Offline satellite situation
Hi guys,
I'm new to the forum.
I occasionally play offline and online poker tournaments with relatively low buy-ins.
Recently, I played a live satellite at my local casino, trying to win a seat for an upcoming 1k tournament. I don’t have much experience with satellites, and this was my first live one. I’d like to discuss a spot I found myself in.
There were about 50 entries, which (after all the rebuys and add-ons) resulted in 5 tickets, plus a few hundreds for 6th place. I made it to the 10-handed final table with a 10.5 BB stack. Three players had smaller stacks: the shortest had 5 BB and two others had 7–8 BB. Three more players were in the 10–15 BB range, and two big stacks (20+ BB).
On the very first hand, UTG+1 opened to 2 BB from 8 BB stack. It folded to me in the cutoff, and I looked down at AKo. I didn’t think too long and shoved. UTG+1 called with QQ and won the hand, leaving me with a miserable 2.5 BB.
Now I’m wondering whether shoving was actually the best play in that spot, given the satellite prize structure and a suspicious min-raise from the opponent. Or did I make everything right and am just overthinking it.
12 Replies
Forgot to mention, we were playing with Big Blind ante.
it can easily be a bad player who's raisefolding, and with AK you have great blockers to shove and pick it up (or be called by a worse hand).
you're not all that close to the bubble, so these chips will help.
it can be someone who's openraising (only) premiums, but that's not necessarily him. except you can make a (strong) read or can be sure due to your outline of his game.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over losing this coin flip. With a 10bb stack and a need to double up to make the final five, losing a flip to QQ when you were the aggressor, had fold equity and survived the hand is not a “bad play” on your part.
with 8 tickets (let's ignore 9th payout to simplify) and 10 left best strategy here will probably either be
1) fold now, and then fold anything till you're blind allin
2) only reshove AA
and gotta say, I don't know if 2) is better. It may very well be not the case, and with 9 left, Im quite sure we'd just want to openfold any two cards (vs opens) until we cash, and potentially shove AA (or more) here and there depending on concrete situation. [simplified and not too accurate, not our entire strategy]
(at some point, if we should become extremely short and get a decent hand like AA, we might prefer to get it in straight away, instead of waiting).
maybe Im wrong though on the extent that we should go into nitting up and waiting mode on the immediate bubble (in some scenarios)?
Thanks for your reply!
Yes, it seems that folding almost every hand and just waiting with a little below average stack might be the best strategy close to the satellite bubble.
Main question is how close to the bubble should we start using this strategy.
I will try again same satellite in couple of days. Maybe will be more lucky this time 😀
Maybe we actually do want to reshove aces vs 8 bigs stacked villain,
with 9 or 10 left and 8 paid, because well, he either folds and we chip up, or he calls with great odds to bust and we cash (or get closer to cash).
Does anyone know? What's the effect of him potentially busting?
I tend to become much more cautious at the money bubble, plus one, in a satellite paying less than 5 players. Remember if you survive with 1bb you get paid the same as a big stack surviving with 25bbs.
With a bb ante, you should find out if a short stack goes to the blind or ante first. If it goes to the ante first, I would shove utg if I have less than 4bbs, if it goes to the bb first, you can play down to your bb. Then, if I put in 2bbs and I am heads up, I never fold to a 2bb stack. The satellite aspect changes that a little but it is very dependent on whether the players .facing the blinds can survive them without playing the hands and what is the average stack.
The satellite payout structure, in generally, makes me more risk adverse at the final table.
At least in bigger fields you can have Dana O'Kearneys rule of thumb as a guide when bubble is nearing and you have a good stack: If the distance between your place and the bubble is greater than the number of people that need to bust you can often fold every hand and still cash, meaning you shall play VERY tight.
For example: There are 25 tickets to win in the satellite. You're in place 10. There are 35 players left in the tourney.
Distance to bubble: 15 places
Number of players that need to bust for the bubble to burst: 10
You need to pay attention though! If stacks are more equal in the middle of the field you will probably need to win at least 1 or 2 more hands to cash.
So, another attempt - another failure (with the same hand).
This time we had 13 people left in the satellite and 6 tickets.
I play on the 7max table and get AKo in the UTG. I have 14BB in my stack with the average stack of 16BB according to the info on the screen. BB Ante in play.
I decide to minraise and UTG+1 makes it 5.5BB from 20BB stack.
Didn’t find anything better than shove and he called with pocket Jacks. Board brings no help.
Another cooler?
It’s not a cooler, it’s a coin flip. You lose 52ish% of the crime when your best non paired starting hand fails to improve.
Right. What I mean, that flip was inevitable considering the stack sizes as I see it.
But in general what is more preferable for UTG AKo with 12-14BB, push or raise? With a raise I was hoping to induce a 3-bet push from some weaker hand.
