One-table satellites can be extremely valuable, not only as learning tools, but also as money savers, especially if you're on a limited budget. In big buy-in tournaments such as Bellagio's Five-Star World Poker Classic or the World Series of Poker, where the buy-ins are $1,500 and more, your participation in a tournament is often determined to a certain extent by how well you do in the one-table satellites.
In fact, one-table satellites have become so important and such good potential money savers – or moneymakers – that there are many players who show up for the tournaments and play almost nothing but one-table satellites. Quite often, they sell the tournament chips that they win, sometimes at a slight discount or to friends who will pay full value for them. These satellite specialists play very few regular tournaments, or even none at all. Tournament after tournament, they are able to make a good profit from their satellite play.
Winning satellites requires a special set of skills. Accumulating chips early and taking a few risks that might cause you to bust out is quite often an acceptable strategy. If you can win one out of four satellites that you enter, it doesn't matter if you bust out of the other three very early and very quickly. If you're able to win about 25 percent of the time, you can make a very good profit, and there are players who are able to average that or close to it.
In the limit satellites, no matter what the game is (hold'em, stud, high-low split, Omaha), I believe that taking a few risks in the first round of play is quite often the correct thing to do. Multiway pots are common in the first round of one-table satellites. If you win one of them and then immediately adopt a more conservative approach, you will have an excellent chance of wading through at least half the starters at the satellite table, thus putting yourself in good position the rest of the way.
Aggressive tactics are almost mandatory for success in one-table satellites. A little bit of gamble in select situations also is necessary. For example, when several people have already entered the pot, limping in with a couple of suited connectors in hold'em in the first round of the satellite is quite correct. What you're trying to do is hit that one big multiway pot. After you win it, your strategy is to cease gambling; play only solid cards and play position properly, a tactic that can add significantly to your results.
One of the biggest mistakes that I see many satellite players make is gambling very early and winning a nice pot that adds 50 percent or more to their stacks, and then continuing to gamble with marginal hands. They jeopardize their chip positions instead of just maintaining their stacks and waiting until a few players are eliminated, at which time they can better use their above-average chip positions as the weapons they are designed to be. It is easier to attack the blinds and to use other aggressive tactics when there are fewer players to contest each pot. Actually, the fewer players there are remaining, the more aggressive you have to be, if you enter a pot at all.
A lot of dealmaking goes on in satellites, but you usually have to wait until you're heads up. For example, if you're heads up in a $120 buy-in hold'em satellite with a $1,000 seat at stake, splitting it on a percentage basis according to chips is often the proper thing to do. Or, if you're playing for a $1,500 seat in a satellite that costs $175 and you're down to two players, you can each take one $500 chip and play for the third one, a practice that is quite acceptable. Remember that even with a split, you're still making a profit. The cardinal rule of poker is, "You'll never go broke taking a profit," so hedging is an acceptable way to do business.
Of course, nothing says that you have to make a deal if you would rather gamble on winning the whole thing, or if you have a superior chip position. Or, maybe you have an inferior chip position but your opponent gives you a very good settlement. In this case, it may be in your best interest to accept a deal. A deal doesn't necessarily have to be totally fair: If you can get the best of it, take it. Many times, just splitting a satellite and getting into the tournament for half-price may be the way to go because you've accomplished your satellite mission, getting a discount on your buy-in.
Here's one word of caution: If you've decided in advance that you're going to play one or two of the events in a tournament no matter how you do in the satellites, do not stretch your budget by playing too many satellites. It can be very unprofitable if you play six or seven satellites for an event, fail to win any of them, and then buy in anyway. You're investing too much time and money in that tournament. When you are on a limited budget, you must stick to it. Always remember that the real money to be made is not in the satellites; the big money is in the tournament itself. With several big buy-in tournaments right around the corner, I hope to see you at the final table.
Author's note: I am pleased to announce my affiliation with PokerStars.com, an outstanding online poker site. The weekly tournament points leader at PokerStars gets to play me a $1,000 freeroll in the game of his choice. These heads-up matches are held every Sunday at noon Pacific time. If I win the match, the following week's winner gets to play me for $2,000, and so on.
Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker, available through Card Player, where you will find more satellite strategies.