Dara O'Kearney (Satellite Specialist) - Ask Me Anything about satellites/knockouts

[Dara OKearney]

teach me how to play knockout tournaments

This should help

https://amzn.to/3Hd2Aw4

 

[Dara OKearney]

I've seen some people mention multi-table even up to 180 people Sit & Go's and similar - how's that any different to a classic tournament? Other than I suppose no rebuys and no late registration.

Also where's a good place to play Sit & Go's? I've had some luck playing on 888 especially with the Double or Nothing format, but their Double or Nothing format is only available with 40c and $1 buy ins and they don't have any multi table sit and go's that I can see.

170 SNGs are essentially mtts, and you should employ the same strategy as in smaller runner mtt fields.

I don't play many SNGs these days, so I'm not the best person to ask. When I do I pretty much only play on unibet, and they're soft. Some friends have said ACR SNGs are good too. One thing to watch for is special promotions: not just for themselves but they also tend to draw weaker fields.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[Dara OKearney]

You are mainly a stellite player , and have won over a million in sties. However once you win a seat you are a regular MTT player. Is this were you have made huge profits?

Interesting question, and yes, if you want to make money from poker, it's not enough to just be good at satellites, you have to be good at regular MTTs too! They're slightly different but similar skillsets; we wrote "Poker Satellite Strategy" specifically for players who know how to play regular MTTs but want to learn the differences and strategic adjustments needed in satellites.

Thanks for your question!

 

[Dara OKearney]

How much per month can you earn playing satellites/knockouts?

Very interesting question, and one I have no exact answer to. It depends on how many you can play simultaneously, the buyin, and your ROI. My best estimate is that 5k a day in buyins is about the max, and 30% ROI, so that works out as 750 a day. If you play 20 days a month that's $15k per month.

You'd need a super high bankroll though, because you're winning entries to bigger tournaments (or tournament dollars on some sites) so you only realise your profits in the normal mtts.

Thanks for your question!

 

[Dara OKearney]

Hi Dara,

this Saturday I will win a ticket for a 55$ PKO starting on Saturday 6 am German time. I know this because I'm a member of dare2streams competion. Problem is normaly I'm playing only 1.50$ 9max SNG. I have already your book. So which chapters are the most import for me. Or some youtube / Twitch videos I should look. Could use the money for bilding my bankroll and starting with PKO, after reading the book. Start bounty for each player will be 12.50$ and I think maximum starting number of players will be 120.

And sorry for my bad English I'm a German native speaker.

Hi,

Sorry for slow reply. The best chapter to read for a quick overview of all the most important concepts is "PKOs in 30 minutes".

Incidentally, Christian Zetsche who translated "Poker Satellite Strategy" into German is currently working on the German translation of "PKO poker strategy".

Good luck!

 

[Arnakk2424]

Hi,

Sorry for slow reply. The best chapter to read for a quick overview of all the most important concepts is "PKOs in 30 minutes".

Incidentally, Christian Zetsche who translated "Poker Satellite Strategy" into German is currently working on the German translation of "PKO Poker Strategy".

Good luck!

Hello Dara, will receive your book Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book
I am very curious because its been a long time a book about SNG/ICM got release.
Was playing 1 table for a living 10 years ago I hope I will not be to critical !

Have a nice day

 

[Dara OKearney]

Finished on place 12 for 101$ incl. 3 knockOuts.

well done!

 

[Dara OKearney]

I might playing a first live WSOP event next month in Calgary. What would you suggest is the right one? I play online a little. I’m familiar with the strategy of playing MTT’s would it be best to play a black chip bounty as my first live tournament or a double stack event? I feel like a bounty tournament is more justification for all ins. I’m torn

If you're familiar with bounty tournaments online, I definitely recommend them live, as you'll have a lot more knowledge and experience of them than the average live player. Good luck!

 

[Tammy]

Hi Dara! We've got some feedback from your latest video on YouTube:

"Excellent video Dara. Would be great to see one on the new Beta version HRC as struggling to adapt to the input changes."

Just thought I would post here in case that's something you can do.


For anyone curious, you can watch Dara's latest video right here:

 

[joschua_zimmer]

monthly poker earnings

How much per month can you earn playing satellites/knockouts?

Well it depends on how much u are ready too loose.
By playing one dollar tournaments you will have not that much chance to make thausends of dollars but if you are ready to play with more i think there are no limits.
But remember only play with money you are not relying on

 

[Clutchdenier]

When you register for tournaments - what frequency do you unregister from the tournaments and take the T$? If so, what type of fields do you use for T$ money into cash and why?

Thanks for answering the questions - Im a big fan of the 2x shootout hyper satellites, if you tiered satellites, what would you categorise this type of satellite as in terms of long-term bankroll building?

 

[Dara OKearney]

Do you feel like the hands are structured to make you play and commit chips. I feel too often they hit when I'm winning and I don't hit when I'm loosing, is it a roller-coaster for you? And do you get knocked out as many times as you have earned some money

Yeah, I get the same feeling at times. Sometimes I seem to be hitting every thing, and other times nothing. I believe this is an illusion though: our brains are very good at spotting patterns, including some that aren't there

It's best to try to ignore how good or bad you're running, or think you are, and just focus on making the best decisions you can.

Thanks for your question!

 

[CadoARAJ]

Dara, congrats for all your poker jov. Very noce and very profitable to me your tips on PS bounty builders tourneys.
Do you play at PS? Can you tell your nickbame? And which are tour favorite ref sat tourneys at PS? A de

 

[Arnakk2424]

When you register for tournaments - what frequency do you unregister from the tournaments and take the T$? If so, what type of fields do you use for T$ money into cash and why?

Thanks for answering the questions - Im a big fan of the 2x shootout hyper satellites, if you tiered satellites, what would you categorise this type of satellite as in terms of long-term bankroll building?

hello Clutch, can you tell me on which rooms you know its possible to get t$ and not a ticket ?
I was a big satellite players 10 years ago but most of the room give you ticket, its nice to have 10x t$215
but not 10x $215 tickets with an expiration date.

If u can add a little comment about 2x shootout, its was my main source of income on sunday. I was doing pretty much all the sunday millions one and the equivalent on FullTilt Poker and Ultimate Bet.

 

[Dara OKearney]

I've recently been playing a quite a few of the 'shootout' satellites on pokerstars. Are there any specific tactics with these that could help?

I feel like my general strategy so far, is to tighten up more than usual 4 handed, but also up the aggression when I do play. One thing I am enjoying is the extra heads up practice I get with these too.

Then if I do win the first shootout to tighten up even more again as the other players can KO themselves quite frequently just when 2 decent hands get dealt. I'm still looking for spots to shove, but also trying to reign it in a bit more than usual, as Top 2 win a ticket and 3rd usually gets almost their money back.
These are only at micro stakes $1 and under.
Thanks

Nothing really to say here other than your strategy seems spot on!

 

[Dara OKearney]

Hi
I currently have 2 of your books (satellite and PKO) but didnt have the time to read the yet.

My question is not really to you but its may be interested to list which poker site allow to "unregister" to get T$ or cash

I was doing a lot of satellite when I was playing for a living like sunday million but a large % of the poker site do not allow it.
On 888poker you have to keep the first one and the second is credited in cash.

I don't grind satellites like I used to so I'm not totally sure what the different policies are but I believe it's as follows:
(1) Sites which issues "tickets" that must be used for target events or other events of similar buyin: ACR, Unibet, Ipoker, Party. Note that these tickets usually have an expiration date
(2) GG allows you to win multiple tickets. First ticket must be used. Subsequent tickets converted to t$ minus the reg fee (so effectively this is extra rake)
(3) Stars insist you use the first ticket and once you have one usually won't allow you to enter another satellite. In the event you do win more than one (because, for example, you were in multiple sites to the same event before you won one and ended up winning more than one), the first must be used, and the others are converted to t$

Hope this helps!

 

[Arnakk2424]

Hello
thanks for the reply
At first the GGPoker policy is close to a scam but I did a few sats lately they have an overlay a lot of the time, so I guess if you are selecting well and know which one have overlay, its can be profitable.

For stars I talked to someone few days ago and he told me, if on the they said Prize Pool = 1 Seat, you can unregister for $T money
If they said ticket, its a ticket.
I haven't tested it yet because I am in unlocking bonus ATM on other rooms atm, but I will try when I move to another room for bonus

On 888poker, you have to keep the first seat and you get $ for the second, etc. But a very high % of there satellites are tickets

 

[Cute Octopussy]

Hello Dara, welcome to Cardschat. It’s a honour for me to read some of your posts and to ask you something.
I really don’t know what to ask, as I have too many questions.
What is the best strategy in knockouts to knockout the most people, I think in this kind of tournament strategy should be quite different from average tournaments.
What range of hands can you advise to play on low limits in the beginning of the satellite or knockout and at top-100?

 

[Dara OKearney]

I will definitely tune into Twitch - thats for recommending that and thank you for replying to my question - your information and thoughts are really beneficial to not just myself but anyone else thinking of taking poker more seriously and looking to have a healthy poker lifestyle away from the tables that can benefit our play.

Best Wishes

Glenn

Thank you very much for such kind comments!

 

[Dara OKearney]

When you register for tournaments - what frequency do you unregister from the tournaments and take the T$? If so, what type of fields do you use for T$ money into cash and why?

Thanks for answering the questions - Im a big fan of the 2x shootout hyper satellites, if you tiered satellites, what would you categorise this type of satellite as in terms of long-term bankroll building?

My general rule of thumb is if I wouldn't play the target tournament if I didn't satellite in, I'll unreg if possible. I treat T$ as normal cash so same rules apply: if I wouldn't buy in with cash I won't with T$.

2x shootouts seem like a good way to build a roll. Good luck!

 

[najisami]

Hey Dara, thank you so much for doing this at CC. Reading the Q&A above turned out to be very useful.
I have a naive question kind of, sorry but I have to ask anyway.
In the first stage of satellites with a hyper structure (my nightmare), do you just keep your cool and play patiently when you are card dead ? or do you start making moves in position ?

 

[Arnakk2424]

I finally got the "trilogy"

 

[Dara OKearney]

Dara, congrats for all your poker jov. Very noce and very profitable to me your tips on PS bounty builders tourneys.
Do you play at PS? Can you tell your nickbame? And which are tour favorite ref sat tourneys at PS? A de

Thank you for your kind comments!

I do play on pokerstars, where my screenname is SlowDoke. I have top admit my favourite satellites there are Splash. They don't run much any more, but back in the day when they were called 3x's, they ran way more frequently and I did very well in them. Very fast structured to the point many think they're just crapshoots, but there are some very specific strategies involved and I like to think the reason I did so well in them was I was the first to figure out those strategies.

 

[Dara OKearney]

Hello
thanks for the reply
At first the GGPoker policy is close to a scam but I did a few sats lately they have an overlay a lot of the time, so I guess if you are selecting well and know which one have overlay, its can be profitable.

For stars I talked to someone few days ago and he told me, if on the they said Prize Pool = 1 Seat, you can unregister for $T money
If they said ticket, its a ticket.
I haven't tested it yet because I am in unlocking bonus ATM on other rooms atm, but I will try when I move to another room for bonus

On 888poker, you have to keep the first seat and you get $ for the second, etc. But a very high % of there satellites are tickets

Thank you, very informative!!

 

[scullkr]

Hi Dara,

Thanks for your ongoing engagement with the forum and answers to my questions so far. I recently had two interesting hands on a bubble and would appreciate your insights. This is the $425+25 $350k GTD on ignition/Bovada. We are currently sitting 11/191 with 189 players paid. These are consecutive hands. I am a recreational player and this is well outside my usual buy in range (we won a ticket, actually 2 tickets for this one- thank you!) but I have played quite a few of these bigger buy ins on Ignition and the play is loose to say the least. A year ago I probably say YOLO and get it in in both these spots. As I study ICM more I find myself going the other way- and my main question here is am I going too far that way. For the record min cash is $793, 1st place is $58442 and ratio between 1st to 5th and 5th to 9th payouts is 4.2.

First hand UTG limps. We have played about 45 hands with him and I have seen him limp call a bit from EP. I've seen one show down where he limp called KJs UTG. I had not seen any limp 3 bets but had seen him play a relatively nutted 3b range in later positions, 3b shoving Button and CO QQ and TT vs MP raises. Although he covered me I perhaps underestimated the chances of me having my stack put at risk in this spot and would normally iso my entire range here. I did not know much about the Button. Flop I decide to bet big for value and protection, but am likely not going 3 streets here depending on the runouts. In retrospect I do recall you discussing using small bets post flop in ICM heavy spots. Once he jams I decide to fold. There is probably some KQ there but TT and 55 certainly possibilities. KJs might be there but I block some Jx (I don't know if KJo/QJo is in the limp range). Ultimately I decide that the A clubs was not a good card for me as it removed a lot of bluffs although even if I had AJhh I'm not sure I have the equity I need here close to the bubble.


Ignition - 1500/3000 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP+2: 32,830
CO: 49,620
BTN: 130,057
SB: 130,624
BB: 123,716
UTG: 229,906
Hero (UTG+1): 157,005
MP: 37,416
MP+1: 92,706

9 players post ante of 300, SB posts SB 1,500, BB posts BB 3,000

Pre Flop: (pot: 7,200) Hero has A♣ J♠

UTG calls 3,000, Hero raises to 12,000, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 12,000, fold, fold, UTG calls 9,000

Flop: (43,200, 3 players) 5♣ J♣ T♠
UTG checks, Hero bets 35,400, fold, UTG raises to 217,606 and is all-in, fold

UTG wins 114,000