Satellites - how best to play them

Hello all.

I have been playing poker for 9 months now and I want to up the stakes.

I enjoy MTT and I was wondering if you guys have any tips on the best way to win your way into the big tournys (WSOP main event, Aussie millions, etc, etc)

What I mean is what levels would you start? Daily sats or buy into the weekly/ monthly.

I hope you guys understand what I`m getting at!!!

I don`t expect the answer, but an idea of your experiences and tips on improving the odds.

Ronaldadio

I read a piece on this by a pro in a magazine. Can`t remember which magazine, probably still got it here somewhere. Anyway, the key points were:

1) Enter at a buyin level easily affordable from your bankroll. Higher up obviously makes eventual success easier, but you won`t play well if you`re worrying too much about how much money you invested in the satellite.

2) Look for satellites where 10% (or more) of the field qualify for the next level. Some offer cheaper entry and have a larger field for fewer places. These are a bad deal because they are too luck-dependent.

3) Be prepared to enter four or five times to qualify. This still means you will have paid half or less of what it would have cost you to buyin at the higher level.

4) If you enter five times and still fail, this tourney is too tough for you. Find an easier one and/or work on improving your game.

I dont think there is anything to add to this list.

Thanks for that guys.

So, you are saying, within reason, that your aim is to buy in to the next level at half price via a sat? So, if to get into the weekly final table it was gonna cost say $200, be prepared to speculate $100?

I appreciate you will have to take other things into account, such as size of prize, etc.

Ronaldadio

Be prepared to speculate no more than $100 for absolute sure.

Realistically I'd say less (more like 20-30% of the buy-in as a max.), and obviously at all times, within your bankroll.

Agreed.

Think of it this way:

Suppose your $200 buyin final has Level 1 satellites for $20, and Level 2 satellites for $2.

You could buyin at Level 1, if that was comfortable for you. In which case your aim would be to qualify within 5 attempts, for a maximum of $100.

Or, you could buyin at Level 2, and make up to 5 attempts to reach Level 1, expending up to $10. Having qualified, if you failed to progress to the final you would go back to the beginning and repeat the whole process up to 4 times more. In this case, your maximum outlay would be only $50 total, but you might stand to invest considerably more time.

In both cases, you would hope to qualify in fewer than the maximum number of efforts, which would reduce your expenditure accordingly.

I hope that makes sense. Sounds very complex when written out like this, but the principle is simple. Of course, in the real world, the sums are usually not this straightforward, and there are fees to be considered.

satellite is to tournament, as spam is to ham

Hey I can advertise myself, cool
I started a thread about MTT satellites some months ago:
MTT satellite strategy
I also want to make it to a live tourney, but with smaller buy-in.
I had 3 Online final recently none of them was succesful...
(Well I didn't lose much, I guess that 6$ was worth to play in the 300$ tourney - 2 daily 3$ games -> weekly -> final)
I like when 1 in 10 goes to the next level. To me it doesn't make much sense when 463 is fighting for 1 package...
I know someone who won a 8K package by playing a pokerlistings private satellite freeroll. He had to deposit 20$, play 250 hands, and there were only 10 (!) people fighting for the 8K free package... And he won, yippie.
Anyway, don't give up, and don't buy-in directly for online finals if you can't afford it, play satellites, and as you play them you will become better! Just practice. Good luck!

I'll pimp Bolcs and his post on satellites from a few months back - satellites really aren't that bad if you have any clue as to what you're doing.

You may need to play in super-sat's to have a shot at a "major" on a short bankroll. The problem with sat's is often they only pay 1-seat, and man, it's tough to take first!

I've had good success in the sat's that have a lot of places that pay the same thing, such as 1-9th are for a seat. GL