Monday, 29 September 2008

12-Step Programme

After falling short once-again in a major tournament (the WSOPE £1,500), I do not think I will be pulling up the entry fee for another title shot this year. In particular, I will give the EPT London (£5,000) a miss as well as the GUKPT Grand Final (£3,000).

However, I thought I would give EPT qualification a try. I've never been much of a satellite player - I entered the $33 rebuy (turbo) and was 4th in chips at one point before losing with Aces ..... hey ho ....

I also decided to try the pokerstars "steps" which is potentially a nice way in.

You start with a $7.50 9-man SnG and if you finish in the top 2, you progress to Step2. From Step 2, you are aiming to move on to Step 3 and so on. At each stage, you can advance to the next level (for top 2), or get a retry at the same level (3rd, sometimes 4th and even 5th) or get an entry back in at a lower level.

Of course, you can also bust (9th through 6th is always goodbye).

There are 6 steps altogether - at Step 6 you are looking at winning an EPT package and/or some consolation cash.

I decided I would invest about $100 in this venture - so I decided on an arbitrary 12 attempts at Step1. In the past, I have sometimes sustained a long innings with just a small investment.

Alas, my efforts were not covered in glory. I did "cash" a total of 6 times - 4x winning the table and progressing to Step 2, twice gaining a free retry.

I reached step3 a total of three times, but I didn't even threaten to move up to Step4 which is where it ceases to be a turbo format and the real game starts (Step 4 is a $215 buy-in if you start there).

I think, as I write this, that I might go for "lucky 13" - 12 entries is $10 short of $100 so I have one "golden ticket" left. Could this be the one ? I'll let you know later although I can take a good guess right now !

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