Poker Satellite Tournaments Explained

No, not these.

A poker satellite tournament is a tournament in which the prize is entry into a bigger tournament. Instead of winning cash or other tangible prizes, your reward for doing well in a satellite tournament is a free entry into a bigger tournament.

The invention of the satellite tournament was a genius one because it instantly made big tournaments more accessible to average players. As a result, the prize pools grew tremendously, which in turn brought more attention to the game, which in turn helped the prize pools grow even larger.

Let’s say you want to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event but really don’t want to fork over $10,000 just to have a seat at the table. Well instead of giving up the dream, you can now just log on to your favorite poker site, play a tournament and win entry to the WSOP at a fraction of the cost.

If enough players enter a satellite tournament, more than one prize will often be given out. Full Tilt Poker occasionally holds a WSOP satellite tournament that gives away 150 seats to the Main Event in that one tournament alone.

Satellite tournaments differ from regular multi-table tournaments because only a few places get paid and then everyone else is completely out of luck. Normal tournaments usually have a pay table that scales down and lets the top 10 or 15% of the people take home a prize.

In a satellite tournament that is giving away 10 seats, the tournament will play only until there are 10 people remaining. As soon as the 11th person is eliminated, the tournament stops and the prizes are given out. There’s no reason to play any further than that.

Sometimes you’ll even see satellite tournaments to satellite tournaments. For example, if there’s a $500 satellite tournament coming up that gives you entry to the WSOP but you don’t want to cough up $500, there will probably be satellite tournaments to get into that tournament.

Sit and Go Satellite Tournaments

Other times you’ll see satellite sit-and-go (SNG) tournaments. These are tournaments that start whenever X number of people sit down at the table. Most of these are single table tournaments but you’ll also see the occasional multi-table SNG satellite. The only difference between those and regular tournaments is that regular tournaments have a defined start time.

Best Sites for Poker Satellite Tournaments:

1. PokerStars

PokerStars has held the reputation for having the best tournaments for several years now. You can usually find more than 100,000 players on there at a time with tournaments running 24/7.

Visit PokerStars

2. Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt is gaining ground on PokerStars with a huge helping of satellite tournaments served up every single day. You can find satellites to the WSOP, the WPT and all kinds of cool live events here.

Visit Full Tilt Poker

3. Party Poker

Party Poker does not allow players from the US but it still has tons of satellite tournaments. You can win entry to the WSOP and all sorts of other major live events that take place around the world.

Visit Party Poker

4. Aced Poker

Aced Poker is a smaller US poker site but it actually has quite a few satellite tournaments running. You won’t find quite as many satellites here as at some of the bigger sites but the competition is a lot softer. You definitely won’t be disappointed with Aced Poker. It is rapidly becoming one of the best poker sites.

Visit Aced Poker