I finished like 14th or something for around €90K (Tang actually finished 13th for €88K). So it was nice to get one of those big six-figure scores.

Tang finished third in the €100K SHR

It was a tough tournament. I learned a lot from it. I probably didn’t play my best game, but sometimes that’s just how tournaments are.

What are your plans for the next few months?

I’m looking forward to getting even better. I just want to become one of the best in the world one day, y’know?

Any World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) plans?

Honestly, I don’t plan on playing any of the WCOOP at all. I’ll be playing on Natural 8 who sponsor me, they’re running a series alongside WCOOP.

Danny Tang’s all smiles

With Tang not playing WCOOP, that makes winning a title that much easier for all of us. Click here to get a PokerStars account.

FINAL DAY ACTION: Sunday September 1

Brandstrom denies Czuczor as Sweden triumphs in Barcelona again
Entries: 1,988 (inc. 499 re-entries) | Prize pool: €9,641,800
After a whistle-stop final table, Simon Brandstrom denies Hungary’s Marton Czuczor to become the fourth Swedish Main Event champion in Barcelona. Last two arrange a near equal split of prize pool, winning more than €1.2 million apiece, but Hungary continues to search for its first EPT champion.
AS IT HAPPENED | FULL RESULTS

Hunichen wins €10,000 High Roller after chop with Reichenstein
Entries: 540 | Prize pool: €5,238,000
After a lengthy final day, Chris Hunichen and Uri Reichenstein negotiated a heads-up deal, with Hunichen the one coming away with the title, trophy, and €841K while Reichenstein earned a cool €794K. Pablo Melogno and Lander Lijo were among those making the final table among the tough 540-entry field.
AS IT HAPPENED | FULL RESULTS

OTHER BARCELONA FEATURES

Danny Tang reaches another level
Hong Kong’s finest, Danny Tang, has enjoyed a sensational 2019 already, with WSOP bracelets and Super High Roller wins. How did he do it?

Michael “mczhang” Zhang’s journey from £15 buy-ins to £100Ks
You don’t have to look that far back in Michael Zhang’s social media to find him getting excited about playing tournaments with buy-ins of less than $20. These days, he’s in the Super High Rollers. How did that happen?

Online talk with Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker
A catch-up with one of online poker’s most consistent stars, who talks achievements, goals and WCOOP.

Why Ben Farrell is The Rock of poker
It’s been an incredible few months for the UK’s Ben “Fabaz” Farrell. We caught up with one of the hottest players in the game, seeking EPT Main Event glory in Barcelona.

Get to know the Chase Your Dream finalists

Danielle Summer

Christoph Walkenhorst

As you may have seen, PokerStars announced news of the 2020 PSPC ahead of the heads-up phase of the unique Chase Your Dream promotion.

Daryl Inglis

Adrian Viñuela

By way of celebration, all five finalists were offered Platinum Passes, worth €30,000, to the event next year.

We caught up with each of the winners to hear their stories, and learn what it felt like to be given that pass.

Clement Eloy

You?

The best thing about the PSPC is that you too could join these players. There will be hundreds of opportunities over the coming year for you to win your passage to Barcelona.

Click images to read more about the winners, and click the final box to find out how you too can come along for the ride.

The PSPC is back!
In a dramatic announcement on Day 1B of the EPT Barcelona Main Event, PokerStars confirmed the return of Platinum Passes and the return of the massive €25K event, scheduled for this time next year in Barcelona.

Vote for EPT Barcelona’s best moment
The quest to find Barcelona’s most brilliant moment has reached the final. Your time to decide once and for all…

The complete guide to EPT Barcelona
Everything you need to know – and plenty you don’t – ahead of the return to Casino Barcelona

PREVIOUS NEWS:

€25,000 Single-Day High Roller
Laszlo Bujtas topped a 118-entry field to claim the second €25K High Roller title of the series and earn a €712,810 first prize. Bujtas bested Charlie Carrel heads-up, and Juan Pardo went out in fourth, coming close to claiming his third high roller win this week. AS IT HAPPENED

Laszlo Bujtas, €25K Single-Day High Roller champion

• Pardo goes back-to-back in high rollers
• Reixach overcomes Grafton to take €1.8m Super High Roller title
• Rudoy claims 6+ triumph and €213,210
• Pardo outlasts Piqué to win €25,000 Single Day High Roller
• Ivarsson snags half a million in National high roller
• Koplimaa wins enormous EPT National and €585,500

MAIN EVENT NATIONALITY BREAKDOWN:

As usual, players came from far and wide to join the record-breaking EPT Barcelona Main Event field. Our media coordinator Jan Kores looked closely at specifically where they came from:

EPT Barcelona 2019 Main Event nationalities

Total entries: 1,988
Unique players: 1,489
Countries represented: 75
Most represented: France (156 unique players or 10.5% of the field), Italy (92 or 6.2%), United States (86 or 5.8%), United Kingdom (85 or 5.7%), Spain (75 or 5.0%)

Here’s everything you need to know from the weekend on PokerStars…

• “Dumari84” wins the Milly ($114K)
• Bruno “great dant” Volkmann wins two Sunday tourneys ($62K+)
• Top 5 results from the High Roller Club
• Biggest results from the weekend majors

“Dumari84” DROPS THE MILLY LIKE IT’S HOT

After two weeks played with a Progressive KO format, this week’s Sunday Million was once again played without bounties. Our players combined for 11,241 entries and re-entries, during registration, building a $1.12 million prize pool.

That was a smaller overall prize pool than the last two weeks, but there was more up top for the finalists. After 14 hours and 21 minutes of play, this week’s champion was Finland’s “Dumari84,” who earned $114,334.50 for the win.

This week’s Sunday Million finalists and their payouts

HRC: A GREAT DAY FOR “great dant”

The big winner in this weekend’s High Roller Club action was Brazil’s Bruno “great dant” Volkmann.

We last caught up with the former pro tennis player in Monte Carlo this spring, where he finished 14th in the Main Event. But you might remember him best for winning two WCOOP events a few years back.

Bruno Volkmann at home in Brazil

This weekend Volkmann picked up two major victories against top competition. First he won the $1,050 HRC Sunday Warm-Up, defeating “MarToMchat” heads-up for the $27,617 top prize. Then Volkmann continued his heater with a win in the $530 HRC Bounty Builder, grabbing another $35,198.

All told, the big weekend earned Volkmann more than $62,000 plus bounties. According to PocketFives, he now has $3.79 million in lifetime earnings on PokerStars.

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE HIGH ROLLER CLUB

BIGGEST RESULTS FROM THE WEEKEND MAJORS

Congratulations to August’s PokerStars School league winners!

Dozens of PokerStars players will find their accounts a little richer tomorrow, thanks to their performances in the PokerStars School Initiation and Masters Leagues during the month of August.

A league of their own

If you’re not familiar with the League, it’s a monthly chance for PokerStars School players to test their skills against players from all around the world and battle for leaderboard prizes. Canadian players have their very own league where they play exclusively against their other Canadians.

The League runs in two divisions: the Master level, where the seasoned players battle it out, and the Initiation level, reserved for new players that have only joined the poker school within the last three months. This gives everyone an excellent opportunity to practice the game against players of similar ability and win some prizes along the way.

Masters League

The August Masters League champ was Bulgaria’s “gr3471,” who kept the lead at month’s end to hold off a fierce challenge from Norway’s “Steinardo79.”

August EN Masters League leaderboard

In the Canadian Masters League it was “BigDadMel” who ruled the roost. Both BigDadMel and gr3471 will find T$500 in their accounts on Wednesday, while Steinardo79 collects a healthy consolation prize of T$300.

August CA Masters League leaderboard

Initiation League

Initiation League honors for the month went to Austria’s “axeroi,” and “teastside17” topped the Canadian Initiation League leaderboard. Both of their accounts are now T$100 richer.

August EN Initiation League leaderboard

August CA Initiation League leaderboard

Congratulations to all four winners, as well as the other players who earned prizes by finishing in the top 20 for their League during August!

PokerStars players can now display their stack sizes in relation to the amount of big blinds they have, as well as how many chips they have.

This means that instead of showing actual stack sizes, you can instead display all stacks at the table in how many big blinds each stack contains. For example, if blinds are 600/1,200 and you have 18,240 in your stack, you can display it as 15.2 big blinds.

The feature is opt-in, and players can toggle between the two settings in-game.

Chris Straghalis, Director of Poker Product at PokerStars, sat down with us to explain why this new feature is being introduced, and why it can help players approach the game on a more theoretical, strategic level.

EVOLUTION

“Poker evolves over time. When we look at where poker was before the online days, it’s fair to say that now there’s a lot more study, analytics, and thinking about concepts of the game than ever before,” Straghalis says. “The overall meta-game of poker is looked at very differently today.

“Poker is a game of incomplete information, and that’s what makes it an amazingly beautiful game. It’s that incomplete information which keeps us coming back for more. It’s what separates poker from chess.”

Are there better ways at looking at the information which is presented though?

“It’s something PokerStars did a lot of in the early days,” Straghalis—who has worked at PokerStars for 15 years—reminisces. “If you look at the settings menu today, there will be settings that might make you question why they exist in 2019. But they were things players asked for back then.”

In 2019, a lot of players are asking to see their stacks in big blinds.

“The information in knowing your stack compared with what the current blind levels are is of such critical importance that forcing people to make a mental calculation seems somewhat redundant when we can make the calculation for them, dynamically and on the fly.

“There is third-party software which lets people do this, so there’s clearly a demand and a need for it. It makes sense that you could take it to the next step, and instead of just showing the stacks in terms of big blinds, we can show every bet you make in big blinds too. So, if the blinds are 500/1,000, instead of opening to 2,100, you would open to 2.1 big blinds.”

EDUCATION

While stack sizes in big blinds can be hugely valuable to tournament players at different stages of a tournament, the feature is also being implemented in cash games, in which players are predominantly deeper stacked.

Straghalis continues: “If you look at educational poker content, a lot of it talks in terms of how many blinds you have, how big the pot is in big blinds, how important blind to pot ratios are etc. If you think of your stack in terms of big blinds, it causes you to approach the game very differently, and we can align our software with how people approach poker.

“We’re not telling people how to play, it’s more about giving people information visualised in different ways and putting you in the driver’s seat. We want to give people choices on how they play the game, and help new players adapt to poker quicker.”

You can also turn the BB option on and off by clicking on your balance

To turn the feature on, players must opt-in in via the Table Display section in the PokerStars client settings. From then on, you will be able to toggle back and forth between showing stacks in big blinds and stacks in chips.

For tournament players, this ability could become particularly useful in the deep stages, and when approaching a bubble. Let’s say you’re 15^th of 20 players remaining and 19 get paid, knowing just how close you are to the players in 19^th and 20^th in exact chips rather than big blinds could impact how you play.

“We made the feature opt-in because we know there will be some players who will hate it,” Straghalis admits. “Poker is a very polarising game. So if you never want to see stacks in big blinds, you won’t.

“A good example would be streamers. I think it’s really hard for an audience to watch stacks in big blinds on a stream, because some people aren’t used to seeing poker that way. If you turn on Lex Veldhuis’ stream and he’s playing six tables at once, it’s going to be hard to know which stage of the tournament he’s in if his stack is shown in big blinds, whereas if it shows he has 500,000 in chips, you know he’s making a deep run.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• You can display your stack in big blinds rather than chips
• The feature is opt-in
• To turn it on, you must opt-in in the Setting menu of the PokerStars client
• Players can toggle back and forth between big blinds and chips
• The feature is available in both tournaments and cash games

The World Championship of Online Poker begins tomorrow. Ever since 2002, online poker players from all over the world look forward to WCOOP, including some of tournament poker’s toppermost talent.

As we anticipate the first events kicking off on Thursday at 13:00 ET — get the full schedule here — here are a few of the players we wouldn’t be surprised to see fighting at final tables and taking titles during this 18th running of the WCOOP.

The All-Timers

You might recall how last year the WCOOP began adopting the popular “three-tier” format long employed by the Spring Championship of Online Poker by offering “low,” “medium,” and “high” buy-in events. That meant the overall number of WCOOP tournaments — and titles — increased markedly.

When last year’s WCOOP began, Dan “djk123” Kelly was the all-time leader in titles with five. There were a couple of others with four, however, and both would pass Kelly after collecting multiple wins a year ago.

In fact, one of those other two managed to win FIVE titles last year alone — last year’s WCOOP Player of the Series Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov. That makes him the current all-time record-holder with NINE (!) WCOOP wins.

Denis Strebkov: Talk about an “aDrENalin710” surge

Before last year’s WCOOP, Strebkov had a number of live victories to his credit as well, including having earned a couple of silver spades in mixed game events at EPT Malta. Then came last September when the Russian won those five WCOOP events in five different games — pot-limit Omaha, razz, five-card draw, stud hi-lo, and the 8-game mix.

Since then Strebkov has added a World Series of Poker bracelet to his hardware collection after topping a 301-player field to win the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event back in July. With such prowess in so many different variants, it seems safe to say “aDrENalin710” will be shooting up the WCOOP leaderboards throughout the next three weeks.

The other four-time winner entering last year’s WCOOP was another mixed-game master, Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb. He earned two wins himself (both in pot-limit Omaha hi-lo events) to bring his overall number of WCOOP wins to six, and returns in 2019 as a good candidate to add to that total.

As Deeb pointed out to PokerStars Blog last fall, winning a lot of tournaments doesn’t necessarily make someone the greatest. But having the range to play a lot of different variants like he and Strebkov do helps a lot in a series like WCOOP.

“I don’t think the most titles means you’re the best player,” said Deeb. “I’m far and away not the best player in most of the fields I play, but I’m one of the few who plays everything.”

Deeb will certainly be in the mix a lot again this year, aiming for Player of the Series once more with several side bets likely.

“I just like battling, y’know?”

Shaun Deeb: Wafflecrushing since the ’00s

More of Last Year’s Stars

Looking through others with multiple titles during the 2018 WCOOP reveals several more names to add to the “players to watch” list, starting with Dmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich who after winning two WCOOPs last year pushed his career total to four.

Come to think of it, Urbanovich first captured a lot of the poker world’s attention while winning four titles in a single series at EPT Malta back in 2015. The next year he’d win the EPT Dublin Main Event, too.

Dzmitry Urbanovich: We expect to see ya, “Colisea”

Both “nilsef” and Andrei “Premove” Skvortsov came into last fall’s WCOOP with two titles, then doubled that total by winning two more as well.

It was also a breakthrough series for Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes who had one title before, then won two more last fall. As he told us amid his torrid run last year, besides being a poker pro and adept at a variety of games and formats, Leknes also enjoys chess, volleyball, and all kinds of board games.

“I’m a typically competitive guy,” said the Norwegian. Fellow WCOOP players, take note.

Tobias Leknes: “Senkel92” hopes to sink others’ hopes

Gillian “Gstronda” Conrado of Brazil also broke out during last year’s WCOOP, winning two titles in large-field no-limit hold’em tournaments. He’ll likely be back looking to add to those successes and his many BSOP cashes.

Gillian Conrado: “Gstronda” hopes to be strong again

EPT veteran Joao “Naza114” Vieira of Portugal also won a couple of WCOOP events a year ago, and after collecting a few cashes at EPT Barcelona last week he’ll likely be another one to pay attention to over the coming weeks.

João Vieira: “Naza114” has game

Other Players to Watch

Looking for others to rail? The other three-time WCOOP winners, Anders “Donald” Berg, Andrey “Kroko-dill” Zaichenko, Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo, Mikal “mikal12345” Blomlie, and Gleb “Ti0373” Tremzin should all earn attention from pre-WCOOP handicappers.

You should keep an eye on the former WCOOP Main Event winners, too, including Steven “SvZff” van Zadelhoff who talked to us last week about his win in 2017 (among other topics), and “wann2play” who took down the “High” version of the Main Event a year ago.

So, too, should you remain aware of other online phenoms we were watching in Barcelona over the last couple of weeks such as Andras “probirs” Nemeth, Griffin “Flush_Entity” Benger, Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen, Simon “C Darwin2” Mattsson, and Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker.

Andras Nemeth: “probirs” is a pro

Griffin Benger: “Flush_Entity,” a known (and talented) quantity

Jerry Odeen: “Perrymejsen” solves poker mysteries like Perry Mason

Simon Mattsson: “C Darwin2” among the fittest, and knows about survival

Thomas Muehloecker: Nothing wishy-washy about “WushuTM”

There are many more we might mention, of course, but that’s a good list of players to keep an eye on here at the start. And of course more stars — including those we’ve never seen shine before — will surely find the spotlight as well over the course of the 219 different events (!). We’ll do our best to share their stories with you here at PokerStars Blog as they do.

Want to play the 2019 WCOOP? Opening a PokerStars account is easy. Click here to get an account in minutes.

The PokerStars stable of Twitch ambassadors is getting together for a Streamer Showdown — and it could win you a trip to Lex Live 2 and a Platinum Pass.

The Showdown

Fintan Hand, Ben Spragg, Lex Veldhuis, Nick Walsh, Arlie Shaban and Felix Schneiders have all been issued a special chest containing a mystery prize. To unlock it they will need to win the Streamer Showdown, a special Sit & Go tournament that will be broadcast as a multi-cam stream on September 7 at 6 a.m. ET (12 p.m. CET).

Whoever wins the showdown will open the mystery prize chest live on stream — and then immediately play host to a freeroll with six Lex Live 2 packages up for grabs.

The Challenges

The only way to earn a seat in this freeroll is to complete challenges between now and September 7. The challenge necessary for a freeroll ticket varies by streamer, so you can cover all your bases by completing all six of them:

Six streamers, six different tasks

The Prizes

Six Stream Showdown freeroll finalists will win Lex Live 2 packages

The top six players in next week’s freeroll all will win a trip to London from October 3-6 for Lex Live 2, where each will play in the £230 Main Event. But before they chase that title, they’ll play a Sit & Go live on stream — and the winner will earn a Platinum Pass.

Just imagine — completing a few simple challenges this week could end up winning you millions of dollars next August. That’s a story that would never get old!

The challenges are already running, so there’s plenty of time to get in on the action before the Streamer Showdown goes live on September 7.

It’s easy to get in on the action at PokerStars. Simply click here to open an account.

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) starts again this week. It will be the 18th renewal of online poker’s most prestigious and best known tournament series — a festival that pre-dates even Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP victory from 2003. Here’s a quick guide to all you need to know about this year’s event.

OVERVIEW

This year’s WCOOP features 73 events, almost all of which have three distinct buy-in levels: low, medium and high. It means there will be 219 tournaments in all. PokerStars players of all abilities and bankrolls can therefore enter, with the lowest buy-in set at $2.20 (for WCOOP-1-L, the phased event) all the way up to $25,000 (for WCOOP-25-H NLHE High Roller). There are satellites running for all tournaments, including some freerolls.

Find the WCOOP tournaments in the client by clicking the red WCOOP 2019 tab (see screenshot). Satellites appear in the bar below.

Follow the arrow for the WCOOP

Every tournament has a guaranteed prize-pool. It means that even if players’ combined entries do not reach that figure, PokerStars will add the extra money.

All the info about a tournament is there in the client

Most events are played over two days, which means around eight hours play on the first day, followed by play to the conclusion the next day. The notable exceptions are WCOOP-1, which is a phased tournament (see below) and WCOOP-70, which is the Main Event and played over three days (for the low buy-in) and four days (for the high buy-in).

Many events allow for a limited number of re-entries, so check the tournament lobby. All the structure information for a specific tournament, including starting chips, payout structure, re-entry details, can be found by clicking the “Structure” tab inside the specific tournament section in the client.

KEY DATES

At least one tournament begins every day between September 5-23. Here are some highlights:

Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, a previous Main Event champion

Sunday Sept. 22
NLHE Main Event
Buy-ins: $5,200 & $55
High ends Sept 25; Low ends Sept 24
Without question, the highlight of the schedule is the $5,200 Main Event, played over five days and which has a $10 million guaranteed prize pool. The winner will likely win more than $1 million.

Sunday Sept. 8
WCOOP-13-L – Right To Play Charity Event
Buy-in: $55
This mini Sunday Million event benefits PokerStars’ charity partner Right To Play. All rake is donated to the charity, whose mission statement is to: “Protect, educate and empower children to rise above adversity using the power of play.”

Wednesday Sept. 11
WCOOP-25-H – High Roller
Buy-ins: $25,000, $2,100, $215
The high event represents the biggest buy-in of the series, with $25,000 required just to sit down. There are also two optional re-entries possible during the late registration period, so only those with the deepest pockets need apply. For the rest of us, it’s time to sit and watch some of the best in the world do battle.

WCOOP-1 – NLHE Phased
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
The first event on the schedule actually only plays to its winner on the final weekend. This is a “phased” tournament, permitting multiple entries to various “Phase 1” tournaments earlier in the series, with survivors qualifying for “Phase 2”, which then progresses to a winner as normal. It’s best to think of Phased tournaments like major live events, which have Day 1A, Day 1B, etc., combining for Day 2. The best thing about the WCOOP version is the number of runners, which is always enormous, and the gigantic prize-pools that result. There’s a $2 million guarantee on the $215 high buy-in and a $250,000 guarantee on the $2.20 buy-in event.

Look out for other special announcements due during the course of the series. Sometimes new events are added to the schedule.

TOURNAMENT FORMATS

Most tournaments are no limit hold’em, but the WCOOP schedule also offers a wide variety of other games. Here’s the breakdown of variants on offer:

No Limit Hold’em: 49 events (146 tournaments)

Pot limit Omaha (PLO): Events #3, #26, #37, #51, #71
No limit Omaha hi/lo: Events #18, #42 & #60
Pot limit Omaha hi/lo: Events #29, #47
Limit HORSE: Events #5 & #58
Limit 8-game: Events #32 & #66
Limit seven card stud hi/lo: Event #35
Limit badugi: Event #45
Limit hold’em: Event #21
Limit Omaha hi/lo: Event #56
Limit razz: Event #23
Limit triple draw 2-7 lowball: Event #49
No limit five-card draw: Event #9
No limit 6+ (short deck): Event #53
No limit single draw 2-7: Event #62
Pot limit five-card Omaha: Event #14

Also check for Progressive Knockout (PKO) events, where the prize pool is split between knockout bounties, earned for eliminating an opponent, and a regular prize pool.

KEY NUMBERS

No. of events: 73
No. of tournaments (inc. low, medium & high): 219
Lowest buy-in: $2.20 (WCOOP-1-L: Phase 1 NLHE)
Highest buy-in: $25,000 (WCOOP-25-H: $25,000 NLHE, $2m guaranteed)

Total series buy-in: $199,651
(Based on one entry, every tournament)

Lowest guarantee: $10,000
#45: $11 FL Badugi
#62: $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw  

Highest guarantee: $10 million
#70: $5,200 NLHE Main Event

Total guaranteed: $76.375 million

PRIZES AND LEADER BOARDS

In addition to the top prizes on offer from the individual events, there are awards available for the players who perform best across the whole WCOOP series. Every in-the-money finish earns a number of tournament leader board (TLB) points, which accumulate throughout the three weeks.

Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, the 2018 leader board winner

The overall Player of the Series, who has accumulated the most TLB points across all buy-in levels, wins a WCOOP 2019 Player of the Series trophy and $20,000 cash.

There are also leader boards that determine top performers in Low, Medium and High buy-in events, with the top three finishers receiving prizes as follows:

Low Leader Board:
1st – Trophy, $3,500 cash
2nd – $1,500 cash
3rd – $1,000 cash

Medium Leader Board:
1st – Trophy, $5,000 cash
2nd – $2,500 cash
3rd – $1,500 cash

High Leader Board:
1st – Trophy, $7,500 cash
2nd – $5,000 cash
3rd – $2,500 cash

See the Player of the Year page for details of how TLB points are awarded.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

The full WCOOP series has grown from nine events in 2002 to the 73 that are now on the schedule. But there’s always been a Main Event. Here’s a list of the winners of that most prestigious tournament — ie, the 17 previous World Champions of Online Poker. Click player’s name for tournament report of their victory.

Main Event buy-in was $1,100 in 2002-03; $2,600 from 2004-07 and $5,300 thereafter.

WCOOP is right around the corner — the first event starts in just a bit at 6 p.m. BST!

While our PokerStars Ambassadors are gearing up for a shot at millions of dollars just like the rest of you, they’re also preparing themselves for the slings and arrows of WCOOP Bingo.

What is WCOOP Bingo, you ask? It’s a chance for you to score some cash even if you don’t play in any WCOOP events yourself. Have a gander at the card above and we’ll explain.

Spraggy’s excited about this bingo thing

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

The WCOOP Bingo card features 25 tasks with different values added to them. Whenever an Ambassador clears a task first, they will unlock the given reward for this task.

After WCOOP, we will sum up the amount that each Ambassador has unlocked and then run a single freeroll for each of them with their unlocked reward as the prize pool.

There are fives tasks each for playing in WCOOP events and cashing in WCOOPs, with the cash value for these ranging from $50 to $300. And four tasks of scoring KOs are worth anywhere from $50 to $250. Some of these are going to get claimed pretty quickly, but the more valuable ones will take some real effort.

The big money

In addition there is a group of 10 named tasks, which carry higher cash values:

Hey Chris Moneymaker, how many Ambassadors will get a cash bounty for tweeting their 5-4 to you?

1. The Moneymaker: Tweet a picture of yourself getting 5-4 to @CMONEYMAKER – $300
2. Not So EasyWithAces: Lose a hand all-in with A-A – $300
3. Bubbleboy: Bubble a tournament (or bust within 20 places from cashing) – $400
4. Stakes Don’t Matter: Play the same event number in two different stake levels – $200
5. Hey Friend: Get on a table with a Team Pro (Red Spade member) & tweet a screenshot to them – $400
6. Close But No Cigar: Make the final 3 tables of an event but don’t win – $500
7. Dream Big: Final Table a WCOOP Event – $600
8. Is that a good hand?: Make Quads or Better in a WCOOP Event – $300
9. Share the Love: Give away WCOOP Tickets via Marble Race – $250
10. Mix it up: Play a non-Hold’em event – $100

An extra $1,000 is added for completing the whole card first or clearing the most tasks in total, giving Ambassadors incentive to clear tasks that have already been cleared by someone else. Whoever completes the card or matches the most tasks cleared will get $500 added.

And for a final, added bonus, the Ambassador who runs deepest in the Main Event – Low will earn a final $1,500.

It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon

The first WCOOP Bingo squares will certainly be claimed early on, but the game will carry on throughout this month as WCOOP plays out. You can keep tabs on how things are going right here on the blog, or by checking out all the PokerStars Twitch channels.

UPDATE 1: Monday, September 9

After a full weekend of WCOOP action, it’s time to see where our Ambassadors stand. Or, to be more precise, to see just how far ahead of the field Lex Veldhuis is:

Lex has been an absolute terminator so far this series, claiming an amazing 18 boxes out of 25 over the weekend — no surprise, really, given how competitive he is. But he missed out on the “Hey Friend” box when Spraggy got to it first:

UPDATE 2: Wednesday, September 11

Not much movement the last two days, but both Spraggy and Lex cleared the Bubble Boy square that Pleb had already cleared over the first weekend. Here’s what the full card looks like at the moment:

The squares are beginning to fill up with names…

UPDATE 3: Thursday, September 12

Pye and Pleb both had a chance to clear their Moneymaker square yesterday:

I found the holy grail @CMONEYMAKER, I found it. #WCOOPBingo pic.twitter.com/wEBpTjRwXS

— Mason Pye (@pyefacepoker) September 12, 2019

Hey @CMONEYMAKER
take my strong hand pic.twitter.com/iq9rst7Ccf

— pleb_method (@pleb_method) September 10, 2019

It was another exciting Sunday on PokerStars, punctuated as always by online poker’s most popular weekly event, the Sunday Million.

Lots of great stories to share this week, including interviews with several players who made the final table. Among those who talked to PokerStars Blog was the event’s winner, Juhana “Dumari84” Leinonen, who managed to outlast everyone to earn a whopping $114,334.50 first prize.

With some help from the players, then, here’s the story of how it all played out.

From 11,241 to 9

After being played as a “knockout” tournament the last two weeks, the Sunday Million reverted to its traditional format this time around — a switch that actually caught at least one player off guard (see below).

By the time late registration closed, a total of 8,039 players had entered and with 3,202 re-entries that added up to 11,241 entries total. That also meant a guarantee-busting $1,124,100 prize pool with 2,042 places paid.

It took a little less than 12 hours for the huge field to be whittled down to the final nine, at which point “pnsmckr” was the chip leader with nearly 21 million and Leinonen almost the shortest stack at the table with about 6.5 million.

Great run ends in ninth for “ycsousa”

Stephen “ycsousa” Wong was in the middle of the pack to begin the final table. It had been a good day (and night) to that point for the cash game and tournament player, but as the first few orbits of the final table went by, he was not getting the cards he needed.

“I was running good the whole way,” says Wong when talking to PokerStars Blog. “When I would lose a flip, I’d still have the chips to go on.” However by the final table his fortunes had shifted, and after a half-hour of nine-handed play Wong was ninth in chips.

“I was card dead and the short stack,” he explains. Finally he picked up A♥10♥ in middle position.

“I was all in for 7 big blinds,” says Wong. “And the big blind called me with ace-queen offsuit.” That was “dodi papa” who had A♦Q♣. The Q♥5♣J♥ flop provided lots of hope for Wong, but alas no draws were filled and he was out in ninth. “So many outs and it bricked,” he laments.

All in all, though, it was a great run for the Canadian.

“I have been playing for 10 years, and this is my biggest or second-biggest score online,” he explains.

“Dumari84” dominates as field halved to four

During that stretch the leaderboard changed considerably, with dodi papa slipping in the counts and Juhana “Dumari84” Leinonen moving up into first position.

Other players had become short as well. One was “KKing James” who got it in good with ace-queen versus the king-seven of “BluffedLife,” but a king came on the board to depose the KKing in eighth.

On the next hand Leinonen raised from UTG and “pnsmckr” reraise-shoved a dozen BBs from the cutoff with J♠10♠. When it folded back around Leinonen called with K♥Q♥, the better hand held, and they were down to six.

Suddenly Leinonen was up over 40 million while no one else had half that, and a few minutes later he’d claim another victim, using king-ten suited to top the ace-queen of “mate tdd” and reduce the field to five.

Shortly afterwards Daniele “KennyyPowers” Grassi picked up pocket aces, which was bad news for the short-stacked “Skipper22” who had ace-king, and five cards later the latter was out in fifth.

Fourth for soon-to-be-papa “dodi papa”

The final four would battle another 25 minutes, with Leinonen continuing to thrive and “dodi papa” eventually becoming short-stacked.

Hailing from Hungary, “dodi papa” had already locked up the biggest score of his online poker career — and had already fulfilled a big poker goal for himself, too.

“It’s been a long time that I have been dreaming of being on the final table of the Sunday Million,” he tells us. “The funny thing was, my wife just wrote on a post-it before I started to play on Sunday ‘Do not forget to win the Sunday Million.’ And I almost did it!”

As he explains, a little earlier at the final table he’d lost an all-in with ace-queen against a short-stacked player’s ace-ten. He’d double-up with aces after that, but then lost a key hand versus Leinonen.

“I had bad luck as I had a straight but unfortunately ‘Dumari84’ had a bigger straight,” he notes. Soon after he’d get his last 5.5 BBs in with jack-ten suited and lose to Daniele “KennyyPowers” Grassi’s king-ten to finish fourth.

Still, “dodi papa” was plenty happy with the result.

“This was my biggest score, and the timing was perfect at my first son will be born in the next weeks,” he says. Talk about a fitting username!

“I can’t wait to play WCOOP,” he adds. “Let’s hope that the best is yet to come.”

“KennyyPowers” downed in third

Three-handed would continue for several minutes. Eventually Leinonen was way out in front with more than 65 million while BluffedLife was at around 28 million and Daniele “KennyyPowers” Grassi third with about 19 million.

A 32-year-old cash game player from Austria, Grassi often plays in Vienna and elsewhere, and in fact the night before had a lengthy session at his local casino. That session had ended somewhat frustratingly with the loss of a big pot versus a loose opponent nicknamed “Banana” in which Grassi’s pocket queens got cracked by Banana’s king-queen.

Daniele “KennyyPowers” Grassi

Even so, with soccer on the television Grassi decided to jump in the Sunday Million despite his head not being entirely in the game.

“I feel like this not being completely in the zone helped me in the early stages of the tournament,” he says, “because I didn’t have the energy to bluff-shove 6-4 off on the river for my tournament life.”

As it happened, the run to the final table had been quite smooth for KennyyPowers. “As I got closer to the final table I managed to tell myself ‘this is what every poker player dreams of when he starts playing… do not dare to f*** it up!”

Thus did he adopt a tighter approach as the final table neared, folding pocket jacks to an all-in. At the final table, though, he changed gears a bit and used aggression when

Finally Grassi picked up Q♣Q♥ in the big blind and watched as leader Dumari84 raised from the small blind. Grassi three-bet, Leinonen jammed, and Grassi called all in to see he was well ahead of his opponent’s 10♠10♥.

Alas for KennyyPowers — just as happened with “Banana” the night before — Q-Q failed him again as a ten spiked on the river to end his run with a third-place finish.

Grassi still had a sense of humor about it, though.

“I would to take the opportunity to quote Bob Bright here,” he says, alluding to the legendary blackjack and poker player whom Grassi had the chance to meet during a visit to Las Vegas: “No more rivers!”

He also feels good about his play at the final table. “Next time I will take it down :)”

Dumari84 has a fever, and the cure is more chips… and a Sunday Million win!

In a way, that ten coming on the river was somewhat emblematic of the whole final table for Juhana “Dumari84” Leinonen. While the struggle to get to the FT had been difficult for him, from that point nearly everything went his way, leading to Dumari84 having a better than 3-to-1 chip lead to begin heads-up.

It continued to go Leinonen’s way for him thereafter, as just five minutes later he saw a flop with A♥J♣ versus BluffedLife’s 9♠9♥, and after the first three cards came 4♥A♦7♦ the pair bet back and forth until BluffedLife was all in. The 4♣ turn and J♦ river sealed it, ensuring Leinonen a six-figure score.

“I didn’t plan to play the Sunday Million,” Leinonen tells us. “I was only going to play the High Roller and the Warm-Up, because I had to work on Monday.”

“But I got a fever,” he adds with a laugh, explaining how he thought since he might be calling in sick on Monday, perhaps he could take a seat in the Milly.

“At first I didn’t realize it wasn’t a knockout tournament, and on my first bullet I tried to knock out as many as I could,” he says. “Then I realized it was a normal tournament, and [on my second entry] I changed my play a little bit.”

“There’s wasn’t anything unusual early on,” he continues. “Then I won a few hands in a row and was leading the tournament, then I made some not-so-good plays and maybe was unlucky, and I was short again.”

Leinonen hung on, however, doubling up a few times to make it to the tournament’s final stages. With about 30 players left, though, he was dead last in the counts and eyeing the payouts to see how far he could make it. And when the final table started he was eighth of nine, but a couple more timely doubles helped catapult him to what turned out to be an especially smooth endgame.

“It was the easiest final table ever,” he says with a chuckle, noting as well how a deal was never really in play thanks to his overwhelming chip lead.

That fever — and playing nearly 14 hours’ worth of poker — had kept Leinonen from going in to his job as a manager overseeing safely and quality for a construction company. But he still had responsibilities to fulfill as the final table played out, making it even more fortunate the cards kept going his way.

“I still had to do a little bit of reporting for my job, so my focus wasn’t 100 percent,” he laughs. “I had promised to do that work, so I did that while I played.”

As a part-time player with a family, Leinonen does get out to play now and then — he cashed a couple of times recently at EPT Barcleona — but that can be a challenge. “I’d like to play more, but it isn’t so easy,” he says.

Good for him he was able to find the time this week!

Congratulations to Juhana “Dumari84” Leinonen for his big win, and to everyone else who made the final table as well.

Want to play the Sunday Million? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

Today is the day — FOX Bet is live!

The brand-new app, a real money wagering experience from The Stars Group, in partnership with FOX Sports, allows customers in the state of Pennsylvania to place bets on a wide range of national and international sporting events, from football, baseball, soccer, and hockey to motor sports, golf, and tennis.

Through the app, you can access exclusive promotions with hundreds of ways to win. There are sign-up and deposit bonuses with no red tape, enhanced prices, top offers, Daily Bet Boosts, and brand new Custom Bets.

FOX Bet customers also get the latest FOX Sports content. Instant scores, stats, alerts, and odds updates are all here. You’ll also get up-to-the-minute news, expert insight and hall-of-famer commentary from FOX Sports’ all-star team of broadcasters and analysts.

THE HERD’s Colin Cowherd is featured in the FOX Bet app

Plenty of your favorite FOX Sports on-air personalities feature in the app, including FIRST THINGS FIRST analysts Cris Carter and Nick Wright; LOCK IT IN experts Cousin Sal, Todd Fuhrman, Clay Travis and host Rachel Bonnetta; host of THE HERD Colin Cowherd, and FOX NFL KICKOFF host Charissa Thompson.

“Starting today, Pennsylvania has access to one of the world’s premier regulated sports wagering experiences,” said Robin Chhabra, Chief Executive Officer of FOX Bet.

“Together with FOX Sports, an icon in sports programing, we’ve built a platform that is like nothing the United States has ever seen. We’re bringing fans closer to the games they love by making our platform more fun and engaging than any other out there.”

To learn more, visit www.foxbet.com.

21+. Terms & Conditions apply. Must be located within Pennsylvania. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER

The 2019 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is under way! Six tournaments began on the opening day, with guarantees comfortably obliterated, and the first two million dollar prize pools being contested.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

• First two events attracts 16,550 entries across three buy-ins
• Already total prize pools exceed $4 million
• First six champions to be decided today

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Although no tournaments played to a winner on WCOOP’s opening day, the tone has already been set for what promises to be a hectic few weeks. Both the medium and high buy-in versions of WCOOP-02-H — a no limit hold’em PKO — built prize pools of more than $1 million. Meanwhile there were more than 7,700 entries to the low buy-in event.

Pot Limit Omaha proved similarly popular, with nearly 6,000 entries to the $22 buy-in PLO 6-Max.

Rachid Ben “SkaiWalkurrr” Cherif leads an all star cast in the hunt for the biggest prize currently on offer. With $123,000 up top in the $10,300 buy-in WCOOP-02, Cherif finds himself alongside three Sunday Million winners at the top of the counts: “a.urli“, who won the 10th Anniversary special, Scott “Aggro Santos” Margereson and Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs. The last 13 also includes Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, Niklas “lena900” Åstedt and Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger.

DAY 1 TOURNAMENT STATS

Events play to a winner today

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NOMINATIVE DETERMINISM

Finland’s “bustoville” was the first player out of WCOOP-03-H. Meanwhile, “onmybicycle” became the first player eliminated from WCOOP-2-L. They said it…

That said, there’s some quality on the early sidelines. Take a look at the first six out of the $10,300 event:

Jorryt “TheCleaner11” Van Hoof
Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford
Patrick “pads1161” Leonard
Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger
girafganger7
Luke “lb6161” Schwartz

STAT TRACKER

Events completed: 0
Entries so far: 16,550
Prize pool so far: $4,072,280
Tournaments starting today: 9

TWITCH BINGO WATCH

The start of WCOOP meant the start of the PokerStars Ambassadors’s bingo game, and never let it be said that these guys aren’t interested in a petty contest. On the contrary. They love it. Here’s Lex Veldhuis finding 4-5 to tick another box on his card.

One PokerStars ambassador is taking it easy:

Couldn’t have prepped better for today. Ready to be a world champion.https://t.co/BAfr4oIp8E pic.twitter.com/n3sszeXuuU

— Fintan Hand (@EasyWithAces) September 5, 2019

The mood is buoyant as players begin the long WCOOP grind:

Reasonable start to my WCOOP, just over $400 up tonight… looking forward to the weekend 😎

— FPL Beast (@FPL_Beast) September 5, 2019

And if you get knocked down, be prepared to get back up again:

Ok Good news and bad news #GoodNews I played a great day and learned a lot, My studies have really shown through today #BadNews I bubbled fu€king everything, The good play has outweighed the bad ROI which is a first #KeepStudying #KeepImproving WCOOP I will revisit you tomorrow pic.twitter.com/h1G42Kb36a

— IllBringTheGuns (@IllBringTheGuns) September 5, 2019

Also, it’s good to set goals. Good luck, Charlie!

#wcoop #pokerstars My aim is to top 30th place, get into the top 100 of one event and make enough money to take one shot at the $5000 main event. Would make me so happy XD 🥰😍

— Charlie Afford (@Charles_Afford) September 5, 2019

COMING UP

There’s a great test of your all-round poker skills today as the first HORSE tournaments get started. And for all you single table sit and go beasts, pull up a seat for the shootout. But don’t be late! There’s no late registration for this one.

WCOOP-04: No Limit Hold’em – Buy-ins $5.50, $55, $530
WCOOP-05: HORSE – Buy-ins $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-06: No Limit Hold’em Shootout – Buy-ins $11, $109, $1,050

PokerStars have a new option for displaying stack-sizes that could change the way you view poker.

There is now an option to remove the monetary display, replacing real money stack size in cash games and total chips in tournaments with the number of big blinds remaining in each player’s stack. Today we explore how to configure this option and why you might want to utilise it to enhance the way you approach the game.

How to Activate the Big Blind Display

Switching from chip display to big blind display could not be easier. Simply click on your stack to change the mode of display back and forth between the two settings.

In the long-term, it will be important to decide which option you like best as alternating between the two is likely to cause confusion and lead to the odd bet-sizing mistake. Consistency is key to removing these sorts of unforced errors.

Now, here are some of the advantages to adopting the new setting.

Saving Energy for Tournament Players

One essential skill for a tournament player is knowing how many big blinds you have. This information is essential for planning your shoving ranges, open-raise sizing, 3-Bet sizing, and much more.

As the blinds are always changing, having the big blind display setting enabled cuts out what is an unnecessary step – the computation of chips into big blinds. It is not that this calculation is particularly difficult, but it can slow down a thought process and gradually eat up mental energy that can be used for more skilled thought process later in the hand.

Enabling the big blind display is a common-sense move to simplify tournament situations so that you can focus on what really matters – outplaying your opponents and taking down that big score.

Demonetising in Cash Games for the Sake of Mental Game

Being human is a certain disadvantage when it comes to the emotional impact of playing for real money.

When you are staring at a monetary value, your mind often cannot help but to picture what that money means in real life. $10 is a pizza, $50 is a night at the pub, and $100 is a weekly grocery shop. While it’s not practical to picture yourself betting boxes of cereal and dog food tins, the mind cannot help but understand what the real money of cash games means.

Therefore, we often experience positive emotions during upswings and negative ones during downswings. While it is almost impossible for a human to completely remove this tendency, it can be controlled by getting rid of the real money stimulus.

Some poker players develop bad habits like checking their bankroll every time they play a big pot and this can be very destructive in the long-term as it teaches a sort of emotional dependence on uncontrollable short-term results. The big blind display setting helps us see poker as a game played for chips in the short-term and money in the long-term.

By enabling this setting, we remove the illusion that the short-term swings represent real money. Through this change, we start to see poker as what it really is – a game of long-term skill and short-term luck.

Standardising your Bet-Sizing

It is both lazy and unprofitable to rely on the same bet-sizing in all situations.

Poker is a dynamic game where different conditions call for different actions. That said, there are many common situations which occur again and again with little discrepancy.

Being familiar with the best bet-sizing in these spots adds an element of comfort to your game. Having a routine size for when there are no mitigating circumstances removes one more thing from the list of mental processing, freeing up space for a better thought process.

The big blind stack display setting allows you to effortlessly apply the best bet-size without having to constantly adjust for the ever-changing big blind in tournament play. Cash game players will also appreciate the continuity of this the big blind display when they move up or down in stakes.

Let’s face it, no one loves having to compute bet-sizing at $16NL Zoom where the blinds are far from round numbers!

Spotting Less Serious Players in Cash

Early opponent classification is an important cash game skill, particularly in ZOOM where you are unlikely to amass much experience with any one opponent since you are playing with so many different players.

Less serious players are likely to play differently to regulars and exhibit more erratic behaviours. It is good to know who these people are in advance and tag them as such.

One reliable way of spotting a more recreational player is from them not having a full stack. Most regulars tend to auto-reload their stack to 100BB and so someone sitting with 94BB is very often going to be a less studious opponent who may be unaware of many of the standard norms between regulars.

At a 25NL cash game, it is very easy to not notice a stack that reads $23.67 as you scan over the table. However, someone sitting with 98BB instead of 100BB is far easier to spot at a glance. This is yet another reason for considering the alternative stack display – you can scan the table much faster to get an idea of stack sizes. The human mind does a much better job of understanding a scale of 0-100 than it does 0-25 or 0-200.

Conclusion

If you’re unsure whether to switch to big blind stack display, why not try it out by simply clicking on your stack. You can always switch back again if it’s not to your liking.

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2019 kicked off yesterday, but that wasn’t the only exciting thing getting started.

Cast your mind back to May, and the Spring Championship of Online to be precise.

PokerStars Ambassador Lex Veldhuis was set a special challenge by his Twitch moderators and community which saw him open 20 unique envelopes throughout the series.

When they were putting it together, Lex had just one request: he wanted to know nothing about it.

He got his wish.

It was Jigsaw from the Saw movie franchise who shared the news:

Throughout WCOOP Lex will be sent a special video whenever he completes certain milestones (e.g. making a Day 2). The 20 unique videos will contain either a positive or negative task which Lex must complete.

Here, he shares all the information:

As if WCOOP needed to be any more exciting, it now is.

It’s going to be a wild ride.

And you can follow along with the whole thing with Lex Veldhuis on Twitch, and right here on PokerStars Blog.