Free Poker Satellite Tournaments

Satellite tournaments provide a great way for regular online poker players to qualify for events of a far bigger profile, and typically with a far bigger prize pot on offer. Some online real money poker satellites offer pathways to bigger Internet hosted events, while other satellite qualifiers are routes into land-based poker tournaments. Satellite tourneys made a spectacular debut to the online poker scene many years ago. Many of the world's premier poker players have made their mark on the game through online satellites. Take Chris Moneymaker for instance – he qualified for the WSOP through an online poker satellite, and won the Main Event in 2003. Poker satellites allow you to qualify or big buy-in tournament events, both live and online.This section of the site gives you all the strategy knowledge and information you need to locate – and beat – these qualifiers at the leading poker sites.

You started playing online with a deposit of $500. Through study, hard work, and careful bankroll management, you've grown your poker bankroll to $5,000. When playing large-field multi-table poker tournaments (MTTs), you've decided on a bankroll management strategy that requires you to have at least 200 times the buy-in in your bankroll to enter a tournament. That means you're now playing $20 MTTs on a regular basis and occasionally taking shots with buy-ins as large as $50 if the field is small (you'll have lower variance in small-field tournaments) or the opportunity looks especially profitable.

Meanwhile, the regularly scheduled MTTs at your local brick-and-mortar casino are beyond your means, so you haven't paid them much attention. But you recently received an advertisement in the mail for a special $430+$50 tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000. It sounds exciting, but it's so far outside of your bankroll that you can't seriously consider playing it.

Then you notice that the casino will be running satellites in the weeks running up to the event. A satellite tournament is a qualifying event that serves to offer players a less expensive opportunity to enter a bigger buy-in event. Satellite winners usually win the buy-in to a larger tournament. The satellites at the local casino will include daily $40+$10 events where one out of every 12 players who enter will win a seat in the main event. You've taken shots in $50 MTTs before, and you know that these will have far smaller and softer fields than what you encounter online.

Time to start grinding the satellites, right? Not so fast.

What Makes Satellite Poker Tournaments Attractive?

Many players are drawn to satellites because they seem to put exciting, high buy-in events within the reach of smaller-stakes players. Like the promises of medieval alchemists to turn water into gold, this seems too good to be true because it is. Satellites enable poker players to deceive themselves about the true cost of entering a tournament, but if you're trying to be diligent about bankroll management, then you can't afford to fall for this trap.

When you enter a satellite, you aren't buying an entry into the target tournament. You are buying a chance at an entry into the target tournament. Here, you can either buy a seat in the main event for $480, or you can buy a 1-in-12 shot at a seat in the main event for $50. A little multiplication ($50 x 12) demonstrates that playing the satellites is functionally equivalent to paying $600 for a seat in the main event. Not only is that far beyond your bankroll, but it's quite a bit more than you'd pay if you bought in directly.

That difference is the 25-percent rake you're paying in the satellites. The rake is the commission fee taken by a card room when operating a poker game. The rake is the card room charging the poker players a fee for hosting the game. It is most commonly taken from each pot, and it usually ranges from 2-10 percent, with a predetermined cap on the maximum amount.

Now, in actuality, your chances of winning a seat in the satellite are probably better than 1-in-12. Let's say that you're so much better than the local competition that you can expect to win a seat in one of every eight satellites you enter. In that case, entering via satellite means you're paying $400 for your seat — a nice discount compared to buying in directly, but still far more than your bankroll can justify.

The Problem with Satellite Poker Tournaments

The problem with satellites is that when you win, they don't pay you in cash, they pay you something that is worth much less than cash to you, which is entry in a different poker tournament. How do we know that entry in this tournament is worth less to you than its face value in cash? Because you have $480 in cash, yet you are (wisely) choosing not to exchange it for an entry in the tournament.

Winning $480 in a satellite doesn't magically make it a good idea for you to buy into a $480 tournament any more than winning $480 in any other tournament (or inheriting $480, for that matter) would. If you win the satellite, your bankroll is $430 bigger than it was before, but still not nearly large enough to justify entering this tournament. The problem is that, although some winning satellites tickets can be sold or transferred, most require you to play the bigger event.

If you're able to sell the seat at face value, as can be done online or at the World Series of Poker, then it's a different story. (Technically the tournament lammers used to pay satellite winners at the WSOP are not supposed to be exchanged for cash, but in practice it takes very little effort to sell them for face value.) Playing the satellites themselves could be a good idea, though you still wouldn't be advised to enter the target tournament. Instead, cash out your seat, rinse, and repeat.

Making Quality Use of Your Time

Finally, remember that satellites require time and money that could be invested elsewhere. If you are adequately bankrolled for the $480 tournament, you'd probably be better off buying in directly than playing the satellites, even though you'd have a positive expectation in the satellites. This is because, instead of wasting your time on a $50 MTT, you should be using that time to play larger buy-in tournaments where you'll have a higher hourly rate.

Satellites don't create money out of thin air. They are like any other poker tournament except that they structure their payouts in a unique way. If you're dead set on playing a tournament outside of your bankroll, then play it, but don't pretend that winning a satellite turns it into a responsible decision.

Be sure to check out Andrew and Nate Meyvis on the Thinking Poker podcast, and for strategy articles, reviews, and more from Andrew, check out the rest of The Thinking Poker website.

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This Page Contains all the Strategy and Guides You Need to Qualify For a Big Live or Online Poker Tournament Event!

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Free Satellite Poker Tournaments

Online Poker Satellite Qualifiers

Poker satellites allow you to qualify or big buy-in tournament events, both live and online. This section of the site gives you all the strategy knowledge and information you need to locate – and beat – these qualifiers at the leading poker sites.

Big name live poker events that you can qualify for online include the World Series Of Poker, The European Poker Tour and one-off special events live the Aussie Millions and Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure. These games attract the superstars of the game and have prize pools measured in the millions, and every year 1000's of online poker fans get the opportunity to take part. In addition the big names, there are plenty of smaller live events located in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere. You will find plenty of individual articles on specific live tournaments here. I describe the prizes (which usually include hotel, flights + expenses) and different options for winning that ticket!

Online poker events are the other key focus of this page. Every poker site runs some kind of tournament event these days – with the bigger ones running them several times yearly. These go by acronyms such as the WCOOP (World Championship Of Online Poker), FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) and iPOPs (iPoker Online Poker Series). Each includes several big buy-in games, and all the sites encourage their smaller stakes players to take a shot via satellite qualifiers. I recommend these events for many reasons – in particular the opportunity to take a shot at potentially career-changing money for a small buy-in. You can also win a seat in the so called 'Sunday Majors' the biggest games of the week at the major sites, these include the famous 'Sunday Million' as well as other games with guaranteed prize pools of up to $300,000.

Steps Satellite Qualifiers: Many poker sites now offer ‘steps’ as ways for smaller bankroll players to access the big events and live tournament qualifiers. These can be in Sit N Go or multi-table format. The idea is that you enter very cheaply, and win seats in the next step up. You can usually buy-in at any stage from 1c up to more than $100. Some sites offer ‘try again’ consolation prizes. If you would like to qualify for live poker events, and do not have the bankroll for the big games as yet, make sure you check out the Steps qualifiers instead.

Free Poker Satellite Tournaments 2019

Strategy for satellites rests on the fact that survival is more important than chip accumulation. When there are many identical prize packages there is no reason to risk a comfortable stack size when others are at greater risk of busting before you. In fact, at the 'bubble' of a satellite qualifier it can be mathematically correct to fold aces before the flop – in situations where there are several small stacks it can be a mistake to do anything else.

My articles explain bubble strategy for satellites in depth, however there is a lot more to successfully qualifying than just the bubble. You need to accumulate enough chips to get there in the first place, and you also need to work out which of your opponents understand the dynamics of the tournament and adjust to their behavior.

Additionally, not all satellite qualifiers are the same format. In addition to the standard rebuy and freezeout MTTs, you will find hyper turbos, double-shootouts, steps and super-satellites. Each have their pros and cons (as well as your personal preferences for different games) and each have their unique strategy considerations too.

Free Poker Satellite Tournaments 2020

Finally, some poker sites have regular cross-over traffic from sports-betting or gambling sites, while others are the home of more specialist poker players. As you can imagine, this makes a huge difference to the average skill level of your opponents – affecting your profits. Make sure you choose a site with the softest opponents, this is as important a poker skill in satellite qualifiers as in cash games. I provide you with plenty of comparisons and reviews to help you find the very best site for satellite qualifiers.