Poker Satellite Tournament Strategy

Note – see Satellite Tournaments Explained if you are completely unfamiliar with satellite tournaments.

Satellite tournaments are often forgotten but they can actually be quite profitable. There are many poker players out there who specialize in winning satellite tournaments over and over again and selling off the additional tournament seats that they win.

Satellites require a slightly altered version of normal tournament strategy to yield the best results. The highest payouts are all fixed so you don’t have to play to get first place – all you need to do is make it far enough to receive your prize.

Early Stages

In the early stages of a satellite tournament, the best poker strategy is the same as it is in freezeout tournaments. You’ll want to start out with an approach that is tight and slowly becomes more aggressive as the blinds get bigger.

When the blinds are low, you can take a few extra flops in late position. If nobody has raised but a few people have entered the pot and you are in late position, you can limp in with hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors. You just have to be careful not to get too attached if you don’t hit a solid hand.

Middle Stages

The middle stage of a satellite tournament should also be played similarly to the middle stage of a regular multi table tournament. You’ll want to start stealing the blinds whenever you get a chance and only seeing flops when you have premium starting hands.

Late Stages

When the remaining players in the tournament can smell the money, you’ll see the play tighten up immensely. The small and medium stacks will fold for as long as they can in the hopes of outlasting just a few more people.

During this part of the tournament, your stack size will dictate the proper strategy. If you have a large stack, your strategy is simple: sit back and wait and don’t get involved with other big stacks no matter how strong your hand is.

As a medium or small stack, you might have to steal a few blinds to stay alive long enough to get a prize. If that is the case, the players with medium sized stacks are the best ones to steal from. These players know they can win one of the prizes if they play tight and out-fold the smaller stacks.

Folding Strong Hands

You’ll have to think about satellite tournaments a little bit differently than regular tournaments because of the prize structure. Late in a satellite tournament, it sometimes makes sense to fold strong hands.

For an obvious example, let’s say you’re playing in a satellite in which the top 5 people get entry to the WSOP. There are 6 people left and a guy with about as many chips as you goes all in preflop. The chip leader calls him, a shortstack calls him and the action is to you. You look down and see two Aces.

This is an easy fold! If there’s even a chance of you getting knocked out of the tournament when you have a solid stack, there’s no point in risking it all just to get more chips. You’re not aiming for a 1st place finish and more prize money here. If you fold here, you’re almost guaranteed to win a seat.

Do Not Call

Only very rarely should you make big calls late in a satellite tournament. If you have even a decent chance at lasting to the end, you should not be making calls near the end of a satellite tournament.

If you get low on chips and have to push all-in yourself, that’s fine. But whatever you do, do not put your tournament at risk with a mere call unless you’re low on chips or have AA / KK.

You have a lot more fold equity at the end of a satellite tournament and it’s a big waste to just call when you can be the one pushing all in. The other payers are quite likely to fold to your all in bets when they are so close to winning one of the seats.

Pot Odds and Small Edges

In regular tournaments, you can take small edges as they come because even if you’re only a slight favorite, it’s usually worth taking the risk to become a chip leader. The goal in those tournaments is to take first place.

Things are a little different in satellite tournaments because you don’t have to get first place. All you have to do is place well enough to win one of the seats. If you have a pretty decent shot at winning a seat with your current chip count, there’s no reason to expose yourself to unnecessary risks.

You’ll always want to factor in your chances of winning with your current chip count when choosing whether or not to play a pot in an iffy situation. You don’t want to overdo it and become weak-tight but there are a lot of places towards the end of a tournament in which it just makes sense to pass.

So let’s say you’re getting the correct pot odds to make a certain call. You think you’re behind in the hand but the pot odds would normally justify the call anyways. Well in a satellite tournament, you might want to think twice before making that call.

You should instead worry more about preserving your chip stack. You have to look at things from a big picture perspective. If you make that call and lose the pot, you’ll have that much less fold equity the next time you have to go all-in for chips.