Super satellites

	Super satellites are the only tournaments you should consider – in my opinion – laying down a hand like pocket Aces

For a tournament poker player, one of the most important things to master is the game theory behind playing super satellites. They offer a great means for players to enter bigger buy-in tournaments for much less than the face value buy-in. Winning your seat in a major event via a super satellite is one of the most rewarding and thrilling moments that you can have in poker, other than winning a major tournament.

Just approaching a super satellite in the same way you would approach a regular tournament is probably a mistake. There are intricacies in the super satellite that you would not fi nd in a regular tournament. You have to make adjustments in your game and strategy based on not only what stage of the satellite you are in, but on how many seats are awarded as well. In this article we are dealing with big buy-in satellites, where typically 5-10% of the fi eld is paid. This could be a $20 to a $215 Sunday tournament at Ultimatebet, or a $1,000 satellite for the WSOP main event. In a case like this, your game strategy must shift from looking to win the tournament outright to simply surviving in order to land your place in the big one.

Early Start

The only strategy that remains very similar to a regular tournament is during the early stages of a super satellite. Depending on the aggressiveness of the blind/time structure, your approach should refl ect a regular tournament fairly closely.

Whether it is your style to be loose-aggressive up front or whether you’re a tighter, passive player, you should always try and manufacture a stack. The average chip count during the early-to-mid-stages of the tournament should be watched, but it is not the benchmark. The goal should be what the average chip count would be when the seats are awarded.

For easy maths I will use an example of a $1,000 buy-in super satellite into a $10,000 buy-in event that gets 100 people signed up. Everyone starts with 2,000 in chips and the average chip count when the ten seats are awarded at the end will be 20,000. You obviously want to be above that 20,000-mark when it is coming down to the crunch time or bubble of the awarded seats. If you are short of your target, it will be time to switch gears; take some chances and try to get over that benchmark.

Short-stack strategy

There are many players that know how to play super satellites well and adhere to a limited amount of risktaking when it is getting close to the seats. For a shorter stack, that can usually give you better opportunities to chip up than you would have in a regular buy-in tournament coming up and through the bubble. When the goal is to win the tournament outright, the shorter stacks are usually at the mercy of the bigger ones as the bigger stacked players will call with off-hands, trying to bust a shorter stack player.

But some players play so tight as the bubble approaches in a super satellite that it can give the shorter stacks a great opportunity to use their own stacks as a power play – while they still have some leverage. The key is to know who to target at the table. Targeting the biggest stack is a mistake, unless the player is very passive and got into his position by picking up a run of hands.

Against the mid-stack, the shorter stack player has a great opportunity to steal some blinds. When the goal is survival (top ten with 13 players left for example) those bigger stacks are not as likely to take a risk without a massive starting hand. They will not want to put their stacks in jeopardy coming up so close to the bubble.

Big-stack strategy

If the deck and situations have smacked you in the face in the fi rst few hours and you are at three times the average number of tournament chips, it would be time to ease off and not get into any situations that could jeopardise your stack. In a regular buy-in tournament, once you get a decent stack of chips behind you, it changes the dynamics for you and affords you the opportunity to make plays and calls that other players cannot make because of their stack size.

In a regular tournament, using your stack as a power tool is a great way to accumulate more chips. In a super satellite, you still want to keep the pressure on your opponents, but you don’t want to be taking the risks that you would if the target was to win the tournament outright. A super satellite is the only type of poker tournament where once you have achieved a substantial stack you may want to ease off the gas a bit and coast home from there.

If you have a huge stack going into the bubble, then you can easily pick up the aggression level and target most players at your table. However, you need to avoid getting into big all-in situations with a player at the table that can really hurt your stack. You typically will be able to steal the vast majority of the blinds at your table because there are very few players that will play back at you without a monster starting hand. If a really shortstack plays back at you, you can afford to take a fl ier in order to bust him.

One thing you must never do is put enough of your stack at risk that would put your seat in jeopardy. If you take a hit, shut it down and do not play a hand unless you have Aces or Kings against a much shorter stack. That doesn’t mean shut down the computer! I have seen some players walk away from the table completely when they have achieved a massive stack if they feel they have no worries about blinding out. I do not advocate this at all.

If you want to tighten up your play to the point of only playing Aces or Kings, that is fi ne. But don’t walk away and give people a dead seat to target on the blinds. You can control the table by fear just by sitting there and in fact, you can help your own chances of making it into the seats just by being a body behind that big stack – so it’s pointless making yourself a sitting duck!

Big lay downs

Super satellites are the only type of poker tournament where I can see many players laying down big pairs. I have even laid down Aces pre-fl op myself when being very close to the bubble. I was on the big blind with 36,000 in chips – the average was about 40,000 and we were fi ve away from the seats when there was an all-in bet from a player with 21,000. The player on the button re-raised all-in with 42,000 and the small blind – who had 25,000 – moved all-in as well. I almost fell off my chair when I saw my Aces and in a regular buy-in tournament my chips would have been in the centre in a millisecond. There were about 25 seats being paid, but if I lost that hand to any of the shorter stacked players, I would be in dire straits and would need a miracle to make it through. If I lost the hand to the bigger stacked player, I would have busted out and. I decided to fold and not risk my tournament when I could pick better spots.

The hands were actually 9-9 from the original raiser, A…-K… on the button and K-K on the small blind. The fl op came down 9-high and didn’t improve for the other players. No one busted out, but the small blind was now critical and went out on the next hand. I locked up my chips because I knew there were short stacks out there and about half an hour later I made it into the seats without playing a hand.

Super satellites are the only place that you should consider – in my opinion – laying down a hand like pocket Aces pre-fl op. Obviously there are cases where you would lay down K-K pre-fl op as well in any tournament, but that is rare. The point is, in a super satellite you have to make decisions that are based on survival as the goal, rather than winning the tournament outright. That means making some unorthodox plays and decisions along the way.

Remember, survival is the key in super satellites. Your goal is to qualify for the event in question, not to win the satellite itself. You do not need to be the hero with the biggest stack, you just have to be in the top 10%. Approach it that way and you will see the rewards.