The Monster Lives! Strategy Advice for the Colossus II
The 2016 World Series of Poker is off to a roaring start, marked in particular by the return of that monster of a poker tournament, the $565 buy-in Colossus, a.k.a. Colossus II.
Last year's inaugural running of what was then the lowest buy-in open bracelet event ever staged by the WSOP broke records, drawing a mind-boggling 22,374 entries. Cord Garcia managed to outlast that enormous field, taking away a $638,880 first prize.
Players are already zipping through the first levels of Flight A, the first of six starting flights that will be playing out over the next three days. At that point the survivors will combine and from Sunday through Tuesday play down to a champion.
We've covered some Colossus-specific strategy here at PokerNews, and so with the event finally kicking off wanted to highlight a few articles for the many thousands looking to take on the Colossus this time around.
He Who Hesitates Is Lost: Be Ready to Play Right Away
Those playing Flight A have already realized the structure for this year's version of the Colossus is considerably different from a year ago, especially on Day 1 when the levels are just 30 minutes (rather than 40) and the blinds and antes go up much faster than was the case for the first Colossus.
Darrel Plant broke down the differences for us, giving players a good idea just how fast things go early and how much it will cost chip-wise from level to level. Bottom line — patience will not be such a virtue early on in this one.
Read on — and prepare to get there on time:
Shot-Takers Unite! Pay a Little, Win a Lot
There were tons of great stories from a year ago of Colossus players who'd never played a WSOP bracelet event before, but the $565 buy-in and enormous prize pool — ultimately $11,187,000 — proved tempting enough to encourage them to take the plunge.
This year's Colossus sports a $7 million guaranteed prize pool with a guaranteed first prize of $1 million — that's just under 1,770 times the buy-in (!). The tournament again provides a great opportunity for lower-stakes players and those with experience in cheaper nightly tournaments to take a shot on poker's biggest stage.
Mo Nuwwwarah compiled some tips especially for that segment of the poker-playing population in one of his "How to Attack the WSOP" series of articles. Among the points he highlights are the changed payout structures this year (with the money bubble bursting at the end of those six starting flights), longer levels on Day 2 and going forward (lasting 60 minutes), and the re-entry option (allowing players to re-enter subsequent starting flights, if any remain).
Take a look:
Get Professional Help Navigating the Large MTT Minefield
Of course, for those taking that shot, there are thousands upon thousands of others doing the same, all standing in between them and a piece of that big prize pool.
What approach is best for facing what might seem such an overwhelming challenge? Prior to last year's Colossus, Marty Derbyshire spoke to NLHE tournament veteran Matt Stout to gather some strategy pointers for dealing with mega-sized multi-table tournament fields.
"Take it one table at a time," is one of Stout's tips, with others having to do with whether or not to fire multiple times, preparing for the event, and how to stay focused and mentally ready in such an event.
Stout went on to make relatively deep runs on four different occasions in low buy-in, big field NLHE events last summer, adding further to his career earnings that now total about $3.38 million. Read what he had to say:
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