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Lock Poker Offers New Promotions with Revolution Gaming
Earlier this month, Lock Poker acquired Cake Poker network and announced the launch of its new brand, Revolution Gaming Network on June 1. Recently, the poker room revealed details about the deals and promotions that it would be offering through the new network. The changes include a better bonus offer, 100k guaranteed tournament and return of the dealt rake back promo, which has been a hit with several poker players in the past. Here is some more information about the … Read the rest
Poker Tournaments for You This Week
There is never a dull moment in a poker player’s life. Obviously, the main reason for that is the constant existence of poker tournaments and poker events that one can participate in. These events are not just for making money, but also to have some fun and get better at the game in the process. Several live poker tourneys are lined up for this week and the coming weeks. Here is a note on some of the tournaments you can … Read the rest
2012 PokerStars Macau Poker Championships Announced
PokerStars is one online poker room that never takes a break from hosting tournaments. The poker room recently released details about its upcoming event, the PokerStars Macau Live Tournaments. The Macau tournaments hosted by PokerStars is one of the biggest and richest poker events held in Asia. It includes 4 major poker series – Macau Poker Cup (MPC) Red Dragon, Asia Championship of Poker, Macau Poker Cup Championship or MPCC and the yearly Asia Pacific Poker Tour event at Macau. … Read the rest
How to Approach WSOP Satellite Tournaments
Thursday, April 21st, 2011 by Phil
Many poker players share the common goal of traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event. But for the vast majority of these players their dream will remain just that, a dream, as they cannot afford the expensive traveling costs and the actual $10,000 needed to enter.
However, in the months leading up to the WSOP many sites offer satellites into the Main Event meaning you can actually win a $10,000 seat and traveling expenses for a fraction of the cost. Although satellite tournaments are essentially the same as a conventional multi-table tournament there are some significant differences that you need to be aware of as they require a different approach.
The first factor to be aware of is how the prizes are distributed. For example, in a standard cash tournament the prize money almost always starts of with a low payout and the money awarded increases the closer to first place you get. In a tournament like this it is vital to continually accumulate chips in order to keep up with the chip leaders as you are rewarded more, financially, the deeper you go. However, it is quite common in a satellite tournament for you to be simply trying to survive.
This is because in a typical satellite that pays out 20 places, coming first wins you the exact same prize as coming 20th does, which means you have no need to go out and win because if you have 1,000,000 chips or a single chip left in your stack as the 21st finishers busts out you will still win the same prize! This leads to some interesting scenarios that only ever appear in a satellite, such as folding a pair of aces preflop, which would be absurd in a standard tournament but can be the correct move to make.
Why would you fold aces preflop I hear you ask. Well if you were on the bubble of a satellite that was going to see you win a seat to play poker WSOP 2011 and you have an average sized stack and are almost guaranteed to win a seat (we shall say your a 90% certain minimum) simply by folding your way to the payout spots and a larger stack moves all in then in this spot you should fold a hand as strong as aces because a pair of aces is only an 80-82% favorite over any other Texas Hold’em hand, which is less than your estimated chances of winning a seat by hanging on and waiting for others to be eliminated.
Basically, in a typical satellite tournament you should figure out what the average stack size will be when the bubble bursts and aim to have around that many chips. Do not take any major risks as survival is more important than chip accumulation. The only time that you should play overly aggressive is in a satellite where it is winner-takes-all format where only the first place finisher gets a prize. Here it should be obvious you have to do everything in your power to win.
