Tips for satellite success

The vast majority of prestigious tournaments in this day and age command buy-in in excess of $10,000. The World Poker Tour Championship requires players to part with $25,000 whilst the WSOP has offered a $50,000 buy-in event for the past few years.

These prices are beyond a significant percentage of poker players and even those who can afford them are rarely willing to put such a large amount of money on the line for a single tournament. So how come most of these events, the WSOP Main Event in particular, often attract thousands of players? The answer is satellite tournaments.

Satellites are tournaments that do not pay a cash amount, instead they award a certain number of seats instead. There are a number of different tyes of satellite, usually in based on the format and they include multitable tournaments, double and triple shootouts and basic sit ‘n’ go tournaments.

Game selection is important when you are entering a satellite tournament and I would urge you to stay clear of double and triple shootout events. This is because by their very nature they converge all the better players together at the final table so it is unlikely you have an edge over the field, whilst some weak players will go deep in a 1,000 event that awards 40 or 50 seats.

Although many satellites are played in a multitable tournament format you must remember that satellites are all about survival and not chip accumulation. If there are 50 seats available then it does not make any difference if you have a single chip or one million chips when the prizes are awarded so you should not be worried if your stack reaches 10-12 big blinds, you should sit tight and start moving all-in at a lower level such as five to seven big blinds.

Tight, almost nitty play will often be the best strategy to follow, especially in the early and middle stages of a satellite event. There is no need for fancy play because as mentioned previously you are simply looking to survive, not add chips to your stack.

Finally, satellites are one of the very few tournaments where folding Aces preflop is correct. Say you have a decent stack with the bubble approaching and a larger stack than you moves all-in. You estimate that even if you fold every hand you are dealt for the next 30 minutes you have a 90% chance of winning a seat then you have to fold aces as you will only be an 82% favourite to win at best.

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Tags: poker, satellite, world poker tour, world poker tour championship