Winning your way to the World Series of Poker

Poker tournaments have exploded in popularity both online and in brick and mortar casinos. Tournaments are televised on an almost nightly basis, and the players who consistently perform well are fast becoming celebrities. Someone new is becoming a millionaire almost ever week. Who wouldn’t want to get in on that action?

The problem, of course, is the expense of entry fees and travel. Most of the larger televised tournaments have buy-ins that start at around $10,000. On top of that you are going to have to pay for airfare, a hotel for a week, and feed yourself. To be safe you had better budget around $13,000 a tournament. For most of us, this is way out of reach.

That’s the bad news, but fortunately, not the only news. While heading off to follow the World Poker Tour may be outside your current means, you can still play in some of the largest and most prestigious tournaments. You will need to work at it and also have a little good luck, but many of the contestants, even some big name players, rely on satellites to win their way into the larger, more expensive tournaments.

A satellite is simply a tournament, where seats in a larger tournament are rewarded instead of cash prizes. They were invented by Eric Drache in the early days of the World Series of Poker, and were one of the major factors that led to the World Series of Poker becoming more than just a gamblers convention, featuring the best players in the world. Nowadays there are a number of different kinds of satellites running on a daily basis, both online and in brick and mortar casinos. This article will cover the most popular kinds of satellites, as well as some tips on how to excel in them.

Online Satellites

Every day online, on a variety of different sites, there are satellites running for European and American tournaments. Seats can be won for as little as a few dollars or as much as around $1,000. Both options can offer tremendous value. The most common satellites available are the super-satellites that are run essentially like a regular multi-table tournament. The second most popular offering is the double shoot out tournaments.

Super-Satellites

These tournaments are run essentially like a multi-table tournament. Instead of prize money, prize packages will be awarded to as many players as the prize pool allows. Any additional money will go to the players who finish the highest, but fail to win a prize package. Most packages will contain additional money to cover expenses. Many sites will guarantee a certain number of prize packages to be given away. There is sometimes an overlay in these situations and the savvy player can find great value in these tournaments. Choose which super-satellites you play carefully, as different sites provide different incentives. Many sites will pick up the tab for hotel accommodations in return for wearing some of their poker rooms clothing. These sort of bonuses add a lot of value to certain tournaments.

The strategy in super-satellites is somewhat different from a traditional multi-table tournament. Generally a much smaller percentage of participants will receive any sort of payout and you must take that into account. In the early and middle stages of the super-satellites you must be willing to gamble to accumulate chips. The blinds will usually increase fairly quickly, and you must win chips to stay ahead of these rising blinds.

Once you get near the prize distribution point, strategy again changes dramatically. There is no bonus for finishing with the most chips, and when the prize packages are reached the tournament will end. If the super-satellite is rewarding nine players with seats then it makes no difference if you have the most or the least amount of chips when you reach nine players left, you will all receive the same prize. Strategy becomes very chip stack dependant. If you have the largest stack and there are ten players left, with nine seats being awarded, what do you have to gain by playing any hand at all? You have nothing to gain and everything to lose. This is the time to fold Aces (possibly the only time it can make sense) and Kings if someone with a decent stack moves in on you. Keep a close eye on your chip stack, the blinds, and your opponents chips stacks. Realize who will need to play and who cannot afford to play a hand for all of their chips. Realize when you have enough chips to fold your way into the money and when you do not. The chip stacks of you and your opponents can make correct strategy range from maniacal to incredibly tight in this stage of the tournament. Many mistakes are made at this stage of the tournament, make sure you are the one exploiting, not making the mistakes.

Double Shoot Outs

Double shoot outs are essentially single table tournaments where the winner of the individual tables moves on to the next round, with the winner of that tournament winning a seat in the larger event. The most common structure costs $160 and seats 81 players. This creates nine single tables that play down until one person wins each of them. At that point all of the winners play a nine handed single table tournament with the winner being awarded a prize package.

Read PART TWO of How to win your way to the WORLD SERIES OF POKER