{"id":42830,"date":"2016-09-09T10:47:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T09:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/?p=42830"},"modified":"2019-10-31T12:19:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:19:53","slug":"shots-fired-a-guide-to-taking-shots-in-bigger-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/shots-fired-a-guide-to-taking-shots-in-bigger-games.html","title":{"rendered":"Shots Fired: A Guide to Taking Shots in Bigger Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the $10 million guaranteed Powerfest series<\/a> rolling into the Heavyweight and High Roller week, Paul Seaton writes a guide into taking shots at bigger games.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many players in poker have had some of their best results when playing out of their comfort zones. From the first-time player who final tables a live tournament<\/a> to an online grinder who uses their profits to bink a huge tournament, poker is a game of heart. It also requires skill, strategy and bankroll management, but how can you balance what\u2019s practical with what is possible \u2013 namely winning a major tournament outside your usual level?
\nCash Game Shots<\/p>\n

Rolling above the level of cash games<\/a> you are comfortable is definitely not what we\u2019re suggesting here. But every now and then there are opportunities to play higher cash games that you should consider embracing.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re playing at \u00a31\/\u00a32 whilst making a consistent profit and you are aware that a game not dissimilar to yours has begun at \u00a32\/\u00a34 then there is nothing to stop you investing a small part of your winnings. Online may necessitate slightly lower stakes at which to escalate your play, but provided you retain discipline and a stop\/loss strategy for how much to invest, then it is worth remaining open-minded with a view to different tables and limits.<\/p>\n

Tournament Try-Outs<\/h2>\n

While many poker players will dream of the big result, few players give themselves enough chances to win the big money early in their poker life. Again, we\u2019d recommend strongly that you practice great bankroll management, but within that if you get the chance to enter tournaments with slightly higher buy-ins than you\u2019re used to playing but with bigger prize-pools and large guarantees, then you should consider the plusses.
\nPowerfest<\/a> is a great example of a set of tournaments which may require more investment over the course of a week, but offer much higher prizes. If you are used to entering $60 live tournaments and regularly succeed in making money, then a $109 tournament such as the Grand Prix Poker Tour may appeal. The top prize is guaranteed at $35,000, so why not look into playing it in the place of two of your regular live casino tournaments?<\/p>\n

Running Like Bolt<\/h2>\n

Another good reason to consider stepping up is simply that you\u2019re running well. The reason players might give for this is often quite different to why you should think about pressing home your recent run of form. Running well leads to positivity and can actively engage parts of your brain which make you play better.
\nFeeling good makes you play well and if you\u2019re running like Usain Bolt, then you want to press home that sprint finish in bigger tournaments and cash games. Just be mindful that if things change and you encounter the dreaded downswing, you retain the awareness to drop back down and lose as little as possible to match maximizing your winnings when you\u2019re running golden.<\/p>\n

Sweeping Satellites<\/h2>\n

One of the best ways you can re-invest your winnings is to factor satellites into your schedule. If you don\u2019t know what they are, a satellite is a tournament which offers tickets to higher buy-in tournaments as its prizes. Players have won millions from satellite tickets they won for a fraction of the tournament entry.
\nProbably the most famous of these is Chris Moneymaker who decided that his surname was reason enough (possibly) to ping $39 into an online satellite to the World Series of Poker Main Event. That summer he won the whole thing for $2.5 million! It\u2019s not just huge live events, however, many of poker\u2019s biggest tournaments, such as the Uppercut or forthcoming Pokerfest have a range of affordable and value-tastic satellites!<\/p>\n

Overlay<\/h2>\n

Playing tournaments that offer a guarantee is more profitable than ones which don\u2019t. Why? Simply because the prize-pool is set as a minimum before the event kicks off. This can often lead to \u2018overlay\u2019, a large guaranteed prize-pool which a lower-than-usual number of players will fight to win the largest parts of. It is essentially free money put into a prize-pool if the tournament doesn\u2019t get the numbers.
\nIf you\u2019re weighing up playing a couple of well-measured higher buy-in tournaments then choosing the one with overlay could improve your chances of success as well as your results column afterwards!<\/p>\n

Save Your Best for Festivals!<\/h2>\n

There are regular tournaments, preferred game choices and tournaments chosen for value. All of these are valid, but part of poker that has kept excitement through the last few developing ages of style and growth are poker festivals. Playing a range of tournaments within one festival can be hugely profitable for many reasons. There is often a deeper mindset to playing a festival and it can give you greater focus than firing up your usual schedule online.
\nAs well as potentially giving players life-changing sums of money, poker festivals, whether live or online, are a great way to connect with like-minded players. Add new players you meet as friends on partypoker and interact live whether you\u2019re at the table or otherwise and you may well build a poker friend group. Add to that the thrill of railing one of your poker friends or having them railing you at a live event and poker festivals can live long in the memory. That\u2019s just as important as a trophy and piles of money, right?<\/p>\n

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With the $10 million guaranteed Powerfest series rolling into the Heavyweight and High Roller week, Paul Seaton writes a guide into taking shots at bigger games. Many players in poker have had some of their best results when playing out of their comfort zones. From the first-time player who final tables a live tournament to<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":42831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1314,1313,2182,1312,1311,1315],"tags":[187,200,378,435,442,840,1022,360],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76327,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42830\/revisions\/76327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42830"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}