Satellite Poker Tournaments

One of the more popular online poker tournaments is the satellite tournament. Online satellite poker tournaments are actually mini-tournaments that get you into a bigger poker tournament. The buy-in is much smaller in the satellite than the big tournament and that is the main reason that people want to play these events. Many of the satellite poker tournaments offer great value and give the average player a chance to get into the big marquee tournament.

What do you need to know when playing in a satellite poker tournament?
The first thing you need to be aware of is that these tournaments take a lot of time to play. You are not going to be done in just an hour or so. Many of these tournaments can take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours to complete. You should also know that you are probably not going to win these tournaments. For the average player your chances of winning the tournament are probably 100-1 or more. Even good players have chances that are not very good. It is not easy to win a big poker tournament even if you are a great poker player. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play, it is just something to be aware of.

How do you improve your chances for winning one of these satellite poker tournaments? The first tip is to be aggressive. You just can’t sit back and wait very long. You don’t have to immediately take chances in the early rounds but you must take chances somewhere. The reason you have to take a shot and be aggressive is that to win one of these events you have to get a stack big enough to survive. Some players are going to play very carefully trying to survive, while others will be taking huge chances in these tournaments. Identifying these types of players is very important to you. You also want to remember that the bigger your stack, the more power you have over the table. The big stack wields power and you must get one to have a realistic chance to win.

You also want to remember that some of these satellite poker tournaments will be re-buy tournaments and those are different in the sense that players take a lot more chances. So many players go all-in trying for the big stacks. If you are in one of these tourneys remember that you have to take more chances because the stacks at the end are going to be larger because of all the re-buys.

Remember some of these points the next time you play in an online satellite poker tournament. Set aside enough time to play, remember to be aggressive and identify the types of players you encounter at the table. These things should help your chances to win.

---

Bryon Badd, Gambling911.com

Originally published March 15, 2007 10:13 pm ET