Win Chips, Win a Seat: Max Silver on the New EPT Satellite Format
There is a new satellite tournament format that has started to gain some momentum of late, one that was featured at the European Poker Tour Prague series last December and is being used again at the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT.
Satellite tournaments provide players a chance to enter another tournament for less than the event's buy-in. For example, many of those currently playing in the EPT Monte-Carlo Main Event were able to win their entries for less than the €5,300 buy-in, including some who won their way in via these new satellites.
To give an example, one type of these new satellites is described as a "Win your seat at 100,000 chips" event. In this one, players buy in for €600 and begin with a starting stack of 10,000. Once a player accumulates 100,000 chips, that player wins a seat into the Main Event and his or her 100,000 chips are taken out of play.
If the player has more than 100,000 chips after winning the hand that put the player over the threshold (a likely occurrence), the remaining chips are shared equally among the players at the table who were dealt into the hand the player won.
Looking at some of the results of these "Win your seat at..." satellites shows they proved popular in Monaco earlier this week.
One offered last Sunday drew 250 entries from which 25 players won seats, then another on Monday drew 286 entries from which 29 players won seats. (These events also allow a single re-entry.) There were a couple of "Win your seat at 50,000 chips" satellites into the Main with €1,200 buy-ins that attracted decent turnouts as well.
Strategy for satellite tournaments in which multiple seats are up for grabs obviously differs greatly from regular tournament strategy, creating some interesting decisions.
Indeed, sometimes when near the bubble of such a satellite, you might find it needful to fold a hand as strong as pocket kings (or even pocket aces) — something Carlos Welch talked about with David Lappin and Dara O'Kearney not long ago for a strategy segment on The Chip Race. See "Satellite Strategy: A Time to Fold Pocket Kings?"
In this new satellite format being used at EPT stops, however, the "bubble" works a bit differently, only bursting when the last player needed to hit the desired chip target reaches the goal.
While in Monaco, PokerNews' Sasha Salinger spoke with poker pro Max Silver about the new format and the strategies involved.
Silver makes a few good points when discussing the format, including noting how by eliminating the big stacks from play, you don't encounter the circumstance that happens in regular satellites where chip leaders continue to be involved to affect the fortunes of others.
Silver talks as well about how cautious players need to be with medium-size stacks in this format, and how short stacks can't simply try to "fold into the money" because of the imperative to accumulate enough chips to earn a seat. Take a look:
The Stars Group owns a majority shareholding in iBus Media.
