CRStals
Moderator
Moderator
In this Learning Series we are going to on Popular Tournament Formats. Here is a breakdown of the topics we will cover:
Part 1: Satellites
Part 2: Bounty and PKO Tournaments
Part 3: Mystery Bounty Tournaments
Part 4: Multi-Day and Charity Tournaments
In this article we are going to focus on poker satellite tournaments and these key components:
Difference Between Satellite and Standard Poker Tournaments
Poker satellite tournaments are a great way for a player to gain access to a higher buy-in tournament that their bankroll could not typically afford--if they were utilizing proper bankroll management that is. But many poker players approach satellites the same as a standard poker tournament, providing opportunities for players who are aware of these differences to exploit these players and be successful. So, what are some of these differences?
First and foremost, we will focus on regular satellite tournaments. The prize-pool in a regular satellite is typically award in equal shares, and the most common type of satellite that you will see. This means 1st place in the satellite wins the exact same prize as the last player left after the bubble bursts, and is the most important concept we will cover today. Keep in mind, these types of satellites typically only pay roughly 10% of the field.
What is this saying?
Essentially chips in a satellite are worth far less than they are in a standard poker tournament because there is zero incentive to winning all the chips. In fact, all you really need to be a profitable is to make past the bubble. Once the bubble pops, even if you only have 1 chip left, your prize is the same as the player with the most chips. Therefore there is no reason to risk chips near the end of a satellite tournament, because it gains you nothing more in the long run, except to increase your risk of busting out before making it past the prize bubble. Remember: once the bubble bursts, you win the same prize as 1st place, so stack sizes are irrelevant at this point - you just want to make sure you have chips.
Here's an example:
The blinds going up every orbit (rough estimate – all tables will be different) simply means that your goal of winning one pot per orbit is that much more important as the tournament moves on. If every time you are in the big blind, the blinds go up, your stack must grow; otherwise, you will find yourself short stacked sooner than later. Winning a pot an orbit at least ensures that you can maintain your standing and not fall in rank.
Consider the prize pool
Not having leftover money in the prize pool simply means there won’t be more than the 12 prizes available. This is important to note as it would drop the average stack down for those who cash and profit to a 46k average stack and not 50k.
Know Your Target Stack Size, and Pursue It
The most important piece of info is knowing the average stack needed for winning a ticket (in this example, 50,000). This should become your target stack size. If you can build a stack that tall, the likelihood that you will qualify goes up significantly. The target stack size should be the goal to reach in any satellite. When you reach your target stack size you should adjust your play accordingly:
Think of what having the target stack before the "money" means in satellites where 10% of the field is paid: you will hold 10% of the chips in play with more than 10% of the field remaining, putting you well above the average stack at that point.
Examples:
At 20% left you would have half of the field in the money and half of the field remaining out of the money. Having target stack would put you in the money at this point. This is also where we re-introduce our calculation discussed in the Managing Your Stack Part 3 and 4 when we subtract the number of places between us and the money line to the number of players out of the money. When that number is negative – meaning there are more players between us and the money line compared to the number of players out of the money, we should be at a point where we blind out.
Mimimize Your Variance
Your strategy needs to reduce your variance as much as you can and not risk chips. Remember - if you've met your target stack size for cashing, adding additional chips to your stack changes nothing about the result; anyone in the money gets the same prize regardless of stack size. You literally only need 1 chip after the bubble bursts. Typically, this is the point where non-experienced poker players keep playing their regular poker tournament strategy and they put themselves at risk unnecessarily by playing hands and putting chips into the middle to win pots that they don’t need to accumulate. This brings up the second point to make about satellites:
Poker players typically lose their seat in a satellite because they either:
A) start folding everything too early
B) play hands when they don’t need to, risking chips and end up busting
Don't be "That" Guy
You will see poker players starting to tighten up their range massively as the bubble approaches, but they may not be doing the math to ensure they have enough chips to last to the bubble – especially if other players who are playing more hands than they should be and attack their blinds. They don’t realize that they don’t have enough chips until it’s too late, and they end up busting.
Other players make the mistake of playing a satellite tournament like a standard tournament, becoming too aggressive near the bubble, going after chips. But what they don’t realize is something we have already touched on: that incremental chips add no value in a satellite tournament. By allowing themselves to be exposed to variance, they allow themselves to take a bad beat or get into a hand where they are dominated, losing more chips then they need to and in some cases, becoming short and busting early. They are the types of players that don’t ever believe they should fold pocket aces, when there are situations in a satellite where it’s correct to.
What? Fold Pocket Aces??
Absolutely – this is not a typo. If you have the target stack in a satellite with a negative count of players to the money line compared to out of the money, you have absolutely no reason to play a hand - any hand. Why risk any chips when you are not guaranteed to win the hand? Let’s be honest: pocket aces pre-flop is the most powerful hand in NLHE, BUT they are not invincible. So why would you risk any more chips than necessary to lock up a ticket – that is the goal after all right? It’s a very hard realization to come to for many poker players, which is why they consistently fall outside of the "money" in satellites.
Consider this example:
This may be an extreme example, but it’s one that has played out countless times before in satellites. In this case, the second mistake was made in that a hand that didn’t need to be played caused you to become short stacked due to a bad beat. By folding, we would not have won the seat on this hand – but we still would have had a very comfortable stack with the blinds coming, and potentially another short stack would bust in the next few hands.
Satellites with laddering prizes
It is important to note that if you are playing a satellite with varying levels of prizes: i.e. a large ticket for 1st place, smaller tickets for 2nd-9th, and even smaller tickets or cash for 10th-12th, these will play more like a standard MTT. This is primarily because there is still something to play for post-bubble. A standard satellite with all tickets of the same value commonly will stop once the bubble bursts.
Milestone Satellites
These are newer to the poker world and not widely talked about but are becoming more popular with live series as they address this issue of big stacks sitting out and not playing hands because they have so many chips.
They work by using the target stack depth that we went over earlier but use it as a finish line of sorts – players who build a stack large enough to achieve the average chip stack of those who cash will win a ticket AUTOMATICALLY. Their stack is then removed from play, leaving one less ticket up for grabs and less chips in play. Chips above and beyond the target stack are returned to the table and dispersed.
The Pros
The major pros to this – which seasoned poker satellite players love – is it removes any possible variance from big stacks at the table through suffering a bad beat, or a prolonged bubble which could see them whittle down to a shorter stack, and, the elimination of any true tournament bubble. As tickets are claimed, the number of spots paid goes down, and eventually the tournament will award one place, making it a winner take all at that point.
The Cons
The major con to this – which non-seasoned satellite players hate – is the removal of chips and prizes in play. It doesn’t change your approach to the target stack size or the calculation we have gone over between the number of spots in the money vs. not, but what it does change is the dynamic of your table against the blinds. If you are at a table that sees someone cross the finish line, your table loses those chips with nothing else changing, meaning the average stack at your table plummets. This can be significant as you are going to be at higher blind levels, but now there are far fewer chips to go around for almost the same number of players.
Example:
In closing
You should always think ahead and adjust your play in any situation, and playing poker satellites is just another element and example of that. We hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our newest series and look forward to part 2 next week when we dive into the world of knockout (bounty) tournaments and PKO's!
In addition to our series, check out our Satellite Poker Tournaments Guide for more inspiration and information about this exciting format.
Part 1: Satellites
Part 2: Bounty and PKO Tournaments
Part 3: Mystery Bounty Tournaments
Part 4: Multi-Day and Charity Tournaments
In this article we are going to focus on poker satellite tournaments and these key components:
- Differences between satellites and standard tournaments
- Different types of satellite tournaments and approaches you should take to achieve success in each them
Difference Between Satellite and Standard Poker Tournaments
Poker satellite tournaments are a great way for a player to gain access to a higher buy-in tournament that their bankroll could not typically afford--if they were utilizing proper bankroll management that is. But many poker players approach satellites the same as a standard poker tournament, providing opportunities for players who are aware of these differences to exploit these players and be successful. So, what are some of these differences?
First and foremost, we will focus on regular satellite tournaments. The prize-pool in a regular satellite is typically award in equal shares, and the most common type of satellite that you will see. This means 1st place in the satellite wins the exact same prize as the last player left after the bubble bursts, and is the most important concept we will cover today. Keep in mind, these types of satellites typically only pay roughly 10% of the field.
What is this saying?
Essentially chips in a satellite are worth far less than they are in a standard poker tournament because there is zero incentive to winning all the chips. In fact, all you really need to be a profitable is to make past the bubble. Once the bubble pops, even if you only have 1 chip left, your prize is the same as the player with the most chips. Therefore there is no reason to risk chips near the end of a satellite tournament, because it gains you nothing more in the long run, except to increase your risk of busting out before making it past the prize bubble. Remember: once the bubble bursts, you win the same prize as 1st place, so stack sizes are irrelevant at this point - you just want to make sure you have chips.
Here's an example:
- $10+1 online freezeout satellite tournament awarding $100 tickets
- 120 players enter playing 6 handed
- 12 tickets to be awarded (Requires 10 players to award a $100 ticket - 120 / 10 = 12 tickets)
- Turbo structure w/ 5 min blinds
- 5,000 starting stack
- Blinds start at 25/50
- The average stack of those who will win a ticket will be 50,000 chips
- You can calculate this two ways:
1. One ticket for every 10 entries means that you multiply the starting stack by 10: 5,000 X 10 = 50,000
2. Calculate the total number of chips in play, divided by the number of tickets: 120 X 5000 = 600,000 / 12 = 50,000
- You can calculate this two ways:
- Blinds will go up every 5 mins – or roughly every orbit, depending on the speed of play
- Top 12 players win a $100 ticket. (There is no cash prize for 13th place)
The blinds going up every orbit (rough estimate – all tables will be different) simply means that your goal of winning one pot per orbit is that much more important as the tournament moves on. If every time you are in the big blind, the blinds go up, your stack must grow; otherwise, you will find yourself short stacked sooner than later. Winning a pot an orbit at least ensures that you can maintain your standing and not fall in rank.
Consider the prize pool
Not having leftover money in the prize pool simply means there won’t be more than the 12 prizes available. This is important to note as it would drop the average stack down for those who cash and profit to a 46k average stack and not 50k.
Know Your Target Stack Size, and Pursue It
The most important piece of info is knowing the average stack needed for winning a ticket (in this example, 50,000). This should become your target stack size. If you can build a stack that tall, the likelihood that you will qualify goes up significantly. The target stack size should be the goal to reach in any satellite. When you reach your target stack size you should adjust your play accordingly:
- Your approach to a hand should change dramatically
- Your hand range of what that you play should shrink – to the point where there will be situations where you are folding effectively 100% of your hands.
Think of what having the target stack before the "money" means in satellites where 10% of the field is paid: you will hold 10% of the chips in play with more than 10% of the field remaining, putting you well above the average stack at that point.
Examples:
- 60 players left – average stack would be 10,000 but you are 5 times that at 50k. This would most likely put you in the top 3, if not in first place.
- 40 players left – average stack would be 15,000 but your target stack of 50k would still put you in the top 5 at the very least
- 30 players left – average stack is now 20,000 and you would be 2 and a half times that at 50k, again, putting you in the money at the very least
At 20% left you would have half of the field in the money and half of the field remaining out of the money. Having target stack would put you in the money at this point. This is also where we re-introduce our calculation discussed in the Managing Your Stack Part 3 and 4 when we subtract the number of places between us and the money line to the number of players out of the money. When that number is negative – meaning there are more players between us and the money line compared to the number of players out of the money, we should be at a point where we blind out.
Mimimize Your Variance
Your strategy needs to reduce your variance as much as you can and not risk chips. Remember - if you've met your target stack size for cashing, adding additional chips to your stack changes nothing about the result; anyone in the money gets the same prize regardless of stack size. You literally only need 1 chip after the bubble bursts. Typically, this is the point where non-experienced poker players keep playing their regular poker tournament strategy and they put themselves at risk unnecessarily by playing hands and putting chips into the middle to win pots that they don’t need to accumulate. This brings up the second point to make about satellites:
Poker players typically lose their seat in a satellite because they either:
A) start folding everything too early
B) play hands when they don’t need to, risking chips and end up busting
Don't be "That" Guy
You will see poker players starting to tighten up their range massively as the bubble approaches, but they may not be doing the math to ensure they have enough chips to last to the bubble – especially if other players who are playing more hands than they should be and attack their blinds. They don’t realize that they don’t have enough chips until it’s too late, and they end up busting.
Other players make the mistake of playing a satellite tournament like a standard tournament, becoming too aggressive near the bubble, going after chips. But what they don’t realize is something we have already touched on: that incremental chips add no value in a satellite tournament. By allowing themselves to be exposed to variance, they allow themselves to take a bad beat or get into a hand where they are dominated, losing more chips then they need to and in some cases, becoming short and busting early. They are the types of players that don’t ever believe they should fold pocket aces, when there are situations in a satellite where it’s correct to.
What? Fold Pocket Aces??
Absolutely – this is not a typo. If you have the target stack in a satellite with a negative count of players to the money line compared to out of the money, you have absolutely no reason to play a hand - any hand. Why risk any chips when you are not guaranteed to win the hand? Let’s be honest: pocket aces pre-flop is the most powerful hand in NLHE, BUT they are not invincible. So why would you risk any more chips than necessary to lock up a ticket – that is the goal after all right? It’s a very hard realization to come to for many poker players, which is why they consistently fall outside of the "money" in satellites.
Consider this example:
- You are UTG+2 with our target stack of 50,000
- 13 players left, 12 getting paid and blinds at 1500 and 3000
- We are currently sitting in 6th with two short stacks at our table, one in the big blind
- We find pocket aces and decide to raise
- The button three-bet shoves pocket fours for 9BB (27k)
- Big blind calls off their 8BB (24k) stack with pocket kings
- You call, putting over half of your stack in the middle
- The flop comes 4QK rainbow and the turn and river don’t improve you
This may be an extreme example, but it’s one that has played out countless times before in satellites. In this case, the second mistake was made in that a hand that didn’t need to be played caused you to become short stacked due to a bad beat. By folding, we would not have won the seat on this hand – but we still would have had a very comfortable stack with the blinds coming, and potentially another short stack would bust in the next few hands.
Satellites with laddering prizes
It is important to note that if you are playing a satellite with varying levels of prizes: i.e. a large ticket for 1st place, smaller tickets for 2nd-9th, and even smaller tickets or cash for 10th-12th, these will play more like a standard MTT. This is primarily because there is still something to play for post-bubble. A standard satellite with all tickets of the same value commonly will stop once the bubble bursts.
Milestone Satellites
These are newer to the poker world and not widely talked about but are becoming more popular with live series as they address this issue of big stacks sitting out and not playing hands because they have so many chips.
They work by using the target stack depth that we went over earlier but use it as a finish line of sorts – players who build a stack large enough to achieve the average chip stack of those who cash will win a ticket AUTOMATICALLY. Their stack is then removed from play, leaving one less ticket up for grabs and less chips in play. Chips above and beyond the target stack are returned to the table and dispersed.
The Pros
The major pros to this – which seasoned poker satellite players love – is it removes any possible variance from big stacks at the table through suffering a bad beat, or a prolonged bubble which could see them whittle down to a shorter stack, and, the elimination of any true tournament bubble. As tickets are claimed, the number of spots paid goes down, and eventually the tournament will award one place, making it a winner take all at that point.
The Cons
The major con to this – which non-seasoned satellite players hate – is the removal of chips and prizes in play. It doesn’t change your approach to the target stack size or the calculation we have gone over between the number of spots in the money vs. not, but what it does change is the dynamic of your table against the blinds. If you are at a table that sees someone cross the finish line, your table loses those chips with nothing else changing, meaning the average stack at your table plummets. This can be significant as you are going to be at higher blind levels, but now there are far fewer chips to go around for almost the same number of players.
Example:
- Your tournament has 30 players left and 5 full tables
- The average stack is 20,000, making the average chips per table at 120,000
- Your table has above chips: 150k, however, you have two big stacks that are approaching the pay-off, and they hit it
- Those two stacks leave the table, and all of a sudden the four remaining players only have 50k between them all
- One player is moved to the table with a 25k stack, meaning that the 5 players left now have 75k chips to play with - HALF of what was on the table before.
In closing
You should always think ahead and adjust your play in any situation, and playing poker satellites is just another element and example of that. We hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our newest series and look forward to part 2 next week when we dive into the world of knockout (bounty) tournaments and PKO's!
In addition to our series, check out our Satellite Poker Tournaments Guide for more inspiration and information about this exciting format.
