Satellite Observation(s)

[Andyreas]

Hey forum,

I'd like to discuss a few things I noticed about satellites, mainly the low buy-in Sunday Million Satelittes for just $1.1 and a potential ticket to the $109 tourney.

I joined this satie during off-peak hours and there was just a GTD of 2 tickets. My main intention was to win a ticket to the Embrace the Race freeroll where you can win more than 150 tickets.

When I joined this satellite had about 20 players and starting stacks was about 15-20 BBs. My first idea was:
Actual Prize Pool will never reach the 218$.

I quickly gained chips by shoving the right hands and calling the worst bluffs (lol).

My first observation was that the Rebuy phase is ridiculously long: until a double rebuy only gives you around 1BB. But people still kept doing that when there were less than 10 players.
This ended up boosting the prize pool to $266 in the end, giving finishers 3-4 a nice payoff of $22 and the 5th place around 5$.

I finished 4th when my JJ bumped into 55 and he hit a 5 but I took the $20 win and was happy. ☺️

When I tried my luck once again, I saw another player from the previous satellite. I checked and he won a ticket already. So I was wondering what he was doing and figured he probably tried to win a ticket again which would bring him $109 tourney money. 😱

So I figured some people play the Saties for the prize pool since the potential win is 100x the buy-in and there's around 50-60 players in off-peak hours.

What's you opinion on that? Can that be profitable? 🤔

I sharkscoped this player and he played 4 saties with a few rebuys and won the main prize twice, giving him a profit of around $200. 😱

 

[BelFish]

It is at least profitable to play once a week to win a ticket to an expensive $25K freeroll.

By the way, one day i could not find satellites for $1.1, but they were only for $2.2. This was after i got my first freeroll ticket by playing a $1.1 satellite. And i thought that they no longer hold satellites for $1.1, but only for $2.2. But, judging by your post, they still exist

And whether it is profitable to grind these satellites is an interesting question...

It all depends on the prize pool, whether there is an overlay, and also on the average skill of the participants.

It may well be that a good overlay comes out not at peak hours, and also that the skill of the participants is not very high...

 

[fundiver199]

My first observation was that the Rebuy phase is ridiculously long: until a double rebuy only gives you around 1BB. But people still kept doing that when there were less than 10 players.

888 Poker also have some R+A satellites with this kind of structure, and in my opinion they are a bit of a "trap". It looks like, you are only going to spend a few dollars, but in order to get to the add-on break you might end up rebuying so many times, that now it was actually a $22 satellite rather than a $1,1 satellite. And what looked like a sure overlay usually fail to happen

 

[Andyreas]

It is at least profitable to play once a week to win a ticket to an expensive $25K freeroll.

Totally agree. Unfortunately I often forget to play or opt-in before. 🤦🏻

But, judging by your post, they still exist

My feeling is that PS adjust the amount of satellites based on the current player pool.
I've seen with the WCCOP 01-L event that they expander the schedule quite a lot just a few days before the tourney.
But yes, for the moment they exist. 🤓

and in my opinion they are a bit of a "trap"

Absolutely, a clever idea by the poker sites.

but in order to get to the add-on break you might end up rebuying so many times

Indeed, and once you get there, you only get like 5BBs which is also a ridiculously low amount. 😅

 

[fundiver199]

Absolutely, a clever idea by the poker sites.

A bit to "clever" in my opinion. If I am to try to satellite into the $109 Sunday Million, I would much rather do it by playing something more honest like a $11 satellite with a reasonable structure. Luckily those also excist, so people just need to be aware of the structure of the event, they are bying into

 

[Andyreas]

A bit to "clever" in my opinion. If I am to try to satellite into the $109 Sunday Million, I would much rather do it by playing something more honest like a $11 satellite with a reasonable structure. Luckily those also excist, so people just need to be aware of the structure of the event, they are bying into

Very reasonable indeed. 🤓

There's still a small chance you can get in as cheap as for $1.1 but you have to be quite lucky to do that. If I'd won the JJ hand, I'd have been very close but that's life/poker. 😅

For all those players not so clever as you, there's those kind of satellites. And if there are not very clever they'll rebuy and rebuy until
they've spent much more than the $11 and might even not win the ticket. 😶

I guess for the Poker sites it's just about providing as many possibilities for players to spend their money on, be it with reasonable structures or by sort of "trappy" ones. 😅

 

[wavetune]

Andyreas​

of course, it is profitable to play these tournaments with a ticket already in hand, game $ 100 can be spent on entering another expensive tournament or playing a Sunday million in 7 days
and to understand when it is profitable, you need to play during rush hours and when there are few people, maybe during rush hours the field is weaker, although it is always more comfortable when there are fewer participants

 

[Luvepoker]

while I have never tried this, I have read that they can be profitable to play if you want to go that route. Some site tho wont allow you to win more than one ticket to a event so you cant take advantage of the satellites. Fundiver comment is spot on. Its better to play a satellite with a reasonable structure over some of the shallow ones with all the re buys and add on over a long period.

 

[BelFish]

I think that the structure is not particularly important, but the most important is the strategy of the game. The fact that the structure is fast only determines the variance, but all players are on an equal footing and if a significant part of the players play incorrectly, they will "give" part of the EV to those who play correctly. And it is necessary to play correctly in this sat-s with a very tight push/fold, without any add-ons.

 

[D0nk3y Hunt3r]

On GGpoker, especially for the lowest stakes, there are strange, sometimes having very little to do with poker, variations as satellites, I registered to few of them and noone came (around $1 entries).

 

[Yermek]

For many tournaments now it is impossible to unregister if you go there through a satellite. If you hit twice, you will be credited with $109 in tournament money.