PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

I'm a regular lurker but infrequent poster here - only a few of you know me. I just wanted to send some encouragement your way to play the PCA steps. I play the $16s mostly and have a decent ROI, but I somehow managed to start at step 1 and win a trip! I began with $100 that I was prepared to donate for the chance to dream for a while, I went through several changes of underwear...and now I'm writing this post that I can't even believe I'm writing. Go little dudes!!!!

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

siick man congrats! i was thinkin about setting aside maybe $500 to do this from step 1 when i have a bit more time. this makes me wanna do it more

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

nice one!

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

nice subtle brag [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

congrats! sick event to win a package for, should be a great experience.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

Nice Job!!!

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

While this thread is still up, has anyone heard how stars plans on compensating for unused tickets? I know they were going to do something, but at that time they didn't have any numbers put together.

Any chance that it would work as a good bankroll booster to just save up tickets for some of the higher steps rather than play them?

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

I think on stars site they said you can't convert tickets to T$ or cash, they must be used for the particular PCa step. Don't know what's going to happen with them when they expire. I would not just play these expecting them to have some refund policy at the end of the promotion.

This reminds me to use my step 3 ticket.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

Congrats and GL! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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While this thread is still up, has anyone heard how stars plans on compensating for unused tickets? I know they were going to do something, but at that time they didn't have any numbers put together.

Any chance that it would work as a good bankroll booster to just save up tickets for some of the higher steps rather than play them?

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I think stars said they will convert them to being WSOP step tickets or turn them into W$.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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I think on stars site they said you can't convert tickets to T$ or cash, they must be used for the particular PCa step. Don't know what's going to happen with them when they expire. I would not just play these expecting them to have some refund policy at the end of the promotion.

This reminds me to use my step 3 ticket.

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I read in MTTC, a post by Scott I believe, whoever is stars' rep on here. He said that they were planning on some sort of compensation for remaining tickets after this was over.

For all I know tho they ended up deciding to just make them worthless. I suppose I'll just be some dead money for bigjoe if I ever make it that far.

Grats OP on the seat! Did you play the 18 man or 9 man step 6?

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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While this thread is still up, has anyone heard how stars plans on compensating for unused tickets? I know they were going to do something, but at that time they didn't have any numbers put together.

Any chance that it would work as a good bankroll booster to just save up tickets for some of the higher steps rather than play them?

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I think stars said they will convert them to being WSOP step tickets or turn them into W$.

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Alright, sounds good, thanks for the response. Didn't know you roamed around these parts [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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Grats OP on the seat! Did you play the 18 man or 9 man step 6?

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Thanks! It was a 9-man. The 18-man version is REALLY unattractive to me due to the possibility of collusion. I also liked the chance to at least get some cash for 2nd-7th place. Pitifully, I would have been happy to get $500. I was WAY over my head, but that's part of the fun of it I guess.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

He saw me in one of his steps to Macau and though ah noes, I better go learn how to play stt.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

Tip of the hat to OP. Good work son.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

Congrats! Very cool and encouraging...

Any tips on how you approached this / observations at the different steps / times of day or week that seemed better to play / other advice you can share?

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
While this thread is still up, has anyone heard how stars plans on compensating for unused tickets? I know they were going to do something, but at that time they didn't have any numbers put together.

Any chance that it would work as a good bankroll booster to just save up tickets for some of the higher steps rather than play them?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think stars said they will convert them to being WSOP step tickets or turn them into W$.

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once you get a seat to a major event you can usually liquidate the package into W$.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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Congrats! Very cool and encouraging...

Any tips on how you approached this / observations at the different steps / times of day or week that seemed better to play / other advice you can share?

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Sure, I don’t know if this will be helpful to anyone, but here goes:

My strategy was nothing very special. In the early steps I tried to take advantage of mistakes by other players who didn’t adjust to the satellite structure. I basically played TAG poker and tried not to get too cute. I’d play conservatively until we got into the “do over” zone and then I’d open up a lot and go for the win. But often my “wins” would be second place finishes, where I’d sit back and let two others go at it until one was dead or crippled. Reads on opponents were crucial in the latter steps. I normally play 4-6 $16s at once, but once I reached level 3, I just played one table at a time. Paying extra attention paid off huge. It allowed me to ID the strong/weak players and their patterns more easily. Rather than tangle with players that were better than me, I sometimes just let them kill my opponents for me without risking my stack. 2nd is just as good as 1st. If I got short stacked late, my tight table image was usually good for a surprise resteal or two, and I’d get back into relative safety. When this plan didn’t work or the conditions weren’t right, I switched to plan b and started playing very aggro (with appropriate reads). Sorry there are no secrets to divulge – pretty basic stuff. And lots of luck. Not that I relied on suckouts (don’t remember any big ones offhand) but just AVOIDING bad beats, winning the occasional coinflip, etc. takes a LOT of luck.

I didn’t practice table selection until step 4 or 5 – just played them when I had a chance. After that, I avoided as many 2p2ers and other monsters as best I could. I checked out some step 6s before playing them to see how the 7th place bubble and the weird prize structure would play out. For step 6 I used OPR and SS to check out opponents as they registered and I passed up a few tourneys when I saw too many good players there. In one of them there were 5 players in the 99%+ range and another guy at 98%. Apparently, other players do this, too, because as I watched one relatively soft table fill for about 40 minutes, two 99%ers jumped in at the last minute just as I tried to register. The approx. OPR ratings of the players at my step 6 were 99+, 99+, 98, 77, 75, 68, 43, n/a, and me (another n/a because I don’t play MTTs). I was happy with that.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

Congrats man, hope you have a great time on the trip and best of luck in the tournament.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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Congrats man, hope you have a great time on the trip and best of luck in the tournament.

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Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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Congrats man, hope you have a great time on the trip and best of luck in the tournament.

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Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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Congrats man, hope you have a great time on the trip and best of luck in the tournament.

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Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

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For step 6 I used OPR and SS to check out opponents as they registered and I passed up a few tourneys when I saw too many good players there.

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First of all, congrats! I am giving a shot at the steps too and I have a question about your advice. I read through the FAQs on this forum and did some digging, but I was unsure of OPR. I think SS is sharkscope, but what is OPR?

Sorry for the newbie question, but thanks and congrats again.

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

OPR = "official poker rankings" (you can guess the web site) and it is like Sharkscope for MTTs (36 or more in a Stars tourney, I believe). Good luck!

Re: PCA - encouragement for the little guys
 

Good work man! Lets hope i can do the job also