When I first heard of MicroMillions my first thought was its another great idea but I assumed that I would probably not play as many events as the buy-ins were low and expected very big fields. Therefore the chance of making a final table and a big score in terms of money for a medium/high stakes player was much lower than in WCOOP or SCOOP.

Then I busted in the second level of EPT Madrid with TT vs [Ac][Kc] when the board ran out [A][T][6c] and he got a runner-runner flush. I had nothing to do and decided to give it a go and play a few events in MicroMillions. I started out slow, cashing a few and not playing nightly events. I realized that the points structure was slightly revised and you get a little more points for cashing than before (10/15/20 rather than 5/10/15 depending how deep in the money you go). This, together with the total of one hundred events, created a possibility that not only players who win and get 100 points, but also players who regularly cash can have a chance in the leaderboard race.

I started playing more events, including the nightly ones, and was able to gradually catch up with the leaders. By Saturday, the second-to--last day of the series, I managed to get a five-point advantage with a shot to win if I did well on Sunday. I even had a day when I cashed six out of nine events. Unfortunately, the start of Sunday was a disaster. I busted six straight events, and with only five remaining I dropped 25 points behind the two other players.

I needed a very good run and had to count on nobody else at the top of the leaderboard scoring a bunch of points. I decided to become aggressive, and I probably set a Guinness Record in number of rebuys in 3x turbo tournament. I managed to cash it, and then I had a deep run in the three last events, including the main event. I got 55 points in total, while my opponents got only 10 and 20, It was close, but I won the trophy and the PCA package! Overall I cashed in 34 events out of 89 I played.

Of course, as you can imagine, my poker strategy had to be somewhat adjusted. A player sometimes has to give up chip value in favor of increasing his chances of cashing. This would mean choosing a very conservative style, picking spots with less variance, and even folding big pairs on the bubble. Such a strategy would not be profitable in a standard tournament, but was correct approach as the buy-ins were small compared to the leaderboard prizes (places 2-10 received SCOOP Main Event Medium tickets and places 11-100 received SCOOP Low tickets). In a way we played three satellites in a single tournament, first to get 10 points, then 15, and then 20 points. Only after that could we focus on getting to the final table.

Overall it was a much harder assignment than is seems as the tournaments run 24 hours a day and you had to manage sleep and take care of the rest of your lift. My strategy was to late register nightly events, try to quickly build a big stack and then continue or to go back to sleep. The same applied early morning and again before noon. One time I got a nice stack and then fell asleep in front of the computer only to wake up and see I had no chips anymore. Luckily by the time I was blinded away the action was so fast that I cashed.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all other players who competed in the TLB and especially "bem777ret" who narrowly missed final table three times. That's a big achievement in such a large fields. If he had made the final table once, he he would be the champion!

I hope to find the same commitment and motivation during SCOOP in May.

See you at the tables!

Follow Marcin on Twitter: @MarcinHorecki

Estonia is a small country situated over the Baltic Sea in the north-eastern part of Europe. It is one of the least populated states in Europe with only 1.34 million citizens, out of which 410 thousand live in Tallinn. Although historically being part of Soviet Union, it is actually a relatively rich and modern country. The capital is a mix of old style buildings and new modern constructions occupied with banks, shops and restaurants. Estonian people like fancy items, especially cars. There is no other city in this part of Europe where every second car is a brand new BMW or Mercedes (well almost every second)! Just recently Estonia has introduced currency of EUR, so there will not be any exchange rate issues if you find yourself winning a big prize during EPT Tallinn.

Estonia is a short ferry trip close from Finland to the north, east is Russia and city of Sankt Petersburg and south lies another Baltic state, Latvia. Estonia has a rather cold winter climate, but in the summer temperatures are much more comfortable for people who do not like too much heat. For poker players who not only play cards but are also interested in sightseeing and culture, in 2011 Tallinn is European Capital of Culture, so there will be many events taking place.

I have also taken part in poker tournaments in Estonia. In 2010 I went to play Baltic Festival organized by PokerStars. Although not cashing in the main event I managed to win a turbo side event, so I have good memories about playing poker there. The poker room in five star Swisshotel is very nice and organization was outstanding. The hotel provides Pürovel Spa, has a pool, gym, treatment rooms and a fitness studio. Wireless and wired internet is free.

As the first stop of EPT Season 8, with €4.250 buyin Tallinn is a perfect place to start off well the EPT Player of the Year race. For those who find cards not cooperating well in the main event there will be many side events with buyins ranging from €300 in small turbo events to €10.000 for high roller players. Last year main event gathered more than 400 players and Kevin Stani brought home €400.000 for the first prize.

As always, my goal is to play solid poker, make good decisions and hope the cards are going my way. After already making two 3rd places in EPTs in 2008 and 2010, I want to finally see my name on the top of the results list :). It will not be easy, as there are a lot of very good players constantly improving their skills and each of them eyes the same spot. On the other hand I have also put a lot of work on my game and I feel good before going to Tallinn.

If you are still hesitating whether or not to go, just go ahead, buy a plane ticket and reserve a seat in the most prestigious poker tour in Europe. See you on the final table!

Follow Goral on Twitter.

WCOOP prize pools in 2009 exceeded $50 million and 2010 will be even bigger with more events and a higher guaranteed prize pool! Jovial Gent took down the Main Event and over $1.7 million for his excellent play. This year it can be anyone including me... or you!

Over the last two years at this time of the year I was not only looking for fish at the poker tables - I was fishing in real life in Finland. We used to go with a few keen friends, catching pikes and perches during the day, and playing bridge, and obviously Texas Hold'em in the evenings. You will not find a fast and reliable internet connection deep in the forests and lakes, so I usually was not able to play all the events I wanted.

But this year will be different. I decided to stay at home, play more events and hopefully with some good decisions and a good run of cards score some nice results for Poland. We are a big country by European standards, but poker is relatively young and only now beginning to really grow, so we haven't had as many good results as we would like.

On the other hand we have a lot of young talent so I hope we can finally show some spectacular results in the WCOOP - and also in Season 7 of the European Poker Tour.

I am really looking forward to this year's WCOOP. See how you can qualify on the WCOOP site. Good luck at the tables!

Event #9 of PokerStars' 2008 WCOOP No-Limit 4-Max promised to be a fast and fierce tournament. With 1,100 players out of nearly 3300 participants departing in the first hour, those predictions came true. Actually, this proved that PokerStars players present high skill level and are not only waiting for premium hands when in fact aggressive play really pays in such a short handed game. The action was fast, raises, re-raises and all-in moves common, and seat belts fastened at all times!

My tournament finished close to the payouts, when I ran out of chips and moved short-stacked with AQ into KK. I did play an aggressive style and was taking control of each table I played at, but I never had the momentum going. When I had good hands, play folded around to me. I enjoyed the event very much and I am looking forward to play in future WCOOP events. PokerStars prepared a mix of outstanding tournaments of every form and buy-in!

Eliminations have slowed down at a later stage of the tournament when players accumulated more chips allowing for more play. The event saw Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko going deep and finishing 26th when his pocket fives lost the race on the river against AQ. The final table was a Scandinavian affair. The top three players came from Norway and Sweden, while fourth place was taken by an American. Final table play was solid, but had very few showdowns. The eventual title and bracelet winner, jonasof87, no stranger to PokerStars tournaments, outlasted emiwarg, EirikS and 3232 after more than two hours of play.

Congratulations to all the winners!

See you at the tables!

Marcin Horecki is playing his first WCOOP as a member of Team PokertStars Pro.