Keep Your Eye on the Prize in Super Satellites

What is the goal when you sit down to a poker tournament that is a Super Satellite? That's right, it's to win the seat to the bigger event where all the money is. This means you need a ticket to ride, but many players think the goal is to win. Wait, isn't that the same thing? Not exactly, which is why so many players have trouble succeeding at the super satellite situation.

Sign up for Paddy Power Poker to play in a super satellite for the Irish Open!

A super satellite is where a poker room pools the money of the entrants and then, rather than paying it back out in cash to the winners/ top of the field, pays it out in tickets to a bigger event. So if you are playing for a ticket worth $100 and the buy in is $10, you get one ticket as a prize for every ten players.

This means that if you have 100 players in the same satellite, ten tickets will be awarded – which means that places 10, 9, 7, 2 … all of them… pays the exact same as 1st!

There is no reason to try to win the tournament when you have already won your seat, and this is key to the proper strategy for succeeding in super satellites.

You could look at it the same way as being satisfied to cash in a big poker tournament. If you need the money that cashing pays and are satisfied with that, then you play a tournament game just to survive until the bubble busts.

In a super satellite the bubble busts once all the remaining players have qualified to get a ticket.

In order to so this you should play your top game to get the chips you need to qualify, and then slow down. No need to go crazy once you have a chip lead that puts you in qualification range. Just keep adding pots as you can to keep ahead of the blind raises and be patient – you've already won.

Sign up for Paddy Power Poker to play in a super satellite for the Irish Open!