The History of the Poker Satellite: Part Two with Dara O’Kearney
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In the first part of our series on the history of poker satellites, we spoke to the 1983 WSOP Main Event champion, Tom McEvoy. The American won his way to live tournament glory, so we figured we would take a look in this edition at the evolution of online satellites. Unibet ambassador Dara O’Kearney is revered the world over for his ability to beat online satellites and he has even taught on the subject, so we went straight to the source to learn more.
If you ask O'Kearney, online satellites have changed a lot since the early days.
“Historically, you were able to win multiple seats to the same packages or live event. Everything after number one was effectively turned into tournament money which you could use for anything.”
"One of the things that killed satellites on PokerStars was players like me."
O’Kearney was one of the hundreds of professional players who made hay while the sun shone. But it was a finite strategy, great in the short term, but flawed as a long term plan.
“One of the things that killed satellites on PokerStars was players like me who started grinding them for the tournament money and started using that tournament money essentially as an online [bank]roll. A lot of guys concentrated on satellites, and live tournaments were a nice bonus they went to. But the real purpose was to generate as much tournament money as possible to play online tournaments.”
If there was a moment where O’Kearney knew he was excelling at satellites, it was around the time of the UK & Ireland Poker Tour.
“When the UKIPT satellites were at their peak, there was one season with eight stops and I won 120 seats. 112 of those went straight into my online account. It was the same with the European Poker Tour satellites. I was qualifying for every EPT 4-6 times. It was nice to go and play in the EPT, but the real objective was to run up a bankroll.”
A Shift in the Online Satellite Landscape
O’Kearney was quickly aware that when the landscape suddenly changed, he needed to adapt.
“It was great for a while, but the problem in the long term was that others saw what I was doing. Over time, that messed up the pros-to-recreationals ratio and made it tougher and tougher, especially for recreational players. It got away from the whole ethos of what a satellite is - to try to qualify for an individual tournament.”
"We played all through the night, winner-take-all, the stacks barely moved."
How online satellites survive is huge to the poker economy, as far back as Chris Moneymaker and the 2003 WSOP Main Event. He can remember the first time he took part in one.
“The first satellite I ever played was for the very first Irish Open, in February of 2008. I remember loading up paddypower and playing a satellite for the Irish Open. I remember one really memorable occasion when I qualified for the Irish Open [on paddypower]. There was only one package and I got heads at around 10:00 p.m., having started playing at 6:00 p.m. I had 100,000 chips and the other guy had 90,000, but whoever had set the tournament up had messed up and the blinds weren’t going up any more. The big blind was 200 and we were sitting there 500 big blinds deep. We played all through the night, winner-take-all, the stacks barely moved. When morning came, we were both onto customer support saying ‘This tournament will never end.’ Around 7:00 a.m., iPoker customer support woke up and came back to us. They said sorry and gave us both packages.”
Modern Online Satellite Models
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Unibet Poker, for whom O’Kearney is an ambassador, takes a different stance to him playing satellites on their site.
“Unibet don’t allow me to play satellites which is frustrating for me but is better for the whole ethos of the system. They have a really good feeder system, so people can come in at €5, €20 level, and everybody can win one package and you have to use it for that stop; there are no deferments. It’s a better model for the recreational players, it’s not necessarily a good model for the site, because every time someone qualifies, they stop playing them and drop out. A lot of the Unibet satellites run with overlays.”
"The satellites at the end are amazing, because nearly all the best recreational players on the site have qualified."
Overlays in satellites are what make some sites consider limiting them, after all, sites such as PokerStars, partypoker and 888Poker need to make money on the qualifiers to be able to keep offering them to players.
“A lot of sites saw that they could make a lot of money by raking satellite tournaments became a big deal, but that’s where Unibet don’t make that kind of money from those satellites, but they’re trying to create a system where lots of recreationals come and play. They’re taking an eco-system-wide view of what the best way is to keep the satellite structure intact. That’s what the outcome will be instead of 10 satellite grinders riding the site, running up a roll and no one else getting a look in. The satellites at the end are amazing, because nearly all the best recreational players on the site have qualified. It was how the Irish Open used to run.”
Satellites could easily come back full circle to how those first ones were - as direct entries into specific events. Whether the ‘flexible dollars’ system is right or wrong is one for a larger debate and another time. One thing is for sure though: if you’re in a satellite and see Dara O’Kearney at your table, you may want to adjust your strategy - or find another table.
