Handy, then, that on Team PokerStars Pro we have current WSOP champ Peter Eastgate, so we asked him to write down his thoughts on going deep in Vegas. As he scooped more than $9.1 million doing just that, then it may be best to read what he has to say...

by Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate

A question I have been asked repeatedly is: "What is the best way, from a strategy perspective, to play the WSOP Main Event?" I think the WSOP Main Event is unique: the number of players is more than in any other big buy-in tournament and the quality of the players is also very varied.

A lot of recreational players play it, either through qualification online or because it is the tournament to play if you are going to take a shot at fame and fortune. This makes for a special tournament and, unlike a PokerStars EPT or a WPT event, it is very hard to come up with a pre-tournament strategy.

My personal strategy when winning the event last year was that I had no pre-tournament strategy! At a big event like the WSOP Main Event, there are so many unknown variables, such as table draw, quality of the cards dealt and, most importantly, the immediate emotional state of the other players at the table. You have to pay close attention to what is going on at the table - and how the other players are reacting to playing in such a big event.

It is very important to be in tune with your opponent's emotional state and base your decisions on how you feel he or she is feeling in any given situation.

The key to playing in a long and hard tournament like this is to find the balance between accumulation of chips, and maintaining your chips stack. Obviously, the best way to maintain a healthy chip stack is through accumulation, but it is important to keep in mind what kind of risks you are willing to take in order to accumulate chips. In last year's tournament I pride myself with the fact that I was only all-in (with the chance of losing my entire chip stack) two times. The reason this was possible was that the structure of the tournament is nice and slow.

I had an above average chip stack most of the tournament and I did not play many hands where I had a lot of chips invested in the hand pre-flop. I played a kind of small-ball strategy that has become very popular among some of the better professional poker players, which in essence is a strategy that tries to control the pot size. This strategy was not pre-determined, but was the best feasible approach considering my table draws.

I have spoken to several very good young professional tournament players, who told me that they had tough table draws, in that the overall level of aggression on their table was very high, thus creating a much higher volatility. I was very lucky that my tables were fairly soft, which allowed me to slowly chip up and control the pot size, since very few of my opponents played back at me.

It is also important to understand that no two people are the same. When playing a long and grueling tournament like the WSOP Main Event it is very important to know yourself and your habits. Some people like running 10K before they play; some people eat fruit or smoke a pack of cigarettes. You have to do whatever makes you the most alert and physically fit to withstand the pressure of the tournament.

To sum up, I do not think there is a correct pre-tournament strategy that will guarantee success. Take every situation and evaluate throughout the tournament what strategy fits best to the situation you are faced with. That way you will have the best possible chance of making it deep. Always think a couple of steps ahead when you play a hand. "What will happen on the river if I call the turn?" And: "What amount will my opponent likely bet?" But always remember that there will be more tournaments in the future and that putting too much pressure on yourself will make you more tense.

You need be relaxed to make the right decisions. Stay cool when the money and pressure increases.

Good luck with winning your PokerStars WSOP package - and then in the Main Event!

It's not like top professionals to go around seeding the tournament fields with sage advice, but we've managed to get the man we know as ElkY to give us a little advice before the start of play.

ElkY believes that the concept of bet-sizing actually differs between live and online play and he's outlined his ideas below.

Thanks to ElkY for sharing a little bit of what makes him great.

Bet sizing for fun and profit

by Bertand "ElkY" Grospellier

On PokerStars, tournaments structures are getting better and better, and being deep stacked in many tournaments, we have to adapt our game to the structure.

Bet sizing becomes more important and it's crucial to know exactly the amount to bet. I believe that live and online tournaments aren't much different in that aspect, and the crucial part, of course, is to adapt to the table.

The first key in bet sizing is the size of your stack and that of your opponent(s) in the hand. Early in the tournament, it's hard to stack off to someone but if the situation is right, you should still try to maximize your chances to do so, and by then have a plan for how the hand will play out. On the other hand, when you have medium strength hand, you don't want to commit too big a portion of your chips in the pot. You may have a dilemma there. It would be the correct play to just go with the often heard: "Big hand, big pot", but from a metagame point of view, that's not very wise. I believe in online tournaments, especially the Sunday majors, the field is so big and tables change so often that people won't be able to realize what you are doing most of the time. It's still best to vary your game, like making a big bluff for pot size bet on the river once in a while if you judge the situation right.

The key thing in poker, especially as the games are all getting tougher, is to be aware of your image and the table dynamic it creates. Everyone knows how to evaluate your hand range based on your image, but adapting the bet sizing can be tougher. It depends quite a lot on your history at the table, if you have one. If you bet small on the river with the nuts in position, it might not be the most +EV bet at the time, but if you are playing with observant players, they will notice it, which will allow you to bluff cheaper on the river when the blinds and pots get bigger. They'll likely remember you are able to do that for value. On the other hand, if people see you as a maniac capable of bluffing all-in at anytime, then overbetting all-in with very strong hands is a very deceptive way to play. One very popular move these days is to come over the top all in pre-flop for a huge amount with big pairs, as a lot of opponents will be likely to put you on AK/AQ type of hands and call with a dominated pair.

Structure is also an important element into consider. The slower the structure is, the better it is for you, given you have an edge on other players. For this reason, you shouldn't want to take too many risks when you'll have plenty of play available. But the pre-flop play changes a lot. Early in tournament, as the blinds are very small compared to stack sizes, it's important to protect your big hand by raising a lot pre-flop. If everyone has 150+ bbs, hands like Kings or Aces can bring trouble, especially if the table is very passive and full of calling stations. So, you want to reduce the number of opponents. For example if the blinds are 25/50 with 10,000 starting stacks like in the Sunday Million, and there are five limpers ahead of you, I think making it 400 is the minimum. When the tournament reaches mid-stage, it's important to notice the size of the stacks of the people you are playing the hand with in order to establish a good strategy. On a re-steal attempt, for example, you want to give yourself maximum fold equity but not commit yourself into the hand. You want to pick the right opponent's stack to make this move. Deep into a tourney, the bet sizing pre-flop will usually be smaller. As everyone gets short-stacked, it becomes less important to protect your hand and more important to protect your stack. That's especially true if you have an aggressive pre-flop opening range.

Varying the bet sizing in function of your hand can be a dangerous concept, as it will be easier for some opponents to adapt to your betting patterns. Especially pre-flop, I like to always open for the same amount at every level, usually 3.5x to 4x early on down to 2.3-2.7xbb very deep in. After the flop however, there are many more considerations to make. A lot of those concepts are much more familiar to cash game players, but basically you want to bet the amount that will put your opponent to a tough decision every time. This is of course much easier to achieve as a big stack, as you can put maximum pressure on your opponent. The texture of the flop of course and number of opponents in the hand is a key concept to how much you should bet. If you have [Qs] [Qc] on a [Qh] [Ts] [9h] board out of position against 3 players, you will have to bet a different amount than if you have [Ks] [Kd] on a [Kc] [7d] [2h] board. The best course of action is to calculate on the flop -- depending how deep you are -- how to stack your opponent when you think your hand is best.

Position matters also, as it allows you to manipulate your opponent much more easily. You can get full value out of your big hands and lose the minimum when you get outdrawn. As it is tougher to play hands out of position, you usually want to re-raise more pre-flop if you are out of position, and even more so against good players. When I'm in position against my most likely opponents, however, I don't want to discourage the action, especially if we both have sufficient stacks for post-flop play to matter. I believe people make more mistakes post-flop in poker, and when I have a legitimate hand, I don't mind playing against the blinds.

Antes make no-limit tournaments much more interesting, as people need to play more hands. It makes the pre-flop aggression so much more worthwhile, but I don't advocate raising more when ante kicks in, as it will commit a bigger portion of your stack and not necessarily reduce the chances of getting called enough. It does affect the steal-resteal game a lot, and opening and/or re-raising a wider range is largely rewarded when antes kicks in.

Finally, I think changing up bet sizing a lot is very important. It also requires a lot of skill and has to be used wisely, as it can also make your game more predictable. Analyzing all the aspects of the hand you are in should be done every time. You need to plan the hand ahead on every street, and then betting the amount that will make your opponent react in the most favorable way.

I'll give you one example of a hand I played in the WCOOP Main Event. I had 58,000 in the big blind with [Ad] [Qc]. A very aggressive player, holla@yoboy ID on PokerStars, opened for a standard raise of 2,100 at 400/800 blinds from mid-position and got a call from another good player on the button. I had many options on how to play the hand, because the opening player had 42,000 in chips, I figured if I three-bet to something like 6,500 or 7,000, he would be in a position where he could easily lay down his weaker hands, but also might read my re-raise for a squeeze move and shove over the top with most of his pocket pairs. That would be a disastrous situation for me.

Putting that much money in preflop with [Ad] [Qc] at this stage of the tournament isn't really something I want to do, but re-raising and folding to a push would make my image much weaker. People wouldn't give me credit in the future which is something I need. I therefore chose to call and play the flop.

It came [As] [Th] [5h]. With 7,000 in the pot and knowing my opponent's tendencies, I thought a checkraise would make him lay down most of his hands. I was pretty confident that I was way ahead of his range, as the only hands that could beat me are A-K, A-T, A-5, T-T or 5-5. It's a very small combination compared to all the combo draws that are out there, including any ace suited in hearts, [Qh] [Jh]. It would also let me see the button's reaction before committing more money. So, if the button raised, I could still get away cheaply.

My opponent bet 4,000, a very standard continuation bet size. I decided to make it 12,000 because of the drawy texture of the board. It would also leave him exactly 28,000 more, the perfect size bet for him to make a move on me with a semi-bluff. I believe if he is in position with a monster like a set or A-T, calling would be his favorite play.

He instantly shoved all-in and I snap called. He showed me K-J for a gutshot straight draw, three outs because I had one of the queens. My hand held up and I raked a big pot that made me chip leader at my table for the time being. If I had raised more on the flop, I would have left him with no fold equity and he would have mucked his hand right there. It would've ended up costing me 35,000 chips more. If I had raised less, I believe he might have called getting very good odds, or maybe re-raised me. Then it would have been very difficult for me to put the fourth raise in with my hand.

Good luck in SCOOP!

by Vicky Coren

The art of multi-table tournament poker lies in the pace. There are two big general mistakes that beginners can make: either they play too slowly, waiting so long for good hands that they are blinded away by the relentless clock - or they play too quickly, pushing unnecessary hands and knocking themselves out as if they had a train to catch.

The balance is difficult to find. It's all about a mathematical equation: you are playing according to the size of your stack, the size of your opponents' stacks, the size of the blinds and the speed of the clock. But all these factors are changing all the time. It can be discombobulating. Playing a tournament is like climbing a long staircase, in which the size and shape of the steps is altered every few minutes, and (every so often) a tub of oil is tipped down them. If you stop concentrating, you'll tumble backwards and break a leg.

Generally speaking, the best principle is to let your pace gather speed with the blinds. That is the safest strategy: to play tight at the beginning (not overplaying marginal hands when the blinds and pots are too small to be worth stealing), and gradually broaden the range of hands you raise with, in direct proportion to the blinds going up and the field getting smaller. If people want to push you around at the beginning, let them. But when the blinds get serious, flex your muscles and take a stand.

By "playing tight", I don't mean waiting for aces. In a deep-stack tournament, where you can afford to see a lot of flops in the early levels, you can play pre-flop almost like a cash game: creeping in, or making unexpected raises, with those interesting hands like 8-10 suited or J9 suited, trying to catch a monster. It's more a case of (when you fail to hit) not throwing good money after bad. If you can afford to give up, don't get stubborn.

In a big opening field, such as the PokerStars Sunday Million, there can be a strangely hurried feel. Players want to jostle ahead of the crowd so they play aggressively, pushing marginal hands and even moving all in, from the earliest levels. Some of them want to build a big stack fast, or get out early. If this is the mood at your table, don't get sucked into the panicky betting frenzy: sit patiently and bet only when you want action. Pre-flop raises won't clear opponents away. Bluffs will fail more often than they succeed. But value bets should pay off nicely. Don't bother trapping with sets, straights or flushes: bet them openly. It's worth seeing a few cheap flops in late position with a wide range of hands, but play on only if you hit because you will get paid.

Remember, in a multi-table tournament you have two sets of opponents: those on your table (whose chips you are trying to take directly) and those on other tables who you may meet later. So you should always have an idea of what the average chip stack is for the whole field. On PokerStars, it's easy - the lobby will always tell you. In a live tournament like an EPT, there should be a wall clock with that information.

You are there to play poker and win the tournament, not count your way nervously towards the payout spots. But the chip average should be in your mind as a constant backdrop, to gauge the general health of your stack.

In the middle stages, you cannot afford to waste chips. At this point, it's all about selective aggression: picking your spots to play, and then playing like you mean it. In the early stages you can make speculative calls, in the middle stages you can't. Beware the mediocre hands like A-9 or small pairs; you're better off playing a 6-7 suited. Why? Because you'll know where you stand. You should be raising or re-raising your way into pots with hands where you know you want action, or know that you don't. The same applies after the flop. With every bet you make, be certain what response you want.

Around the bubble is a great time to increase your aggression. Many players will be loitering, trying to make the money. You must find the bravery not to be one of these people. But pick your targets with care. The small stacks are forced to gamble and the big stacks can afford to. Put pressure on the middle stacks, who may be trying to safeguard their chips for the payout spots.

What about the size of your own stack? You must make sure it never goes below ten big blinds. If you find you have 15-20 big blinds, it's time to start re-raising all-in while you can still make the original raiser pass. If you get to 10 big blinds or fewer, it's all-in or fold. You must not raise and then pass; it's like burning money. And you mustn't flat call, because timidity is tournament death. With ten big blinds or below, if nobody else has raised before the action is on you, you must be ready to move in with any hand at all. Anything. Even if you have 7-2 and somebody wakes up with A-A, you still have a 12% chance to win the pot - whereas, if you let yourself get blinded away, you have 0% chance of winning the tournament. And if you can find the nerve to start moving in with any hand in the late stages (or when you're on ten big blinds) you have a much higher than 12% chance that nobody finds anything to call you with, and you can boost your stack with those valuable blinds and antes.

Two important notes: what applies to you applies to everyone else as well. If you have good chips and someone else moves in with less than ten big blinds, you must widen your calling range to reflect their need to move with anything.

Second note: in any form of poker - cash game or tournament, Holdem or Omaha, multi-table or heads-up - you must always be counter-intuitive. Whatever your basic strategy (and the above, to increase aggression as the tournament goes on, remains the best) you must mix it up at least once per level. Never let your opponents get complacent. Do what's right but, every so often, just do what's unexpected.