Pros Give Their $500K Guaranteed Tips: "Stay Patient and Find Your Spots"

The $500k Guaranteed Sunday major returns to partypoker, on March 1, 2015, and Lee Davy asks a selection of pros for their advice on how to wade through such a large field and capture a major title.

How would you like to turn $1 into $100,000?

Would that change your life?

Well you are in luck.

On Sunday, 1 March, partypoker brings the $500k Guaranteed Sunday major out of the cupboard, giving it a good clean, and presenting it to their players with a guaranteed $100,000 for the player who is fortunate enough to go all the way.

The last time the $500K ran it ended in a four-way chop where fourth place scooped almost $40,000 and the eventual champion, kabotajoe1, walked away with a cool $75,000!

What’s that?

Turning $1 into $100,000 is a pipe dream?

Well what about turning $2 into $85,688.57.

Will that do?

Two years ago when partypoker upgraded their premier $200k event to a $500k event, Swee Fah Chai qualified for his seat through a $2 online satellite, and went on to top the 3,057 player field to take the first prize of over $85k, making it the largest field on the partypoker software since the $1.5m PokerFest Main Event back in May 2013.

If you want history to repeat itself then you are in luck. partypoker will be running satellites for just $1, and if you are new to the site you will be handed 5 x $1 qualifier tickets that can be used in the $500k satellites -meaning you could even get into the big one for free.

That’s not the only way you can qualify.

You can buy-in directly for $200 and partypoker will return your buy-in, in the form of a special $200 bonus, that will be released to you at a rate of $20 for every 120 points earned within a 30-day timeframe.

There will also be a massive 100-seat guaranteed mega satellite where you can buy-in for as low as $5.

So that’s how you can qualify.

But how do you make sure you end up with the win?

Here are some tips from some of the best components in the game.

Scott Baumstein believes patience is absolutely critical if you are going to win a large tournament.

“You have to stay patient and find your spots. You can’t beat a large field like this right out of the gate. The key is to stay alive long enough to capitalise on a mistake that will hand you all of their chips.”

Lukas Berglund is a former online tournament world number one, so he knows a thing or two about tournament poker, and he also believes that patience is the key.

“You have to be patient in all tournament poker. You need to remember that you can’t win an event after the first hour. This is especially true pre-ante.”

Two-time World Poker Tour (WPT) champion, Marvin Rettenmaier, prefers to get busy in the early levels, and who can argue with the former Global Poker Index (GPI) world number one?

“I like to try and build up a big stack in the beginning. Play lots of hands, in position, and put a lot of pressure on your opponents if your table dynamic allows it. You can’t go bust if you have the most chips at your table!”

British online tournament specialist Richard Trigg believes identifying the weak players is the key.

“You have to try and spot the weaker players at your table as soon as you can.”

So how exactly do you do that?

“The best approach is to identify the players who are playing way too loose and figure out a way of getting into pots with them. Make sure you have position on them though. Position is also key.”

Berglund concurs.

“If you see someone who is playing too loose, you have to look to get into pots with them in position.”

One man who owes a lot of his current success to partypoker is young Charlie Carrel. The Jersey born youngster built a bankroll of $500,000 from an initial stake of $15, and a large amount of this roll was won playing on partypoker.

Carrel believes the satellites are a great way to turn a small investment into some life changing money.

“If you want to move up in stakes, and build a bankroll quickly, then you need to strategically increase the variance of your bankroll. Satellites are perfect for this because, as long as you set yourself a limit on how many times you try to qualify, your bankroll is never going to be in danger.

“Increasing bankroll variance in satellites also means that when one is ‘taking their shot,’ they’re going to be playing against an ostensibly weaker field. Satellites are a good testing ground for future players. They give you a taste of what’s to come.”

I guess all that remains to be said is GOOD LUCK!

$500K Guaranteed Seat Giveaway Promotion Terms and Conditions

As you will have seen on our social media channels, we are giving away one free seat to the March 1 $500K Guaranteed worth a cool $200. The promotion is being held on our Facebook page and Twitter account. We will choose one winner, at random, by 18:00 GMT on Saturday 28 February 2015.

Here are the terms and conditions of the promotion:

Twitter

You must retweet the specified tweet in order to be eligible to win the prize
The winner of the prize must have a real money account. This means that they have made at least one real money deposit into their partypoker account since they created it
There is no cash alternative
A winner will be chosen at random at 18:00GMT on Saturday 28 February. Anyone retweeting after this time will not be eligible for the competition.
The winner needs to tweet at us or direct message us as soon as possible (before 10:00am on Sunday 1 March) in order to ensure that the ticket can be credited in time for the start of the $500K GTD. Failure to contact us in time forfeits the ticket.

Facebook

You do not need to share the Facebook post in order to be eligible to win the prize
The winner of the prize must have a real money account. This means that they have made at least one real money deposit into their partypoker account since they created it
There is no cash alternative
A winner will be chosen at random at 18:00GMT on Saturday 28 February. Anyone entering after this time will not be eligible for the competition.
The winner needs to message us on Facebook as soon as possible (before 10:00am on Sunday 1 March) in order to ensure that the ticket can be credited in time for the start of the $500K GTD. Failure to contact us in time forfeits the ticket.