Super Satellite Tournament Strategy

Super satellite tournaments are multi table tournaments (MTTs) with hundreds or thousands of players with the top 100 or so advancing to the next tournament.  The correct strategy in satellite MTTs differs from the correct strategy in regular MTTs, especially near the bubble.

The Goal in Satellites

The goal in a satellite MTT is to build a large enough stack early on so that you can slow down on the bubble and sneak into the money.  In regular MTTs, playing to sneak into the money is a losing proposition because the payout is heavily skewed towards the top three or four finishers.  In satellite MTTs this is different because the payout is the same for all of the top finishers.  It doesn’t matter if you finish 1st or 20th in a satellite that gives out 20 entrees into the big tournament.  Every place in the money is first place.

Satellite Strategy

The beginning rounds of a super satellite MTT aren’t a whole lot different from those in a regular MTT.  You want to play smart and build a large stack so that when the blinds get bigger, you can steal them easily with your big, intimidating stack.  The difference is that you don’t need to focus on stealing in satellite MTTs as much as in regular MTTs.

The whole point of stealing in regular MTTs is to build as large a stack as possible, which means stealing as often as you can get away with.  The point of stealing blinds in satellites is to pad your stack just enough to coast into the money.  This works the best if you managed to build up a large stack early in the tournament.

If you’ve made it to the late stages of a satellite with a small stack, it’s going to take some work and luck to finish in the money.  As the small stack, you’re going to have to start throwing that little stack around.  The most difficult part of playing the small stack is finding the right balance between stealing the blinds and waiting for decent hands.

Playing the Bubble

As you near the bubble, the correct strategy in a satellite MTT deviates significantly from that of regular MTTs.  The whole point near the bubble is to cash, not build up a big stack.  This goes back to the above point about stealing the blinds.  In a regular MTT, it’s great to get active and start building that stack as everyone tightens up.  That strategy does not make sense for satellite MTTs though because once you break through the bubble, stack size means nothing – you’ve already won.

The point is, it is vital to base your all of your decisions on the goal of cashing, not on building a big stack.  For an extreme example, let’s say you’re playing a 1,000 person event with the top 50 getting an entry to the next event and there are 51 people left.  A small stack in front of you pushes all in, another small stack calls, and a big stack to your right pushes all in on top of them.

You look down at your hole cards and see AA.  What do you do?  This is an easy fold.  With at least one person almost guaranteed to get knocked out, there’s no point in calling and taking even a small chance of getting knocked out by the big stack.  The whole point of the tournament is to make it to the money, and with there only being one person left on the bubble, you have nothing to gain by calling.  Calling with AA here would be massively –EV.

So remember, play the early stages of a super satellite in chip accumulation mode and play the late stages in survival mode.  Don’t play survival mode like a weak-tight rock, but do make sure to base all of your decisions on the goal of ending up somewhere in the money.  If you can place in this tournament and make it deep in to the next event, all the hard work will pay off with a very nice payday.

Ready to Play?

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