All eyes in the poker world will be on the PokerStars tables next month as we celebrate the 13th anniversary of the most revered online tournament of them all: the PokerStars Sunday Million. As you may have read, there’s a $10 million guarantee and a guaranteed $1 million first prize. But how can you give a boost to your chances of winning it?
That’s where our friends over at PokerStars School come in. As you should be aware by now, PokerStars School is bursting with information for poker players of all abilities, offering easy-to-follow tutorials and video coaching for all poker enthusiasts.
In addition to their absolutely enormous archive of material, including a multi-table tournament course, they have recently launched three articles specifically tackling Sunday Million strategy. There has never been a better time to get acquainted with the superlative work PokerStars School does, nor to have a crack at the Sunday Million.
IN ON THE CHEAP
The regular Sunday Million buy-in is $109 these days, but it has returned to $215 for the anniversary edition. That means you’re going to want to find out how to get in on the cheap, and the first PokerStars School article focuses on satellite strategy. It’s called: “Tips For Winning a Seat to the Sunday Million” and contains exactly what it says in the title.
After helping you find the right satellite to suit your bankroll, there’s plenty of nitty-gritty advice for how to approach the tournament in the early, middle and late stages. So if you’re interested in hunting out overlay, learning when to play cautious and when to be the bully, and even when you should fold aces pre-flop, this is the article for you.
Satellites start at a mere 90 cents — yes, $0.90 — so it’s probably time to download PokerStars to get involved.
CHECK THE STRUCTURE, AND STRUCTURE YOUR STRATEGY
The Sunday Million has been online poker’s most popular regular tournament pretty much since the day it launched, and much of the reason for that lies with its structure. Players get a 10,000-chip starting stack, which is 200 big blinds in Level 1, and the rate at which the blinds escalate hits the sweet spot for both the elite and the recreational players. In the second article in the Sunday Million series, PokerStars School offers tips for how to make the most of this format. It’s called: Attacking the Sunday Million Structure.
Dealers are prepared for the Anniversary Sunday Million
Tutor Dave Roemer splits the tournament into early, middle and late stages, and suggest ways to help you to target the weaker players at the table, while avoiding the pitfalls that might make you one of them. For instance, it’s just plain common sense — but so often forgotten — that getting a 200-big blind stack in the middle early on is just foolish with one pair. However people will do it, so this is the time to get to a flop with your suited connectors and hope to find someone overvaluing their top pair.
Stack sizes are all important during the middle stages, as you play towards and through the bubble. And then when you’re in the money, it’s worth keeping an eye on the money jumps and calculate how the ICM pressures impacting your opponents can help you move towards the highest payday. Read the full article.
WHAT TO DO, AND WHAT NOT TO DO
As with all major tournaments, players in the Sunday Million are hostage to fortune. There’s only so much you can control. But in the third article from the series, PokerStars School gets direct. It’s called Advice on How to Play the Sunday Million and offers some hard and fast rules for how to make the most of the cards you’re dealt.
This includes the importance of three-betting more aggressively, especially when in position, and also analyses when it’s smart not to continuation bet alongside the importance of value betting winners. And, whatever you do, keep an eye on opponents’ stack sizes and don’t put yourself in the position of having to risk half your chips calling an 11 BB shove with J9s.