Seeing the question of when will Pokerstars release their WSOP qualifiers schedule popping up all over the place at the moment... so, in the interests of public service I thought I would speculate... no, I mean let you all know how it happened last year! The... Spring Championship Of Online Poker will start soon, and with satellites running to all of the events, Stars do not appear to want to risk cannibalizing their own traffic.
Last year the WSOP satellites were announced directly after the SCOOP finished... which this year would be after the 16th of May. My thoughts are that we might see some of them announced before this date this year... since this actually leaves rival sites more than a month to gather players for the event before Stars get going. Of course I could be completely wrong (in which case I'll be happy to let you all know right here!).
In the meantime I think Full Tilt have the best range of qualifiers (including a $1 entry 5 seats guaranteed every Sunday!). You can compare all of the sites on our WSOP Qualifiers main page. Now, a satellite mistake to share with readers who are less experienced in Satellite Poker. I was not actively involved in this hand at Titan... it was the bubble, 39 places in the next level up satellite were available and 40 players remained, including several short stacks. So, at our table it folds to a mid-stack in mid position who shoves into 4 players, 3 of whom have him comfortably covered... and 2 call, busting the mid-stack and closing the tournament. One had aces and the other one Kx... the shover had a nice looking QJs. The key question to ask in a satellite is 'do I have to take this risk', there was no benefit at all for this player doubling up... he was in mid-division and could have easily got his seat just by folding. Even with Kings or Ace-King suited I would have folded here, aces are the only hand worth considering playing when your seat is in the bag already, and some would debate playing even that. So, no problem for me... I got to the next level (but unfortunately no further this time!). Should be a lesson in there somewhere though... why shove into opponents who have you comfirtably covered with a mid-strength hand when you can fold into the money... risk vs reward does not add up here.
GL at the tables, Mark
Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 09:20