Poker Articles

In my first WSOP main event, the dealer asked my first table which players won a satellite and which players bought in for the $10,000.  Every player had won a satellite.  If you aren’t backed or have a sufficiently large bankroll ($1 million+), satellites are often the only way to intelligently invest in a big buy in tournament.  If you plan on playing some of the many satellites to the WSOP, LAPT, Aruba, etc., the following key points are crucial to success.

I want to focus on some of the dynamics that occur in the multi-table tournament satellites where several seats are rewarded and the fields are often large.  In these events, it’s not uncommon to see 100+ players and a whole final table of main event seats rewarded.  Early in these tournaments, the general strategy should probably reflect the early tournament of a regular cash multi-table tournament.  As the tournament progresses towards the payouts, the strategy of a satellite begins to drastically change.  Some of these strategy points are what I want to focus on in this article.

Pot Odds and Fold Equity Change

In regular MTT’s, pot odds versus likely ranges of our opponent’s hands often factor largely into our decisions late in tournaments.  When our stack size begins to fall below that M of 5 and 10 BB level, we realize that our valuable fold equity is dwindling and make moves accordingly.  In satellites, decisions based on fold equity and pot odds change drastically.  Fold equity is achieved with a much smaller stack as players tighten up their calling ranges in order to preserve their stack size.  On a similar note, in making decisions based on pot odds, preserving stack size is a much more important component.  Making a raise with a marginal hand to steal blinds and then calling off based on the pot odds now begins to make no sense at certain stack sizes. 

Folding Big Hands

Players always hear the myths about people folding big hands like AA or KK at different times in a tournament.  Satellites are probably the only time big hands like this should be folded.  AK is pretty much an afterthought of a big hand in certain situations of a satellite.  Again, early on in satellites, folding big hands doesn’t make much sense, but as we approach the bubble and stack sizes begin to dictate the action, folding big hands is sometimes essential.  When a big stack is raising every single hand to place pressure on the rest of the table, the mathematics of making a big call with AA, KK, QQ is often incorrect.  This type of situation only makes sense if you are not the short stack and are in pretty safe position overall to win your seat.  As the shortest stack or someone on the outside of the prize bubble, you may have to take chances that build up your stack size.  Let’s take an example.  Say we have KK in the BB 500/1000 blind levels with a 200 ante.  We have 24,000 chips while the big stack on the small blind has 55,000.  Three players get seats and 4 players remain.  The two other stacks have 8,000 and 26,000.  Now, the button shoves for all his chips.  While I’m not going to go through the math here (books, ICM, etc. can do it all better), it’s correct to fold because the chances of getting your hand cracked is greater than not getting your seat. 

Don’t Make Calls (often)

If there is one general rule, I would impart on any player in an important satellite decision, it would be to not make calls.  I was recently talking to a poker player I respect a whole lot about a satellite hand I was involved it.  I prefaced my explanation with the statement, “I think I made a bad call here….” Before I even finished my sentence, he said, “Yeah, you probably did.”  This is because with a comfortable stack size calling off chips is one of the worst moves in a satellite.  Calling off chips and not being the initial aggressor is almost always a mistake deep in a satellite.  Rather, be the first one to enter a pot more often than making big calls (probably a good strategy for any MTT).

Stack Size Pressure

When playing down to the seats, certain stack sizes are easy to attack.  These are surprisingly not always the short stacks.  The easy stacks to attack are the ones that are in a comfortable position that fear losing it.  Let’s say there are 9 players left playing for 6 seats.  2 stacks are around 10,000 chips.  2 stacks are around 60,000 chips.  The other 5 stacks are between 20,000 and 30,000 chips.  While it’s beneficial for everyone to apply pressure on the short stacks, those middle 5 stacks are the easy ones to exploit.  The stacks that are in 3rd and 4th positions don’t need to do anything but wait for their seat to fall in their lap.  This means that their playing hand ranges are going to be extremely tight in general.  They are often not going to risk their tournament against the larger stacks that are applying the pressure.  It is also important to remember the same concept as a short stack when looking for a spot to steal blinds.  These middle size stacks are much less likely to defend against a steal when a loss to the short stack will then put them out of the chip stack that keeps them in range of getting a seat. 

Satellites are a different beast in the tournament world because of the way the action diverts when moving closer to the prizes.  Inflection points in satellite tournaments are much more drastic then regular multi-table tournaments.  Great players will learn to adapt and use key strategy points deep in satellites to assure they gain seats to the events where stars are born.