In an ever-increasing attempt to gain more non-U.S. members, PokerStars has employed a full court press to get players to the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Recently announced on its promotions page, the world’s number one populated online poker room has a promotion aimed at Nordic players from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Players from the Nordic and Baltic regions have a chance to play in satellites for a lucrative WSOP prize package.
With Apple sales in these countries on the rise, Mac Nordic and Baltic players have a fantastic opportunity to join 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate (who hails from Denmark) and become the next world champion. On the heels of his shocking $9.1 million victory in poker’s most prestigious event, Eastgate and PokerStars are hoping the level of interest in poker catches fire through this promotion. Currently, PokerStars has a fully downloadable software client for Mac OS X that supports the languages of each one of these regions.
PokerStars has announced that it is running daily qualifiers from May 4th through June 7th. The first way to get into the WSOP Mega Satellite is for the ridiculously low cost of 10 Frequent Player Points (FPPs). This daily tournament runs at 20:10 CET and offers $100 added by PokerStars. It awards a ticket to the Weekly Finals for the first three spots. For players with a bankroll, a $20+$2 buy-in tournament runs daily at 21:10 CET and also offers the first three finishers a seat at the Weekly Finals.
Some players have no bankroll and don’t even have 10 FPPs to spend. Never fear because PokerStars still has your back with a $1,000 freeroll that runs at 21:10 CET and has absolutely no buy-in at all. The top three seats win a ticket to the Weekly Finals tournament. Finally, for the low cost of $2.20 (with rebuys), a tournament that has a prize pool of at least $4,000 runs at 21:40 CET. This tournament also awards the top three finishers seats at the Weekly Finals tournament, but with the guaranteed prize pool, there’s a lot more than just satellite tickets to be won.
The Weekly Finals take place every Monday at 20:10 CET and award 20 WSOP Mega Satellite seats (each worth $370) to those who finish in the top 20. The $370 WSOP Mega Satellite will be played on June 14th at 22:30 CET. Players can find these tournaments from the PokerStars lobby by clicking on “Tourney” and then going to the “Regional” section.
The strategy for the 10 FPP events and freerolls is actually quite similar for players trying to qualify in these events. Generally, because it takes a pulse and about five minutes to earn 10 FPPs at any respectable level, this event is really to be treated as a freeroll. In freeroll events, players act wild and crazy because they don’t care about the result and hope to take a massive cheap lead early (or bust). There’s merit to this philosophy since the ultimate goal isn’t to finish in the money, but rather to finish in the top three. Therefore, you should look to get tons of value from just about any decent hand and be willing to go all-in pre-flop with hands like J-J+ and A-K. Additionally, if you hit any flop for top pair top kicker (or better) early on, you should be more than willing to get it in since anyone with a draw in these events will be willing to look you up. Keep the aggression up until the first break and then start to play solid, tight poker.
The rebuy event is actually more like the freeroll in terms of strategy as opposed to the $20+$2 event. First, make sure you get the immediate re-buy and look to get it in early with decent hands as mentioned previously; the idea is to chip up quickly. Players will be going berserk with shoves early on and you can take advantage of this and take a solid lead if you get those value hands in.
Players in the $20+$2 event can expect much more of a traditional poker playing experience. However, even players who buy in for $20 multi-table tournaments have tremendous leaks (like getting into a flop with any A-X type of hand), which you can easily look to exploit with late positioning. Play solid poker and if you find yourself with only around 10 to 14 big blinds, you should definitely be looking to open-shove pre-flop with value hands or even any pocket pair.
Nordic and Baltic players using Macs have a tremendous opportunity with this new PokerStars promotion and, for the low cost involved with the 10 FPP and Freeroll tournaments, there’s no excuse not to try to earn your way to Las Vegas for a once-in-a-lifetime poker experience.
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