Playing the Open Skill League

Cablegut · Jan 18, 2016

The Pokerstars Open Skill League is a series of multi table tournaments open to all players (you must register and pass a test of basic poker knowledge in pokerschoolonline.com).

The prize pool is small ($10), the field is large (10,000 players). By playing in these tournaments, points are gained or lost, and players are ranked in a monthly leaderboard.

In this thread I'll document my experiences in this league.

Cablegut · Jan 18, 2016

Finishing in the top places earns more points, but getting knocked out early subtracts points. For this reason, it makes sense to take fewer risks at the start of the tournaments.

The first 15 minutes or so are about dodging the crazy bingo players. There's no entry fee, so I guess they think there's nothing to loose. Some of these players manage to build up their stack very quickly based on pure luck, but eventually they get less lucky and mostly get eliminated.

Cablegut · Jan 18, 2016

Making it through the first hour of play usually means reaching the top 25%. You can get here almost without playing any hands at all. I personally find it difficult to sit through one hour doing barely any moves, but it also means that I'm less exposed to some outrageous bad beat. It's a bit like abstinence. What a sad idea.

When there are two or three players all-in pre-flop, I have folded aces or kings. It's challenging not to get greedy, but I've been knocked out too many times. I prefer to stay safe the first hour of play.

With that in mind, it's also true that a short stack can't do much later on. I have found lucky spots in which players haven't shoved pre-flop, and I'm holding close to the nuts at the flop. How do I get to these lucky spots? I've found that raising 3BB pre-flop is just the same as limping (in these tournaments, through the 1st hour). So I just try to get as little as I can into the pot, until I Know I have a hand that can make some damage.

Cablegut · Jan 18, 2016

Through the 2nd hour, I find that players are more rational. For me, ABC poker works at this stage. I rarely build up a big stack early in the tournament, but if I reach this stage with around 10BB, I can usually last for a bit longer. Less than 10BB for me is pre-flop shove territory.

I keep an eye on the average chip stack, I try to use my table credibility to bluff here and there. If I'm getting into a hand, I try to have fewer players involved.

When a player all of the sudden bets strong, they usually have a strong hand.

Cablegut · Jan 18, 2016

If I reach the 3rd hour of play, it's because I'm getting good cards, and haven't rolled the dice much.

At this stage the tournament feels less like the Open Skill League, and more like what I see on TV. There's no entry fee, but at this point you've dedicated over 2 hours, and you're running deep. You're close to the money, but 1 cent isn't really going to boost your bankroll. You're certain you'll get the points.

So for me, at this point, it's all a matter of how much I will risk with top pair. I've rarely made it past the 3rd hour. I hope I can find a way to improve my game at this stage.

Alexandre Koga · Jan 18, 2016

Very tight play early for the position in the championship, which is very important ... and not definitive by bubble pressure and etc. Enough to force the bad guys...
glll

anonimalit · Jan 18, 2016

im play too , but so very very newbie player to pay hero calls =(

Cablegut · Jan 19, 2016

I'm currently at #701 in the leaderboard. At one point reached the 300's, then dropped, and now I'm regaining some points.

passnico · Jan 19, 2016

Cablegut said:
The Pokerstars Open Skill League is a series of multi table tournaments open to all players (you must register and pass a test of basic poker knowledge in pokerschoolonline.com).

The prize pool is small ($10), the field is large (10,000 players). By playing in these tournaments, points are gained or lost, and players are ranked in a monthly leaderboard.

In this thread I'll document my experiences in this league.

I have an idea!

Cablegut · Jan 20, 2016

I managed to improve today. Now I'm at #402.

vitgun82 · Jan 20, 2016

Did you get any bonuses for it? What place in the leaderboard is paid?

hutzpaf · Jan 20, 2016

Testing PokerSchool Open Skill League (just for fun)

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/pok...testing-pokerschool-open-skill-league-272416/

Cablegut · Jan 20, 2016

vitgun82 said:
Did you get any bonuses for it? What place in the leaderboard is paid?

Each tournament pays the top 90 spots. This month, I haven't finished in the top 90 yet. Keep in mind the prize pool is $10.

At the end of the month, the top 2000 players in the leaderboard receive a prize. At my current position I would get $1, because I have fewer than 20 VPP. If I had more than 20 VPP, the prize would be $5. The Open Skill League is time consuming but I'm getting a lot of practice for free.

The top 500 players in the monthly leaderboard get a ticket to play in the Premier Skill League. In this league, the prizes are similar, but the field is a lot smaller.

Cablegut · Jan 20, 2016

hutzpaf said:
Testing PokerSchool Open Skill League (just for fun)

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/pok...testing-pokerschool-open-skill-league-272416/

Nice! Where can I find the Rank History?

messer21 · Jan 20, 2016

I hope you achieve remain in positions of awards in the tournament or the league in general, I managed to finish 1000 in positions .. is little money to be gained but it's something !!

hutzpaf · Jan 21, 2016

Cablegut said:
Nice! Where can I find the Rank History?

Start here https://www.pokerschoolonline.com/ SIGN IN.
Click on the Open League then enter your name on the Search box.

Bogdan Pyts · Jan 21, 2016

It is not very profitable to play this tournament, but now PokerStars freerolls choice is not great, so I play. a lot of fish in it, play tight and make a huge raise with premium hands, because raising this tournament nobody takes seriously

Cablegut · Jan 21, 2016

thank you for the info hutzpaf, finally found the rank history.

messer21 thank you for the good wishes.

Bogdan Pyts yes I can see where you're coming from, but I don't dare to do big raises early in the tournament because it basically means going all in

and getting knocked out early means losing points.

For now I'm at #341.

suricato35 · Jan 21, 2016

Bogdan Pyts said:
It is not very profitable to play this tournament, but now PokerStars freerolls choice is not great, so I play. a lot of fish in it, play tight and make a huge raise with premium hands, because raising this tournament nobody takes seriously

I would do this only when the tournament already advanced a little bit (at least 50% of the field is already gone - which takes around 30 minutes) and in position, to not get many hero calls, which happens a lot, and usually with more than 1 player, making Aces not that great

This month I started playing more seriously, got some 400th places in the start (in the 10k field) but then i stopped cause there wasn't a point to keep going since I had less than 20 vpp. It would demand a rly great effort to get $0.50 or $1. This month i'm just doing some testing on how to play and how to improve there, cause probably next month i'll play it seriously.

rickroll · Jan 22, 2016

I'm writing this with the assumption that you'll be multi-tabling and thus wouldn't care about entertainment value of this single tournament.

Simply put the play is far more aggressive than the blinds. If you simply follow a shove/fold strategy for first hour or so you'll have a decent stack size and safely be top 25% which is really what matters. Quite honestly you can do that just by folding and sitting out but then you'd be very short stacked once it came to crunch time.

Every time you overshove you'll almost almost get someone calling with K7, JQ, A4 etc so AK/QQ/KK/AA simply shove and then everything else fold.

Then once there are less than 25% of players remaining start playing normal poker. Your stats will go way up and you'll even cash a few times if some coin flips go your way.

Cablegut · Jan 25, 2016

Currently at #106

steelwheel92 · Jan 26, 2016

Cablegut said:
Each tournament pays the top 90 spots. This month, I haven't finished in the top 90 yet. Keep in mind the prize pool is $10.

At the end of the month, the top 2000 players in the leaderboard receive a prize. At my current position I would get $1, because I have fewer than 20 VPP. If I had more than 20 VPP, the prize would be $5. The Open Skill League is time consuming but I'm getting a lot of practice for free.

The top 500 players in the monthly leaderboard get a ticket to play in the Premier Skill League. In this league, the prizes are similar, but the field is a lot smaller.[/QUOTE

I've wondered how this worked and couldnt follow what pokerschool was saying so thank you for this. And good luck!

Cablegut · Feb 3, 2016

Well, I finished the month of January at #116th in the leaderboard. Received $1. Now in February I'll see how it goes for me in the Premier Skill League

suricato35 · Feb 4, 2016

Congratulations mate

This past month I made some research on these, I'll try for premier now

The first one I played was fine, 130 out of 5700, hope to continue that way

Wish u the best of luck on the premier

Cablegut · Feb 5, 2016

Well thank you. I have now figured out that in order to get a Premier Skill League ticket, I need to have a minimum of 20 VPP in the previous month. This means I'll try the Open Skill League once more, the month after I'll finally get 20VPP. In the meantime I'll probably have more to say about the Open Skill League.

Playing the Open Skill League

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