Satellite Tournament Strategy
In A Satellite Every Seat Pays The Same, So Once You Have Enough Chips Extra Chips Are Worth Almost Nothing: In The Example Below The Chip Leader Already Has A 98.8% Chance Of A Seat And Would Need 78.6% Equity To Call An All In From The Third Stack.
Tournaments Lesson From Smarter.Poker, Updated
Why Satellites Are Different
A Satellite Awards A Fixed Number Of Identical Prizes, Usually Seats In A Bigger Event. Finishing First Pays Exactly The Same As Finishing Last Among The Winners. That Makes The Payout Structure As Flat As It Can Be, And A Flat Structure Is Where ICM Pressure Is Strongest.
Take Five Players With 40, 30, 20, 6, 4 Thousand Chips And Four Seats To Give Away. Under Malmuth-Harville ICM The Players' Chances Of A Seat Are 98.8%, 97.6%, 94.4%, 64.4%, 44.8%. The Chip Leader Is Already Very Close To Certain, So Every Chip It Wins Adds Almost Nothing, While Every Chip It Loses Risks The Seat.
| Player | Chips | Chance Of A Seat |
|---|---|---|
| Player 1 | 40k | 98.8% |
| Player 2 | 30k | 97.6% |
| Player 3 | 20k | 94.4% |
| Player 4 | 6k | 64.4% |
| Player 5 | 4k | 44.8% |
The Cost Of Calling
If The Third Stack Moves All In On The Chip Leader, The Leader Risks 20 Thousand Chips To Win 20 Thousand. On Chips Alone That Is A 50% Decision. Under ICM, Winning Moves The Leader From 98.8% To 100% Of A Seat, While Losing Drops It To 94.4%. The Call Needs 78.6% Equity, Which Only The Very Strongest Starting Hands Have Against A Typical Shoving Range.
This Is Why Satellite Experts Fold Hands That Would Be Automatic Calls In Any Other Format, Including Very Strong Pairs, Once Their Seat Is Nearly Secure. The Folding Is Not Timid. It Is The Correct Price Of A Chip When Extra Chips Cannot Buy Anything.
Playing For A Seat
Build A Stack Early, When The Seats Are Far Away And Chips Still Have Close To Normal Value. As The Bubble Approaches, Work Out Roughly How Many Chips A Seat Needs, And Once You Have Them, Stop Taking Risks And Let The Shorter Stacks Fight.
If You Are Short, You Need Chips, And You Need Them Before The Blinds Take Them. Look For Spots Where You Are First In And The Players Behind You Are The Big Stacks Who Cannot Call. They Should Fold, And In A Well Played Satellite They Usually Will.
Keep Learning
- ICM Basics: Chips Are Not Money
- Bubble Play In Poker Tournaments
- M Ratio And Short Stack Play
- Final Table ICM Strategy
Poker Terms In This Lesson
Practise It On Smarter.Poker
The Answer Above Is Complete. When You Want To Drill It, These Are The Matching Training Tools.
- Play Satellite Survival The Training Game For This Lesson.
- Open The ICM Calculator
- Open Jarvis Training Insights Jarvis Explains Your Training Decisions In Words.
Free To Play. 18+. No Real Money Gambling. Chips And Diamonds Have No Cash Value.