How Many One-Table Satellites Should You Play? By Brad Daugherty, Guest Columnist, and Tom McEvoy

Let me ask you this question, Tom: How does it affect your emotional state when you start your tournament day by playing a satellite or two and you lose?

"When I know for sure that I'm going to play a tournament whether or not I win a seat for it, I don't want to play more than one satellite, two at the most. Losing a satellite just before I start playing a tournament puts me in a bad frame of mind," Tom McEvoy answered. "Of course, if I'm fortunate enough to win, it's the other way around. I'm elated, my confidence is high, and my morale is boosted. However, if I'm not planning to play the tournament if I don't win a seat, it doesn't affect me one way or the other, except that I'm disappointed."

Tom and I both prefer playing a satellite or two the day before a tournament that we know we're going to play anyway. That way, we can come in fresh the next day with a new frame of mind, after a good night's sleep and some time to shrug off a satellite loss.

In 1991, I played two one-table satellites the morning of the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker championship event. I got heads up in both of them and got drawn out on both times. I tried to make a deal with one of my heads-up opponents, a guy from Australia who had to pay 30 percent in taxes on his tournament wins. He had more chips that I, so I offered him a really good deal, 40 percent of me in the "Big One." He could've done extremely well if he'd taken my deal, but instead, he won the seat, which ended up netting him about $7,000 after taxes. Since I was the first $1 million winner at the WSOP, he would have won around $400,000 if he had taken the deal. But here's my main point: After two satellite defeats, I was so deflated that I almost decided not to play. Luckily, at the last moment I went ahead and bought in to the tournament. In fact, I was the last player to buy in to the 1991 World Series of Poker championship event. Fortunately, I also was the last player with chips at the final table.

You don't want to play too many satellites for a tournament, because you might burn yourself out for the day. I suggest no more than two or three. If you play more than that, instead of a $1,000 buy-in tournament costing you $1,060, it's going to cost you one and a half times that amount if you don't win a seat. You want to avoid overinvesting in satellites.

Usually, I will allot a certain amount of money to play satellites. Suppose that I budget enough to play 10 satellites during the entire tournament. I can play all 10 satellites in one day or I might decide that as soon as I win one, I'll quit for that day, pay my buy-in for the tournament I want to play, and go home.

Tom believes that if you're going to play a tournament whether or not you win a satellite for it, you should play only two satellites. If you're not going to play the tournament if you don't win a seat for it, the maximum number of satellites you should play is three, or possibly four.

Just remember that if you decide to play a total of 10 satellites, you need to budget about 10 percent to 15 percent more money in today's economic conditions than you would have a decade ago. Of course, you hope that the tournament you're going to enter when you win your satellite seat will have 10 percent to 15 percent more entrants than it had 10 years ago. In fact, many of today's bigger buy-in tournaments have doubled in size, especially no-limit hold'em events.

The online satellite system has given players many more opportunities to practice their no-limit hold'em game. We also believe that Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em has played a major part in the expansion of no-limit tournaments by helping readers to overcome the fear of playing no-limit poker. I've noticed that whereas players used to be more timid in their play, they're not afraid to put their money in these days and mix it up. The irony is that limit hold'em used to be the most popular satellite and tournament game. That has changed: Today, everybody seems to want to play no-limit hold'em.

With just the right combination of skill and luck, Tom and I hope to meet you at the final table one day soon.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy and Brad Daugherty are the co-authors of Championship Satellite Strategy, due out in September. You can play poker with Tom McEvoy online at www.PokerStars.com. McEvoy's other books include Tournament Poker and Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em (with co-author T.J. Cloutier), which are available through Card Player. Visit www.pokerbooks.com for full details.