SCOOP 2012

The Spring Championship of Online Poker is upon us once again and while it doesn't start till the 6th of May I'm already planning it out. As I'm off to Monaco for the EPT Grand Final at the end of this week and by the time I'm back it will be just days away!

Above are the SCOOP events that I will play if I can, I'd like to play more but these are the ones I have the largest edge in and best suit my bankroll. They are all full ring events, all NLHE and include no re-buy events. I've been reflecting on my poker game a lot during this month off and I'm looking forward to coming back refreshed and with a new attitude. My plans are to really get back into 9-max STTs when May rolls around. They've always been a format that I've done well with and frankly I prefer the lower variance nature of them. Sure the potential ROI is lower in them on average but given that even in small sessions (~20 games) you're unlikely to see too much of a downswing. I experimented with the $1.39 Hyper-Turbo 9-max STTs recently and had solid success. I'll start back at these come May in order to build a roll and potentially get back on top of some VPP goals. Below is my graph for the $1.39 HT 9-max STTs, it auto-updates on a regular basis.

I leave for the EPT Season 8 Grand Final, in Monte Carlo on Saturday (21st April). I hope to have spare time enough to play a side event while I am out there, but we'll see how it goes - there are certainly some great ones to choose from. If I had to just pick one it would be the €500+€500 bounty event, it always surpises me how even good players fail to adjust to the changes in the mathematics that the bounty brings. I see people folding good draws because they're "not quite getting the right price". Then they remember that there was direct value on that hand because they had the opponent(s) covered. There's also another €100 Hyper-Turbo which is the same as the one I played at EPT London - which was a blast.

That said, I'm going to enjoy the change of scenery above all else - even if I'm going to be doing much the same thing as usual, just in a different location. I've never been to Monaco and I hear it's a beautiful city. I also hear that it's one of the richest places in the world and as a result things do tend to be pricey out there. I'm usually pretty good at finding a deal though and I should be able to avoid paying over the odds for the day to day things. Even at EPT London I saw people getting ripped off when there are supermarkets selling the same thing for a fraction of the price just down the road. Convenience is everything for some people though and it's a decent business model - you can't deny that.

Having not traveled outside the UK in a few years, I can't lie I'm a little nervous about the trip. More specifically the travel, but flights are now booked and packing is never a problem for me. I like to travel light as you always end up buying clothes while you're away anyway. Why not actually wear them in the country you bought them? That's how I always do things, it just makes sense to me. I'm sure I'll be much more comfortable on the journey back (02 May) and that the trip out there will be great. So here's hoping that people speak English or Italian out there rather than French as I'm completely clueless when it comes to that language.

We're around 15 weeks into 2012 and I'm glad to say that I've maintained my goal of blogging every week, so far. This time next week I'll be posting from the Hotel/Casino, assuming I don't get completely lost on the way! Thanks as ever for reading.