Best Poker Sites for Satellite Tournaments

Satellite poker tournaments are no brainers for online players. These events give you the ability to win seats into larger events that you normally aren't bankrolled for. This includes qualifiers to the World Series of Poker, EPT, and WPT to name a few. Satellite tournaments aren't just for land based events. Many of the top online poker sites offer satellites for just about any regular scheduled tournament, which means you can win your way into million dollar guarantees for a fraction of the cost.

What is a Satellite Tournament?

A satellite tournament is essentially a qualifier to a bigger event. Online poker sites offering satellite tournaments will usually provide satellites for their regular tournaments, especially those with large buy-ins and prize pools. You'll also find satellite tournaments for land based events, like the 2011 WSOP or the 2011 Irish Poker Open. satellite tournaments are available for a fraction of the price of the large event. An example of this is Chris MoneyMaker's WSOP seat, which he won in a $40 satellite at PokerStars. The payout structure differs a bit from your typical tournament. In a satellite tournament, the tournament normally pays only the top players based on the number of entrants. Suppose a satellite tournament cost $10 and would award a seat into a $100 tournament. The tournament would award one seat for every 10 participants, and any remaining cash would be paid out according to the normal tournament payout schedule. Poker rooms that have frequent satellites, such as Pokerstars and Full Tilt will also provide players tiered satellite tournaments. This means you can enter into various stages of the satellite all at a different cost.

Satellite Tournament Strategy

Satellite poker tournaments are one of the best ways to get into a big tournament without having to pay a big entry fee. In satellite tournaments, players generally battle for entry into another tournament, as opposed to a regular tournament where the prize is simply cash. Since the payouts for 1st place to the bubble are often the same, a different strategy needs to be applied. There is little use in going for 1st place if it is not going to earn you anything more than the last place to get paid. Of course, there is a big difference in playing to cash and playing to win, especially in a satellite tournament. A lot of players think “I only need to min cash in order to win,” and while this is definitely true, it can make life quite difficult when a short stack is developed. Satellite tournaments should be approached in almost the same way as any other poker tournament, with the main difference being that the aim is to merely cash vs. to actually finish at the top.

Playing to Win

Playing to win is a misleading concept in satellite tournaments. A win is defined as anything that gets paid, where in a normal tournament a win is defined as finishing ahead of anyone else. Think about the last person who gets paid as first place. Your goal should always be to have a fairly large lead over the rest of the competition, but you don’t need to take any big risks that might jeopardize your odds of cashing at all. A lot of times in normal tournaments a player needs to go all in with somewhat marginal chances of winning. In a satellite tournament, however, this is about the worst strategy in existence. You should always be looking for opportunities to add to your stack with the most minimal risk possible. Obviously this is something that can be said for any type of tournament, but it is particularly applicable in satellite tournaments.

If you have ever played in a sit and go tournament, you know what it means to play for the min cash. Sit and go strategies can largely be carried over to satellite tournaments. You need to play for “one of” the top spots in the field vs. “the” top spot in the field. The difference between sit and gos and satellite tournaments, however, is that your payout will be higher if you finish higher. In a satellite tournament you will get just about the same payout as anyone else who finishes in the money. Take consideration of sit and go play when you are in a satellite tournament, but don’t consider it the be all end all strategy.

A lot of players tend to over think the strategy that is actually required for satellite tournament success. When you think about it, satellite tournaments should be infinitely easier to succeed in than regular tournaments with standard payouts. Since you don’t have to worry about winning big coin flips to win the most in the tournament, your variance is greatly reduced and it is much easier to come out profitable. Don’t take unnecessary or stupid risks when you are in satellite events and you should find that cashing is that much easier. There really isn’t much more to it.