As I've mentioned in some of my previous
Card Player columns, things haven't been going too well for me this year in live tournaments. That being said, I recently decided to spend some time playing live supersatellites for main events. Satellites are a great way to save money by getting into events cheaply. The fields are usually very soft, and I expect that I can have anywhere from a 125 percent to 175 percent return on investment in the long term by playing them. I've won satellites into the 2006
Legends of Poker, Foxwoods Poker Classic, Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, Mirage Poker Showdown, and the
Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, all of which are
World Poker Tour events. There is never a shortage of satellites at event venues, so I'd like to share some strategies that I hope will help you parlay a satellite buy-in into a big-money finish in a main event.
Supersatellites are almost always one-tenth of the buy-in of the main event, so approximately one out of 10 entrants will win a seat in the main event. In the supers that I've played, the structures seemed to be decent early, but really got fast after a couple of hours. I like to play a pretty tight, snug style for the first couple of levels. There are weak players who just seem to spew chips early, so I like to just wait for big hands and let them pay me off. Once the blinds get up to around the $100-$200 and $200-$400 levels, it is time to start making some moves. I think it is very important to accumulate chips at this stage of the tournament. This isn't a normal tournament, so lots of players are just trying to stick around to make it to the top 10 percent of the field. They are less likely to defend their blinds, and you can really put yourself in a great situation to get a seat if you have a big stack early. With about 15 percent of the field remaining, some very, very interesting spots come up. I believe that if you have a below-average stack at this point in the tournament, it is essential that you play very aggressively. People just don't put their money in with big hands at this stage of the tournament, especially if they already have enough chips to lock up a seat. When I am short-stacked at this stage of the tournament, I always pick out the players who I think are least likely to defend their blinds, and I attack them. Usually, that's a player with a ton of chips who can coast into a seat, or a player who is right on the fence but isn't really in a hurry to get involved in pots. Far too often, I see players just sit back and blind their way out of satellites. It is painful to watch, because they miss so many opportunities to move in and take down the very significant blinds.
There are actually times in satellites when it is correct to fold A-A before the flop, believe it or not. If you have a stack that will get you a seat without even playing a hand, it makes no sense to play even A-A. There was an interesting situation in a satellite at the
Mirage Poker Showdown, in which I had a huge stack and found Q-Q in the big blind but folded for one raise from a player with an average stack. There are some tough ethics situations I've found in these satellites, however. I remember a situation in which I had a bunch of chips on the bubble of a
Five-Diamond World Poker Classic satellite. A player moved in for a few chips when I was in the big blind. I had 7-3 offsuit, but was getting around 4-1 odds to call. While it is definitely correct for me to fold in satellites and not jeopardize any more of my chips, I still felt somewhat obligated to the other players to make the call to try to eliminate the all-in player. I've also seen players leave the table when they have enough chips to win a seat. I think that this is probably out of line, because it invites the first short stack to enter the pot on an easy blind steal, which I think is unfair to the other players on the bubble.
I hope this helps a little bit. There are many great stories of people winning their way into events cheaply and parlaying it into millions, so I hope it happens for you!
Shannon Shorr is a professional poker player from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He finished fourth in the Card Player 2006 Player of the Year race. You can follow his progress at shannonshorr.com, or e-mail him with questions at [email protected].
