It has arrived. The long-awaited High Stakes MTT Forum was launched by PocketFives last week and is already generating dialogue from some of the site's top-ranked pros. The forum allows posting privileges to players ranked in the Top 1,000 worldwide on the site or those with a minimum of $500,000 in career online tournament cashes, but it is viewable to all readers.
The initial response from members has been very positive and several threads have already been created in the new forum. Under the supervision of moderators Jon apestyles Van Fleet (pictured), ApesAreFun, Tristan Cre8ive Wade, and Jake 7DeLux Wilkins, 13 threads had been created as of Monday morning with more than 200 responses and 10,000 total views.Editor's Note: Want to take your poker game to the next level? Try out PocketFives Training and take advantage of a free two-day trial while you learn from some of the best poker players in the world. Full membership includes access to all archived video and forum content for less than $30 per month. SIGN UP NOW for a 6-month or 1-year membership and your initial registration fee of $35 will be waived.
The major debate amongst members has been the minimum requirements for posting rights. As it stands, 1,659 members meet the specifications, but admins have said they can scale the requirements down if the forum gets too cluttered. The majority seem pleased with the current setup.
"I think it's fine as it is," said Mark Pghfan987 Busch (pictured). "Even if for some reason you don't think someone ranked 900th with $200K in cashes is credible, then the badges next to their name will give you an idea. I think almost everyone eligible for this forum will at least have an idea what they are talking about. A lot of old PD threads had $1 ABI players responding to a $100 rebuy hand."Said Frank Frank1The1Tank1 Calo, "I am quite happy with it being at minimum $500K badge, and would even prefer it to be a $1M badge but it probably wouldn't get as much usage I'd guess."
Brazil's iPlayTourneys, ranked 84th in the world according to the PocketFives Rankings, agreed with Calo. He also added, "I think people without $500K badges or ranking should just be very excited to see a filtered forum that is dedicated to high stakes MTTs. It can become very educational and I'm very much enjoying the discussions that are going on right now."
Players who aren't yet able to post in the HSMTT forum might be the most appreciative of it. PocketFiver FenwayKing explained, "You can already see the difference in the HSMTT forum ... people who like never post are posting detailed thought-out responses. That never happened on P5s anymore except for rare threads. This is wayyyyyyyy better."
Some of the players he was referring to include Mike Gags30 Gagliano (pictured), Micheal benvo123 Benvenuti, Peter number1pen Neff, and Frank Round42 Rusnak, who posted an interesting hand for discussion late Thursday evening. In the hand, Rusnak was sitting in the small blind with pocket nines and 31 BBs and facing a raise and a three-bet in front of him. Check out the thread and subsequent responses here.
Another intriguing thread came from Francis The Lab Rat Anderson. He found himself in a tricky spot against Keven Stamdogg Stammen in the PokerStars Monday $1K last week and requested advice from his high-stakes peers. Several came to the rescue, including Amit amak316 Makhija, Grayson the_dean22 Nichols, and the world's second-ranked player Jordan Jymaster0011 Young. You can read the full thread here.For players trying to learn the intricacies of high-stakes tournaments, the HSMTT forum will be an excellent learning tool to improve your game. Be sure to check in frequently for the latest strategy discussion.
-Brett bertminatti Collson
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
