My Articles - My Blog - Video - Poker Work - Charity - Downloads - Links - Subscribe
The Fast Track: Steps Satellite Tournaments
For the typical reader, one of the most accessible ways to qualify for this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas will be to win their seat through a ‘Steps’ satellite. These allow you, with a bit of luck, to turn a small investment of just $10 into a package worth $11,000 in just a few hours. In this article, I’ll discuss some of the strategy adjustments you’ll need to make to win your seat.
But first of all, what is a Steps satellite? Essentially, Steps is a series of 10-person sit & go tournaments with a progressively higher buy-in at each stage. The tournaments we’re discussing here have buy-ins of $10, $55, $215, $640, and $1665 respectively. Win the $10 tournament, and you advance to the $55 event. Finish in the top two in that, and you move on to the $215 stage, and so on – your ultimate goal being to advance to the final event and win the $11k package.
Each stage of the Steps satellite format has a slightly different structure. Stage 1 is the smallest event, with a buy-in of just $10. Many Inside Poker readers will be happy to skip this event and start straight at Step 2, with the $55 entry fee, so I’ll be brief. At Step 1, you simply want to win – any other finishing position has just been a waste of your time. The standard of play at this level will of course be lower than the other levels, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to decimate the competition. You could even multi-table several Step 1 events in an effort to get to Step 2 as quickly as possible.
At Step 2, the structure changes slightly. This time, the top two finishers make it into the next round, so your goal is no longer to win at all costs – in fact, the tournament ends when down to the last two players. Positions 3 to 9 get another shot at a Round 1 event – so if you make it into the top nine, you get something. Therefore, it’s imperative not to finish last, which is the only position without a prize.
Thankfully, this shouldn’t be too hard. After all, this is an internet tournament, and somebody is bound to lose their entire stack with top pair in the first few minutes. Just play tight and avoid big confrontations unless you know you’re a decent favourite. Then, once you’re in the money, go all out for a top two finish.
At Step 3 the structure changes again, with the top two finishers winning a $640 seat into Step 4, and 3rd and 4th getting another shot at Step 3. 5th to 9th loop back to Step 2, and 10th gets a measly $15. Once again, you should avoid finishing last at all costs.
It could be tempting to play very aggressively during Step 3, increasing both your chances of winning, but also making it more likely that you’ll bust out early. If the money doesn’t matter to you, that’s fine, but for most people who are trying to systematically win a seat, this would be a mistake. In a standard one table SNG with a 50-30-20 payout structure, your goal is to cash as often as possible. Once you’ve cashed, you worry about winning the event. This approach gives you the best overall equity and long-term return on investment (ROI). Here in Step 3, the payouts are $640, $640, $215 and $215. Your approach should therefore be similar to that you would use in a standard SNG - instead of worrying about winning too quickly, you should concentrate your efforts on first making the top four. If you do this, you’re freerolling for a seat in the next step and at worst you’ll get a second chance at the same one.
This means that you should adjust your strategy when the tournament gets close to the key 4-handed stage. Primarily, you should change your play depending on who you are facing. If you’re a big stack, you should avoid confrontations with the other big stacks. For example, if you’re five-handed with plenty of chips, and raise in early position with A♣K♦, the short stacks fold, and the only person who has you covered moves all-in, you should seriously consider folding. You’re unlikely to be a significant favourite unless the big stack has specifically A-x or K-x, and it’s not worth throwing away an almost certain top-four finish for a better chance to win.
There is an often-quoted satellite situation, which involves folding pocket aces in order to survive, rather than risking elimination. It’s probably the only situation is which it is correct to fold aces preflop. Some of you may already be thinking ‘So, in order to make it into the top four, I should be willing to avoid confrontations with the other players, even to the extent of folding pocket aces if necessary’.
That might be true if all four places awarded the same prize – a seat to the next step. For example, in that case if there were five players remaining, and all four of your opponents moved all-in, you would certainly fold aces preflop. You’d be risking elimination by entering the pot, when you can practically guarantee a prize finish by folding. However, in the actual tournament, only the top two places award the seat, so you shouldn’t take this confrontation avoidance strategy too far. You shouldn’t give up profitable situations in which you have a large edge, only the ones where your edge is small or your variance high when facing a player who can severely damage or eliminate you.
Conversely, when facing short stacks, you should be much more liberal and aggressive. Often, a short stack will be playing very tight at this stage of the event, hoping to make it to fourth place before gambling it up. You can exploit this tightness by being much more aggressive against them. You also need to realise that the value of eliminating a short stack is very significant, so you might take a chance against them that you wouldn’t take against a player with a larger stack. For example, if you’re in the 400 big blind with plenty of chips, and a short stack in the small blind moves all in for 1200 total, you should probably call without looking. Sure, most of the time you’ll have the worst hand and you’ll double up the short stack – but big deal. They’re still a short stack, and you still have plenty of chips, plus the image of a gambler which will make your opponents reluctant to confront you. The rest of the time, you’ll actually eliminate the short stack and make it to the freeroll stages with a nice stack.
Step 4 has a similar structure to Step 3, except that the freeroll stage of the tournament starts at five players. The other places loop back to an earlier stage and aren’t worth much in comparison, so like before your goal should be first to make it to the top five, then go for the top two finish to advance to Step 5. Be aware that at this stage of the tournament, the competition will be tougher than at previous steps. You may be playing against opponents who have bought in directly and are either rich, skilful, or both.
Step 5 is the big one. To win your seat in the World Series of Poker, you must finish first. Although second and third places get another chance at a Step 5 tournament, you shouldn’t let this affect your strategy as much as it did in the earlier stages, because the difference in prize money is much larger. Now, first place receives $11,000, while second and third get $1665 – a huge jump compared to earlier stages.
Your best strategy for Step 5 is therefore to play ultra-aggressively and try to build up chips in the early stages that you can use to bully your opposition and absorb losses in the later levels. If you finish second or third, it should be by accident, not by design. Remember, the only prize really worth aiming for is first place. Take any edge you can get and try to take advantage of any opponents who might be playing too tightly, trying to make the top three before they open up and gamble. Bet your draws aggressively if you believe that your opponents will fold, or if by doing so you can build up a very large stack with which to win the event.
With just one prize, you should take advantage of every edge you can get. The person who does this, and who gets a little lucky, will be the person who joins the glitz and glamour of the World Series of Poker in June. See you there!
