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Fancy trying to qualify for that big one but don’t have the bankroll? Barry Carter shows you how to master the online satellite.
Ever since Chris Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million at the WSOP and sparked the ‘poker boom’ the satellite has always played an important part in poker folklore.
Satellites provide every player, no matter what level, a chance to play with the big boys and if they are lucky, win a life-changing sum of money. Equally, they also pad out tournament fields with hundreds of amateur players, or ‘dead money’, which helps in boosting the prize pool.
Everybody should love satellites, even if they don’t play in them personally. But what few people realise is that there is a lot of merit to playing satellites for their own sake as a way of making money just as one would in a cash game or sit ’n’ go. A very small group of players actually play satellites with no intention of playing the event the ticket leads to because they can be very profitable. I’m not going to discuss satellite strategy today, but instead let you know why they are one of the best kept secrets in poker.
SUPER SOFT
First and probably foremost, the best reason to grind satellites is because they are incredibly soft. Satellites are probably the most straightforward form of online poker out there, yet you probably see the most basic and monumental of errors regularly in these games. People simply do not understand the survival mentality of the game and have a hard time pressing the fold button. It’s amazing how often you can win a satellite without ever having to make a tough decision because some donk has done all the work for you, taking on the chip leader with a marginal hand when they already had a seat locked up. You probably get the least amount of tough regulars in these games than in any other form of poker and you often find yourself at a table with inexperienced players taking shots at a big tournament seat.
HIT THE BIG TIME
The bigger satellites are also very good value because they are often full of players who have parlayed their way into them via a micro-stakes feeder. Likewise the mid-stakes ‘Steps’ SNGs, which are basically satellites, are full of small-stakes players who have worked their way up from freerolls and nickel games (the top end, however, is like a murderers’ row with some very scary opposition).
So where else can you find juicy satellites? Well, make a note of when a big main event type tournament is on the horizon. Also, satellites are very busy and soft over the weekend when people are trying a last-ditch attempt to play in the Sunday Majors and also very good just before a major online festival like the WCOOP. Live satellites are also a great way to make money, say during the World Series at the Rio, because live players have even less of a clue (generally) about satellite strategy than their online counterparts.
Satellites also very low variance, as because everyone is competing for the same prize you will be under no pressure to ‘go for the win’ and take big risks or take on chip leaders (with the exception of winner-take-all single-table satellites) and a lot of your profits will come from playing snug, putting pressure on players you have covered and folding your way to victory.
Most satellites award between 1 in 3 and 1 in 20 places with a tournament ticket, and in general your ‘in the money’ percentage should be way higher (as should your earn rate).
SELLING YOUR SEAT
The real drawback of grinding satellites is getting rid of the seat you have won and exchanging it for real money. Many live satellite providers will just give you the money itself, but others require you to find a new home for the ticket. This usually means selling it at a reduced rate to another player. You won’t have any shortage of buyers, but you will have to sell it for less than its actual value. This obviously means your earn rate will drop instantly, but hopefully that will be more than made up for by how much it will grow in general when you elect to play regularly in these games.
You have to make sure what the rule is with exchanging seats in advance, even more so online. PokerStars and Full Tilt are the only two sites that I know of that allow you to unregister from the events you won a seat to and take tournament dollars. This is a separate credit which can only be used for other tournaments (known as T$ for regular tournaments and W$ for live satellites and WCOOP events).
You can sell PokerStars T$ to other players, but you have to sell them back to Full Tilt at a rate of 5% if you do not want to play another tournament with them. There is a special thread devoted to buying and selling PokerStars T$ & W$ on the twoplustwo forum and it is a very transparent and 100% safe process. T$ normally sell at 99.5% of their original value; W$ will sell at between 90-98% of their value.
It sucks that you have to sell your tournament dollars at a lower rate than their true value; however you can always use this in your favour. You can purchase W$ at a much lower rate to play in satellites for live events and Steps tournaments, which can negate what you lose when you sell them back. You might even be able to make an immediate profit without even playing by buying them at say 95% and selling them at 97%.
The best time to buy W$ is during quiet times in poker (after the WSOP or after the WCOOP/SCOOP festivals) and the best time to sell them is just before the world series (when everyone is trying to win their seat online) or the WCOOP, when it really is a seller’s market. You cannot sell Steps tickets, but some levels pay out cash/W$ and you can use certain tickets in regular cash tournaments.
Generally, the big poker rooms do not allow you to sell an actual seat won to a live event, like an EPT, but if you win multiple packages they will credit your account with the money/tournament dollars thereafter. With some tournaments, like the WSOP, you are required to buy yourself into the tournament (they cannot do it for you) and they are forced to credit your account with the money, in which case you can do what you want with it.
Carter’s Top Tips
• Always research what the cardroom’s (live or online) policy is on selling/exchanging seats before you play.
• Always buy W$ at a reduced rate from other players before playing any live/WCOOP satellites on PokerStars. [NOTE: If you qualify for multiple seats in special events, like the PokerStars PCA, W$ for the extra seat/s will be credited to your account].
• Don’t immediately sell T$ [the dollar equivalent for winning entry into online tournaments] or W$ when you win them because you can still use them to play while you wait for a good opportunity to sell them at a good rate.
• Take some shots. If you are having a good spell at the tables then occasionally play in the tournament you won the seat for instead of taking the money. This can both maintain your enjoyment of your game as well as giving you a chance at a huge payday. |
