If You Guarantee It, They Will Come

In the last few years, poker tournament prize pools have been getting larger and larger. Of course, there are more players and the buy-ins are higher for many events. Lately, casinos have put guarantees on a few events, which seems to be beneficial for the event, the players, and the casino. Some players aren't sure if it is worth it to fly across the country to a tournament, because they don't know how many people will be in attendance. This is also a problem for supersatellites. Most major tournaments hold supersatellites as a cheap way for players to get into their championship events.

The most successful supersatellite system is at the World Series of Poker, which awards several seats every night during the month-long tournament. Some Los Angeles casinos are now offering best-overall point awards to the players who do the best in supersatellites. This too has been enormously successful in getting players into the casinos, even before noon at times. Some casinos still are having problems giving away seats early in a tournament. Some players believe they don't need to play in supersatellites until it gets close to the event. And some players think it is easier to win a seat when it gets closer to the end of a tournament because more people play, so there will be more seats given away.

I disagree with this thinking. Sometimes in the big events, some of the superstars come in for the last week when the buy-ins are higher. Thus, the competition may be a little tougher near the end of a tournament. I think the best time to win a seat is when you are playing well, and are confident, alert, and feeling lucky. So, it doesn't matter if that is at the beginning of the tournament or during its last few days.

This brings me to my opinion of how to run the best supersatellite. I think that guaranteeing at least one seat for the championship event is the way to go. How many times have you played in a supersatellite during one of the first few days of a tournament and not even one seat was given away because there weren't enough players? This happens all the time. Well, a guarantee will change that. Players will come if they know at least one person will qualify for the championship event. This was proven recently.

The Sands in Atlantic City has a small poker room that it's trying to make successful. It is hosting the first annual Million Dollar Deal poker tournament in November. The championship event doesn't even take place until Nov. 22. But, the Sands ran its first supersatellite a couple of weeks ago (and will run them every weekend) and had a $14,000 prize pool three months before the tournament will be held. How did they do it? They guaranteed at least one $10,000 seat for the championship event.