How To Play Satellite Poker

Satellite Tournament Strategy Tips: Know How Many Entries are Awarded: Make sure you know how many seats are up for grabs. It might make sense to fold more, and play tighter if there are a lot of seats going. Play More Satellites that Have Multiple Awards: It’s usually easier to place in satellites with more winners and seats on the table. Play to Win at the Start, then Survive: For satellites with lots of ticket. Satellites give recreational poker players a great opportunity to win their way into events with higher buy-ins that they usually can't afford to play in. Nonetheless, it's important to play satellite poker. Definition of Satellite In competitive sporting, a satellite is a minor tournament that feeds into a larger event, a tour or a series. In poker environments, satellites serve several different purposes, and a single satellite can serve several functions. The most common usage of a satellite tournament is as a qualifier.

You started playing online with a deposit of $500. Through study, hard work, and careful bankroll management, you've grown your poker bankroll to $5,000. When playing large-field multi-table poker tournaments (MTTs), you've decided on a bankroll management strategy that requires you to have at least 200 times the buy-in in your bankroll to enter a tournament. That means you're now playing $20 MTTs on a regular basis and occasionally taking shots with buy-ins as large as $50 if the field is small (you'll have lower variance in small-field tournaments) or the opportunity looks especially profitable.

Meanwhile, the regularly scheduled MTTs at your local brick-and-mortar casino are beyond your means, so you haven't paid them much attention. But you recently received an advertisement in the mail for a special $430+$50 tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000. It sounds exciting, but it's so far outside of your bankroll that you can't seriously consider playing it.

Then you notice that the casino will be running satellites in the weeks running up to the event. A satellite tournament is a qualifying event that serves to offer players a less expensive opportunity to enter a bigger buy-in event. Satellite winners usually win the buy-in to a larger tournament. The satellites at the local casino will include daily $40+$10 events where one out of every 12 players who enter will win a seat in the main event. You've taken shots in $50 MTTs before, and you know that these will have far smaller and softer fields than what you encounter online.

Time to start grinding the satellites, right? Not so fast.

What Makes Satellite Poker Tournaments Attractive?

Many players are drawn to satellites because they seem to put exciting, high buy-in events within the reach of smaller-stakes players. Like the promises of medieval alchemists to turn water into gold, this seems too good to be true because it is. Satellites enable poker players to deceive themselves about the true cost of entering a tournament, but if you're trying to be diligent about bankroll management, then you can't afford to fall for this trap.

When you enter a satellite, you aren't buying an entry into the target tournament. You are buying a chance at an entry into the target tournament. Here, you can either buy a seat in the main event for $480, or you can buy a 1-in-12 shot at a seat in the main event for $50. A little multiplication ($50 x 12) demonstrates that playing the satellites is functionally equivalent to paying $600 for a seat in the main event. Not only is that far beyond your bankroll, but it's quite a bit more than you'd pay if you bought in directly.

That difference is the 25-percent rake you're paying in the satellites. The rake is the commission fee taken by a card room when operating a poker game. The rake is the card room charging the poker players a fee for hosting the game. It is most commonly taken from each pot, and it usually ranges from 2-10 percent, with a predetermined cap on the maximum amount.

Now, in actuality, your chances of winning a seat in the satellite are probably better than 1-in-12. Let's say that you're so much better than the local competition that you can expect to win a seat in one of every eight satellites you enter. In that case, entering via satellite means you're paying $400 for your seat — a nice discount compared to buying in directly, but still far more than your bankroll can justify.

The Problem with Satellite Poker Tournaments

The problem with satellites is that when you win, they don't pay you in cash, they pay you something that is worth much less than cash to you, which is entry in a different poker tournament. How do we know that entry in this tournament is worth less to you than its face value in cash? Because you have $480 in cash, yet you are (wisely) choosing not to exchange it for an entry in the tournament.

Winning $480 in a satellite doesn't magically make it a good idea for you to buy into a $480 tournament any more than winning $480 in any other tournament (or inheriting $480, for that matter) would. If you win the satellite, your bankroll is $430 bigger than it was before, but still not nearly large enough to justify entering this tournament. The problem is that, although some winning satellites tickets can be sold or transferred, most require you to play the bigger event.

If you're able to sell the seat at face value, as can be done online or at the World Series of Poker, then it's a different story. (Technically the tournament lammers used to pay satellite winners at the WSOP are not supposed to be exchanged for cash, but in practice it takes very little effort to sell them for face value.) Playing the satellites themselves could be a good idea, though you still wouldn't be advised to enter the target tournament. Instead, cash out your seat, rinse, and repeat.

Making Quality Use of Your Time

Finally, remember that satellites require time and money that could be invested elsewhere. If you are adequately bankrolled for the $480 tournament, you'd probably be better off buying in directly than playing the satellites, even though you'd have a positive expectation in the satellites. This is because, instead of wasting your time on a $50 MTT, you should be using that time to play larger buy-in tournaments where you'll have a higher hourly rate.

Satellites don't create money out of thin air. They are like any other poker tournament except that they structure their payouts in a unique way. If you're dead set on playing a tournament outside of your bankroll, then play it, but don't pretend that winning a satellite turns it into a responsible decision.

Be sure to check out Andrew and Nate Meyvis on the Thinking Poker podcast, and for strategy articles, reviews, and more from Andrew, check out the rest of The Thinking Poker website.

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A satellite poker tournament is a special tournament in which the prize for winning is not cash, but is instead a free seat to a larger-buyin event. Online poker satellite tournaments are largely responsible for the huge increase in player fields of tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour.

Satellite poker tournaments are very popular today because they give poker players a chance to play in tournaments they normally wouldn’t have the bankroll to buy in to directly. Some live events have buyins of $10,000 or more and it just isn’t realistic for most people to plop down that kind of cash on a single poker tournament. Some of the most popular events for satellite tournaments include the following:

• World Series of Poker (WSOP)
• World Poker Tour (WPT)
• European Poker Tour (EPT)

• Location: UK
• Established: 1999
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• Traffic: 32,864 Players
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888 Poker is our first recommendation for satellite poker tournaments. This is a massive poker site and they offer tons of satellite tournaments to major poker events. The player fields in some of these events can be huge, which results in satellites that give away multiple seats at a time.

We give 888 Poker a slight edge over PokerStars because the competition at 888 isn’t quite as skilled as it is as PokerStars. Both poker sites have tons of player traffic and lots of tournaments, but PokerStars has a reputation for being the site for all serious tournament players. As a result, we feel that the player fields are slightly softer at 888.

888 Poker is currently offering all new players a 100% bonus on their first deposit there. When you join using our links, you automatically receive a free no deposit bonus of $8 and on your first deposit will get a 100% to $600

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• Location: Netherlands
• Established: 2004
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PokerStars comes in a close second for their satellite tournament selection. Overall, PokerStars has even more satellite tournaments than Full Tilt Poker, but the competition is a little bit stiffer. Even so, there are plenty of opportunities to score seats to major live events held around the world.

The satellite tournament selection is extremely varied at PokerStars, with events that run at all buyin levels and in various formats. For example, you can play in straight up freezeout tournaments, step SNG tournaments, or satellites to bigger satellites. No matter what your bankroll level, you’ll find a satellite that fits perfectly at PokerStars.

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PokerStars also has a 100% signup bonus for up to $600 extra. This bonus is fairly easy to clear and the cash is released to your account with no extra hassles. All you have to do is sign up for an account and use the marketing code BPSORG.

The Best Satellite Tournament Poker Sites

We believe that the poker sites listed on this page offer players the best selection and value for satellite poker tournaments. Each poker site has its own strengths, but together these poker sites represent a nice cross section of what online poker has to offer. Some of the sites on this list excel in offering tons of tournaments and lots of seats, while other poker sites get high rankings for soft poker games.

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No matter which site on this list you end up choosing, you’ll be happy with its satellite tournament experience. It really doesn’t hurt to sign up at a couple sites and keep a little money at each one so that you can take advantage of a greater variety. That way you can get in on the various satellites that each site holds.

The World Series of Poker is by far the most prestigious live event in the world, but it’s not even close to the only one. There are many live events that are hosted around the world in beautiful locations. If you like to travel and play poker, satellite tournaments are a great way to do both without spending a lot of money. And if you happen to make a big score, you won’t have to worry about money ever again.

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If you happen to win multiple seats to the same event, that won’t be a problem in most cases. Poker sites know that players like to play in multiple satellites and win multiple seats. Sometimes you can just exchange the tournament seat for cash and other times you can trade them off to other players.