Decent article on Satellite strategy

Daithio

Thought this was pretty useful. Alot of it is mainly common sense but it's still probably worth reading.

http://www.pokerineurope.com/pokerarticles/detail.php?articleid=925

Rb

Well worth the read, despite the tiny text.

marius

Daithio wrote:

Thought this was pretty useful. Alot of it is mainly common sense but it's still probably worth reading.

http://www.pokerineurope.com/pokerarticles/detail.php?articleid=925

Blocked in work - any chance someone could post the text?

peeko

good read, thanks for the link

peeko

marius wrote:

Blocked in work - any chance someone could post the text?

Here ya go

Poker Articles
Super Satellite Strategy
Andy Ward
02 Nov 2006

online As with Single Table Tournaments, it's the payout structure that determines how you diverge from "normal" strategy in a super satellite.

In my STT pro tip I assumed that most people have a basic idea and talked about some more interesting concepts. In this case, however, I am going to talk about the basics because in my experience of playing super-satellites online, many players have no clue whatsoever and seem to play without simple common sense, never mind poker strategy!

As I said, the payout stucture determines the strategy. In fact this is always the case with any tournament-style game. The basic idea with a super-satellite is that the prize money is divided equally according to how many seats to the target tournament are on offer. So if there are 75 entrants in a $10 satellite for a $100 tournament, then 7 seats will be awarded with $50 to spare (7 x $100 + $50 = $750). The "spare" money is usually given to the next place (8th in this case), but sometimes there's a different arrangement - make sure you know what it is before you start. The key to strategy is, of course, that 7th place pays exactly the same as 1st. In practice the tournament will end when only 7 players remain, but if one player has 50,000 chips and one has 3,000 at this point, they both win the same prize.

Your first task is to work out how many chips you need to accumulate before you can think about survival. In the example given, if each player starts with 1500 chips then the average chip stack at the end of the super-satellite will be 15,000. You don't need to worry about the number of entries to work this out - all you need to know is that 1/10 of the field will win a seat ($10/$100), and so the average finishing stack will be 10 x 1500 = 15,000. Any time you have 15,000 chips or more, you have "enough" to win the seat. In practice, if you have 10,000 you will be in great shape, allowing for the fact that some players will accumulate more than the required 15K. A useful rule of thumb in the early and middle stages of the super is that when you have half the "end of tournament average", you can think about tightening up and protecting what you have. Up until that point, however, you will need more chips and you should play a "normal" game.

However the real adjustments come into play in the latter stages of the tournament. Once the remaining number of players is less than twice the number of seats on offer, you should keep a careful eye on where you stand (most sites show the current chip standings in order in the Tournament Lobby). In our example, this would be 14 players or less. The first (and probably most important) point to remember is that when you are lower than 7th in the standings, you are unlikely to be able to fold your way to the seat. You should not allow yourself to be blinded away too far when you are below the "cut-off point" (7th in this case). You must take your stand while you have enough chips to put some pressure on your opponents. Frequently I see players "blinded off" until they have to commit their chips when it's easy for several opponents to call them down. This is a big mistake. When you're below the cut-off and short on chips, look to make a stand as the aggressor as soon as you can.

The trickiest situation can be when you're just above the "cut-off". In our example, suppose you are 6th in chips with 13 players left. It's not wise to completely "rock up", unless the bottom 4 or 5 players are very short-stacked (keep an eye on the lobby). Remember that as each player is knocked out, his chips are going to increase someone else's stack. If you tighten up too much you could easily drop to say, 8th out of 9 and be under pressure. At this point, you should be "ducking and diving", trying to steal pots and pressure the shorter stacks. As in my STT tip, put yourself in the other player's shoes. Is he trying to survive? Or ready to make a stand? Don't forget that most of the other players are just as concerned about elimination as you are. Make raises and bets that are just big enough to do the job. Resist the temptation to over-bet because "I don't want callers", especially pre-flop. If you gauge the size of the raise properly, you won't be called or raised unless someone has a big hand. And when they do have a big hand, you'll be glad you didn't commit too many chips.

When should you consider yourself to be safe enough to go into "auto-fold" mode? Suppose there are 10 players left in our example. This means three still need to be eliminated. If you're more than 3 (the number of players to be eliminated) places ahead of the "cut-off", then you're looking good, that is here if you're in the top 3. This depends on stack sizes to an extent and while you always have to adapt to each new situation, this is a spot where you don't want to put all your chips in against a similar or bigger stack with anything less than AA, and even AA can be folded. I do think it's advisable not to "sit out" though, as if you stay "at the table", you will take down some uncontested pots in the big blind.

Always remember what you're trying to do. You don't need to win the tournament - you need to win a seat. That's the core assumption that defines how you play. A couple of final points. If you're in a super-satellite that only pays one place, then none of the above applies! You need to win all the chips. Survival is pointless. If the super pays 2 or 3 places, or has a higher runners to seats ratio (like 1 in 100), then once again, you need to accumulate a lot of chips and survival should be far from your mind until the very end. Finally I would like to mention the practice of "stalling", that is deliberately wasting time in a multi-table situation, hoping that players will bust out of the other table before you. I never do this in a standard payout tournament. You might be surprised to hear that I very rarely do it in a super. If you're a short stack, below the cut-off, stalling simply gives you fewer hands to make your stand with, and ensures that the blinds increase quicker (on a per-round basis). If you're a medium or large stack, you are simply wasting time that you could be using to outplay your weaker opponents, steal small pots etc. And perhaps most of all, whatever your stack size, stalling is effectively painting a target on your own head which says "Please steal my blind, I'm just trying to waste time". Think very hard about what you're trying to achieve before playing the "stall" card. Always think about what you're trying to achieve and you'll be well ahead of most of the field in on-line super-satellites.