So you want to win a satellite ...

Last night I played 2 more satellites and won them both, so I figured I'd just make a strategy post about it in case some of you are wondering how I keep winning sats. I think theres 3 stages in a multitable satellite tourney with multiple seat giveaways. For a one seat sat, just play it like you should in a winner take all tourney. Lets call it the beggining, the middle, and the end. A typical satellite should average around 2hrs. Anything more than 3 is just too long, and probably not worth it.

The Beginning - 1st 1/2hr - 45min
Remember how you were taught never to underestimate your opponent. Well throw that away in this case, satellite players are typically baaad. Theres a good chance that you are the best player at that table, so take advantage of it. See a lot of flops, play it hard when you have it, fold if you don't. No tricky plays, no real bluffs, just build your stack as much you can, you'll need it.

The Middle
I don't know what to really say about this section. I think playing tight aggressive is the way to go here. A lot of players still take a lot of chances here, so there will probably be a few suckouts. Thus the need to build a nice stack from the 1st stage. Stay away from the monster stacks unless you have a real hand. Its easy to take $ from them if you do, but if you don't no reason to try. Same thing with the smaller stacks. Unless you are a monster stack, no reason to eliminate the smaller stacks, let the big guys do the work for you. Just play smart poker here, and prepare for the finale.

The End - Final Table
Usually the final table, or the bubble area. Play this like you would in a bubble stage in a normal mtt. Not the pansy way of just trying to make the $, but the play to win way (except not that aggressive). Once again stay away from bigger stacks, if you don't need to pass them in position, don't battle with them. The player(s) to target are the ones sitting on the last few positions for seats. ie) If 4 seats are given, target the guys in 3rd or 4th. Don't play too many hands though, let others make the mistakes, let others be the hero. There are sometimes when I feel invicible, but end up losing valuable chips when I find out I'm not. If you are one of the short stacks, then just go ahead and target anybody with allin moves with decent holdings. Big stacks will be willing to call you with average holdings so it can be a easy double up. The most important thing in satellites is to know how many seats are awarded, and make sure you play for those seats. You don't need to play for 1st, remember that!

I'm not too good with strategy posts, pretty much just rambling off the top of my head. Good luck though, and hopefully you'll be playing on Sunday!

Right now my weekend tourney schedule looks like this:

Friday
UB Online Championships Event #1

Saturday
Poker.com BPT event (Probably won't end up playing again, saturday is my day away from poker)

Sunday
Sun Poker $50k added
Mansion Poker Dome
Booya Poker CPT Satellite ($1 + WSOP added sats)
UB Online Championships Event #3

Play Update

Just an update on what I've been playing lately. Haven't really been into poker this week at all. Mainly just small tourneys and cash games. Playing some Eurolinx, Ladbrokes, and Sun Poker (Pretty much just to get in the monthly $50k added tourney). Playing 2/4 to 5/10 limit, whatever tables are available, just to keep my limit game sharp. Came out ahead for the week, nothing special though. Didn't cash in any of the tournies I played in, though as I mentioned earlier, my mind just wasn't in it. If your not focused, better off just not playing, its cheaper that way.

What I have been into lately is Final Fantasy XII for the playstation 2. Now I haven't played an rpg or a final fantasy game since probably the playstation 1 one. I can't even remember if I enjoyed rpgs or not. All I can say is that this game is amazing! The graphics can rival any xbox360 game right now, and the storyline has been pretty cool so far. Its a nice change from Gears of War and Splinter Cell that I was playing on the xbox360 before. But my xbox is now a brick, and sent it in for repairs. Should get a replacement back this week sometime. Some stupid fall update microsoft sent out corrupted about 1% of xboxs out there. Mine just happened to be one of them. Why couldn't I have won the lottery instead? Oh wait, lemme check my Super 7 ticket.

A satellite entry = $? WTH is going on?

Finally broke my long draught of not being able to turn hard earned satellite entries into significant cashes. Full Tilt FTOPS Main Event. $500 buyin. approx 2500 entries, 1st place paid out $220k. I played 3 satellites to try to get in, all turbos, and all today. A $4, a $100, and a $24. I got in with the $24, though I played good enough to get in all 3. Bubbled both the 4 and 100, the 100 I took some nasty beats.

Onto the main event. I thought I would finish early. Crippled early when EP min raises, i'm on the BB with K6s. I call. K6J flop. I actually put him on aces after but tried to get him to go over top of me. Didn't work and the river was a J, wasting my top and bottom pair.

Got as low as 1500 and was around 2k by the 1st break. Starting was 3k. Gradually built it up, but my biggest chip gainer was 99 vs AJ on a A9x flop. I played differently this tourney, pretty much just solid poker. Didn't play as many hands as I've been playing lately, but I just didn't get any of those suited connectors that I like.

The rest of the tournament I was what Kugr called "The Dominator" Everytime all my chips or all somebody elses chips went all in, I had them dominated. The only hands where i had to play catchup was AQs vs JJ (smaller stack) and my eventual out hand.

Once I got deeper into the $, I ran out of hands to play. When I got placed at a table with a bunch of big stacks, I became hesitant to steal, pretty much just waiting for hands. Never ended up doubling up again, and eventually lost AKs vs 33. Flop came 33x, and i said good night.

Shipped $1,346 though, which is now my highest online cash winning. I'm still noticing flaws in my game though, especially during late stages if I don't have a nice stack. I guess i'll have to practice making it deeper in more big tournies!

Thanks to the railbirds!

GSP = Ship It!!!

George St. Pierre owns Matt Hughes!
Complete destruction. Can't believe Hughes goes down twice cause a toenail flicked his balls. I don't think anybody can take the belt away from GSP!

This Sunday, I Vow to ...

Win or Big $ in one of these ....

1) Poker.com $20k
2) Mansion Poker Dome Seat
3) PokerStars Million
4) Full Tilt Ftops Event #2
5) Some other tourney > $10k prize pool

Time to step it up, I don't want to be satellite king / big game choker anymore. Last night I won 2 out of 5 tournaments I played. Sounds good, but my take home was 0$. Yeah. As much as I hate spending hours and hours playing an online tourney, I do much better in deeper stack tournies with good blind structures. I can't play Tribecca style tournies at all. Big aggressive moves cost all my chips. Last night in the Booya NHL ticket giveaway, headsup was sick. My buddy was I dunno 15:1 underdog. He came back to take the chip lead, then lost it. Eventually was knocked out TT vs Q8 even though he flopped a set!!!

Tonight or tomorrow i'll post up a Casino/Poker hot bonus post, haven't done that in a while.

And before I go I have to do a quick plug for Poker Source Online. On the service/support side, you just can't compare. If you want a good laugh, go read the eCasinoDeals forum, its a complete joke. That scumbag owner has outstanding orders from like May. He barely responds to support posts. But I think this is the jewel. Those who ordered something simple such as an amazon gc have been surprised to see a poker table top show up at their door instead of their gift card! Talk about cocksucking, this guy instead of spending $ to order gcs, he's unloading his excess inventory. Man this guy fattened his wallet the past few months and is going to bail!! I like taking care of my peeps, pso is the same way, this guy is scum. Spread the word!