Head Games: How Strategies Differ for World Series of Poker Events as Compared to the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour With Chris Hunichen, Liv Boeree, and Sunny Patel

Craig Tapscott: How does your strategy vary playing World Series of Poker vs. European Poker Tour or World Poker Tour events? Please go into detail as to stack sizes, type of competition, levels, and so on.

Chris Hunichen: Well, the WSOP events start out fairly deep, even though most people seem to think it’s super shallow. One of the biggest mistakes I see every year at the WSOP from professionals is so many of them like to late register these tournaments. A lot of people complain about how shallow it is, but many people miss the 25-25 blind level. This is unique, because it is the only time during the tournament that the small blind and big blind will be the same. Once the blind level goes up to 25-50 the number of big blinds in your hand is instantly cut in half. So, to me, I found that it’s extremely important to show up on time and to really go hard during the 25-25 level.

Usually your starting table will be one of the softer tables you play during the tournament, so I use this first level to go extremely hard and play a lot of pots postflop against the perceived weaker players at the table. Usually, because I am in a lot of pots, I will gain an aggressive image at the table. So, once the blinds go up, I will sit back and play a lot tighter and get paid off on all my hands. 

The EPT tourneys, however, start out much deeper, usually with a 30,000-chip starting stack and blinds starting at around 50-100. This instantly allows for a lot more play than your standard WSOP tourney in the beginning, because players are much less at risk of losing their entire stacks early on. With starting stacks being much larger, pots usually get big in the early stages of tournaments when there are a lot of people splashing around, but you will see a lot less bustouts in the beginning. Also the main events usually have 75-minute blind levels as opposed to 60 minutes for WSOP events, with the second day going to 90-minute blind levels in the EPT compared to 60-minute blind levels for the WSOP. This allows the EPT tournaments to get very deep in the end and allow for tons of play and really brings out the skill level in the remaining players. I personally like both type of structures.

I think that some professionals gain a bigger edge in the WSOP events from players who feel short and desperate when they lose half their stack early on. These people tend to spazz out and give away the rest of their stack unnecessarily.  

Liv Boeree: The main difference between the small buy-in WSOP tourneys and EPT or WPT main events is, of course, the starting stack. These days, virtually all main events start with 30,000 chips at blinds of 50-100, so you begin 300 big blinds (BB) deep. Level two is 75-150 (200BB), then 100-200 (150BB), and so on. In a standard $1,500 WSOP event, you get 4,500 chips and starting blinds of 25-25 (180BB), then 25-50 (90BB), and the stack depth dropping to 45BB by level three at 50-100. As such, there is rapidly less stack maneuverability in these common-type WSOP events. From a tournament director’s point of view, it is completely understandable to structure the WSOP events this way; the enormous field size means that each tournament would last five or more days if they had similar starting stacks to main events. 

Whilst EPT and WPT events have longer levels (usually 90 minutes compared to 60 for WSOP), the mid-to late play structures aren’t massively different. After the first six or so levels, the blind jumps are very similar. As such, the general consensus is that once you’re past the minefield of the first six or so levels of a WSOP event, and have maintained your stack at 50BB+, you’re in a great position to make a deep run.

Hiren “Sunny” Patel: I like to play WSOP events much more aggressively preflop than I do with EPT or WPT events. I want to try to avoid becoming a short stack for as long as possible, because blinds go up faster relative to 4,500 starting stack vs. 30,000. Even when I’m winning at WSOP, I might find myself short-stacked because the blinds get high rather quickly, so knowing how to play short stack poker can be very crucial. Being a short stack would mean you have between 1-20 big blinds and closer to 100 big blinds to be deep-stacked.

With the slower structure of EPT and WPT events allowing more play postflop, I play more patiently in the early levels because we stay deep stacked for much longer. I find it tough to be as aggressive as I am in WSOP events, because the better competition doesn’t easily allow me to do so. Generally, it helps to be comfortable playing with short stacks and big stacks. Tournaments require a full range of playing styles to make the best strategy. A nice benefit of WSOP is that there’s always another tournament the next day, so I don’t mind taking risks or trying to make some big bluffs to get a big stack, because I know there’s another tournament the next day unlike EPT or WPT events which are stand-alone, so your tournament life means more to the players, because once you are eliminated, it is a long flight back home in most cases.

Craig Tapscott: What type of player has a better chance of success at WSOP vs. EPT/WPT events? Please go into detail in regards to defining a player’s style and why it will be effective.

Chris Hunichen: I personally believe that once the early stages of the tournaments go by, the EPT and WSOP structures are good for more experienced deep-stacked players. I think cash game players who play the occasional WSOP or EPT main also have a huge advantage in these tournaments because they are so used to playing deep stack poker. 

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of people make mistakes in live tournaments because of the lack of understanding of the stack sizes at the table, making bad preflop raises into re-shove stacks or just playing too many hands in general and getting themselves into many tough spots.

I think the best style to play for both structures overall is tight-aggressive (TAG), but with the ability to quickly adapt and change gears depending on your table draw. If I am at table full of good players who are not going to give me much respect, I will play extremely tight using my aggressive image to get paid off on good hands. If I am at a table full of weak players who I think I will be able to consistently exploit post flop, I will play tons of pots in position, mixing in various raises on various streets, picking on the opponents I feel are scared to play big pots.

Liv Boeree: How should you approach each event depends on your playing background. If you’re a cash game specialist, you’ll be very much in your comfort zone in the early stages of an EPT main event and you should aim to play as many postflop spots as possible, especially against obvious tournament-only players who have less experience in tough turn and river spots. Be prepared to run multi-street bluffs on suitable board textures and try to target players who are opening a bit too wide, but whom aren’t especially skilled, or nervous players opening a tight range. They are the players most likely to call two streets and fold to a big river bet, offering a great way to pick up chips without showdown.

Conversely, if you’re not used to lots of deep-stack play, be wary of playing too many marginal hands that can only face one or two postflop bets; it’s a sure-fire way to get both your stack and confidence chipped away at, which is not what you need early on in a major tournament.

The beauty of deep, slow main event structures is the opportunity to gather a wealth of information on your opponents, and by level two an observant player should have a good impression of each opponent’s tendencies and, therefore, their weaknesses. Once you’ve got a grasp of those, exploit away. Note also that the greater stack depth allows you to play more speculative, deceptive hands such as small pairs, connectors, and suited aces which can win you a big pot for relatively little investment.

Short-to-mid stack specialists (i.e. most tournament regulars) should find WSOP events right in their comfort zone. Knowing your shoving and calling preflop ranges is essential, as you’ll be frequently making these decisions, and only look for easy bluffing opportunities where one or two bets will get the job done. These are high-variance (and often high frustration, from my experience) events, so my best advice is to approach them with low expectations and enjoy the ride!

Hiren “Sunny” Patel: The types of players that have success on the WPT and EPT tend to be cash game players. They are used to playing deep-stacked poker from the daily cash grind and are better at controlling the pot and playing against bad players and just playing live poker in general.  

At the WSOP, I believe an online tournament player would have a bigger edge. Because of the shallow stacks, online tournament players can exploit every marginal edge. It is not very often you will have 30,000 chips with a big blind of 100 in an online tournament, but you will routinely have 5,000 chips with a big blind of 200 on the Internet. Being used to these stack sizes is a major edge for an online tournament player, which translates well to the structure of WSOP events. And WSOP events play faster since stacks become shallower quicker; this favors an aggressive preflop style of play because stacks get shorter quicker compared to WPT where you have more play postflop.

A player like Athanasios Polychronopoulos tends to do better at WSOP events. This can be attributed to his aggressive style of play preflop that helps him accumulate a large stack. This also allows him to put more pressure on his opponents, especially on money bubbles, a skill he honed playing online.

It’s also tough to play against players like Michael Mizrachi, who thrives in WPT settings because of his ability to play deep-stacked poker with his extensive history of playing high-stakes cash games. Mizrachi’s live cash game pedigree better suits him to play five to six day WPT or EPT events. ♠

Chris Hunichen is the #1 ranked online player in the world. He has more than $8 million in combined online and live career tournament winnings. Most recently, Hunichen won the $1,100 event at the 2014 Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III.

Liv Boeree won the 2010 EPT Main Event at San Remo for $1,673,000. She is a professional poker player as well as a real life astrophysicist. She graduated from Great Britain’s University of Manchester in 2005. Boeree has more than $2.6 million in combined live and online earnings.

Hiren “Sunny” Patel hails from Chicago, IL. He developed skills as an online player originally, and has multiple deep runs at WSOP events. Patel is a deep stack cash specialist and has more than $600,000 in live tournament earnings.