Fantastic Five: picking a winning team
Barry Carter helps you avoid some common traps when picking your team for our Fantastic Five promotion during the World Series of Poker Europe.
| Fantastic Five - key threads |
| The Rules Thread Examples Player Pool Official Discussion Thread |
Our new Fantastic Five promotion lets you pick a five-person team of poker icons to score points for you at the World Series of Poker Europe. The top teams will win cash and status upgrades.
Picking a winning team in our Fantastic Five promotion is not easy. We are choosing between hundreds of world class players, and no matter how shrewd our picks are, they might run into bad variance along the way.
However, there are some common mistakes people can make when picking teams in formats like this, or betting on poker with a sportsbook.
Here are some pitfalls to avoid when picking your team:
Avoid overpriced players
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| Great player, but overpriced? |
Perhaps the key to winning in this game is to avoid players who are overpriced. Phil Ivey is rightly at the full priced 100, but Joe Hachem is also priced at 100 and should be avoided - not only is he not even guaranteed to attend (Being from Australia and no longer with a major sponsor), his record does not justify sharing the same billing as Ivey.
Tom Dwan is an amazing cash player, but not noted for his tournament skills, and is very overpriced at 80. Even Greg Merson is arguably overpriced at 75, having only had one good WSOP to brag about.
Dominik Nitsche is very underpriced at 30 points given the young star already has a world class record. EPT grand final winner Stephen O'Dwyer is also underpriced at 15 points and would have been even if he hadn't won his recent title.
I also really like Ole Schemion at 35 points and Martin Jacobson at 30 points. Don't take my suggestions at face value, but look at how to similarly priced players match up against each other and decide if they are priced correctly.
Make sure they are guaranteed to show up
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| KidPoker is certain to play |
Probably the most fundamental error you could make is picking a player who is not guaranteed to show up.
For a start, are they likely to be playing elsewhere at the time? During the WSOPE there are WPT National Series events in Spain and Italy, a Heartland Poker Tour Main Event, an Asian Poker Tour Main Event and even a WSOP circuit event at the same time. There are plenty of players who might choose to play these instead for sponsorship or geographical reasons.
Secondly, it simply stands to reason that Europeans are much more likely to show up than people from other continents. I would be very selective of any North American players and only stick to players who have a proven track record of travelling for bracelets - players like Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier and Phil Ivey for example.
Finally, it stands to reason that some players have more incentive to play than others, so choose them over players who might be on the fence. Phil Hellmuth is the defending champion and a bracelet hoarder, so he will show up. Daniel Negreanu is fighting for the WSOP Player of the Year title, so he is going to show up. Likewise anyone promoting a poker room is more likely to show up because the WSOPE is televised.
Make sure they are going to play every game
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| Could Blom prefer the cash games? |
Avoid players who are not here for the long haul. Some players might only play the Main Event, others might avoid the PLO or the High Roller event.
Your player wants a track record in being willing to play any game for any stake, and not on a budget.
This is much easier at the WSOPE than the WSOP because they don't have mixed game formats, and most players also are prepared to play PLO. Also the High Roller event is €25,000, which is not as big as some of the six-figure Super High roller Events, so the player pool for this will be larger than usual.
Finally, it is probably best to stick to people who are known for their tournament play. While the good cash game players are obviously very good in any format, you don't want to choose someone who would happily skip an event if they hear about a good cash game online or in Macau. For this reason, players like Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom are probably bad picks.
Substitute or no substitute?
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| Hellmuth is the defending champ |
I think this format lends itself to a 'go big or go home' mentality. A lot of people will be picking similar players (Most will likely include Ivey, Negreanu, Mercier or Hellmuth) so to win this you need to score high and take some risks.
For that reason I think it's more beneficial to use your full 300 points to pick the best possible starting five you can. If you are using the above criteria to make sure your team play every single game, there shouldn't be a reason to substitute.
Of course the most expensive team is not always the best team, so if you have change left over then obviously pick some substitutes. I actually have two substitutes in my team, but that is only because I had points left over from my genuine top five team.
How does the Fantastic Five work?
| What can I win in the promo? |
| Mostly, you're playing for bragging rights and the chance to top the community.
However, we wanted to give you a little more incentive so the top 5 players will receive: 2: $50, 1 month status upgrade 3: $30, 1 month status upgrade 4: 1 month status upgrade 5: 1 month status upgrade |
Essentially, the Fantastic Five is a fantasy pool for the WSOPE 2013.
If you're not sure how this works, here's how:
Buying players
We have provided a list of professional players and assigned values to each one. You have 300 credits to spend on your five-player team and two optional substitutes.
Unlisted players
If you want to buy a player who is not on the list, then ask in our thread and we'll tell you the cost.
Rankings calculation
This is easy - the total gross earnings of each player in your team throughout the WSOPE will be the score of your team.
Keeping track
We'll post the results of the events in our dedicated thread.
Threads must be created before October 11; threads created after this date will be excluded. We expect fair play from all, so please stick to the rules and enjoy yourselves!
How do I join the Fantastic Five promotion?
Joining in is easy:
• Create your thread with your team of players (and a cool team name) in our Fantastic Five forums by the end of October 11
• Keep track of your players' progress and root for them in the events
• Be sure to keep your thread updated with the results of your players once we post them
Your team thread template
You can find the forum BB-code for your thread here.
Title:
[Team Name] - [Member name]
Body:
Player 1: [name] [price] (e.g: Player 1: BLOCH Andy 55)
Player 2: [name] [price]
Player 3: [name] [price]
Player 4: [name] [price]
Player 5: [name] [price]
Substitute 1: [name] [price]
Substitute 2: [name] [price]
Total team cost: [max. 300]
Check out our dedicated forum below, but be sure to thoroughly read the rules before joining.
By Barry Carter l Barry Carter on Twitter
