Some thoughts on turbo satellites

I like tourneys. I like high-buyin (online) ones, but I don’t have the bankroll to be buying into them (at least not on a regular basis). Because of that, I play lots of satellites to get into events like the Sunday tourneys or any tourney with a buyin of $200 or more. However, because I have a decent earn rate at SNGs or cash games, when I play satellites, I like to play the turbos.

The turbo satellites are so fascinating to me, especially when there are multiple seats awarded. On Monday I played the party poker $11 “speed” satellite for their Sunday million guaranteed. Their structure is quite different from the turbo satellites at either paradise or stars. At paradise, you have a 1 hour rebuy period, but the blinds go up (relatively slowly), resulting in blinds of 600/1200 right after the rebuy period. At stars, the blinds also go up slow, but the rebuy period is only a half hour. At party, the rebuy period is one hour, but the blinds are just silly-large at the end of an hour. I made it through the rebuy period with a decent stack. There were 18 left at the end of the rebuy period, and 8 seats were being awarded, along with $80 for 9th and $50 for 10th.

After a couple steals, we got to the final table. I had a couple interesting hands.

The blinds were 15K/30K here.


#Game No : 4802250209
***** Hand History for Game 4802250209 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:26461697 Level:16 Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700) - Monday, July 24, 22:53:22 ET 2006
Table Sunday Million Satellite Speed Rebuy(774480) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: WHOWHODAT ( $14308 )
Seat 2: sidse111 ( $90883 )
Seat 3: Hunter_321 ( $18704 )
Seat 4: HERO ( $48050 )
Seat 5: Amsterdam52 ( $85196 )
Seat 6: LWolf45 ( $56186 )
Seat 7: dcpremer ( $48522 )
Seat 8: AZSlick57 ( $68812 )
Seat 9: caarrr111 ( $18556 )
Seat 10: AABADBOYKK ( $141783 )
Trny:26461697 Level:16
Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700)
WHOWHODAT posts ante [700].
sidse111 posts ante [700].
Hunter_321 posts ante [700].
HERO posts ante [700].
Amsterdam52 posts ante [700].
LWolf45 posts ante [700].
dcpremer posts ante [700].
AZSlick57 posts ante [700].
caarrr111 posts ante [700].
AABADBOYKK posts ante [700].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HERO [ Ks Ah ]
WHOWHODAT will be using his time bank for this hand.
WHOWHODAT folds.
sidse111 folds.
Hunter_321 will be using his time bank for this hand.
Hunter_321 folds.
AABADBOYKK: 20k/40k in 2 mins
Amsterdam52: Smart your out two hands good delay
Your time bank will be activated in 5 secs. If you do not want it to be used, please act now.
HERO folds.
Amsterdam52 folds.
LWolf45 folds.
dcpremer folds.
AZSlick57 is all-In [68112]
lol
caarrr111 will be using his time bank for this hand.
now whos stalling lol
lol
caarrr111 did not respond in time.
caarrr111 folds.
AABADBOYKK folds.
AZSlick57 does not show cards.
AZSlick57 wins 120112 chips
Game #4802272331 starts.


I thought this was a no-brainer. Sb is all in, and utg will be all in on the next hand (or close enough). I won’t be all in when sb is all in, so should survive if he makes a move.

But, no one busted here. So …. This hand came up

#Game No : 4802290725
***** Hand History for Game 4802290725
*****NL Texas Hold'em Trny:26461697
Level:16 Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700) - Monday, July 24, 22:58:38 ET 2006
Table Sunday Million Satellite Speed Rebuy(774480)
Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: WHOWHODAT ( $32816 )
Seat 2: sidse111 ( $89483 )
Seat 3: Hunter_321 ( $17304 )
Seat 4: HERO ( $46650 )
Seat 5: Amsterdam52 ( $83796 )
Seat 6: LWolf45 ( $54786 )
Seat 7: dcpremer ( $47122 )
Seat 8: AZSlick57 ( $119412 )
Seat 9: caarrr111 ( $2156 )
Seat 10: AABADBOYKK ( $97475 )
Trny:26461697
Level:16Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700)
Everyone posts ante [700].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HERO[ Jd Js ]
folded to HERO.
HERO is all-In [45950]
Everyone folds
HERO does not show cards.
HERO wins 97950 chips
Game #4802302977 starts.

Here, I figured that I would be blinded out without a steal. There are 2 players who would both have a chance of busting before me, but they easily might not bust. So I pushed. I hoped I would not be called, but if called I hoped it was by a short stack with Ax. I picked up the blinds and then simply stalled, stalled stalled, and easily won (5 hands before the bb got back to me).

Several players were really angry about the stalling. I don’t think they realized they were at a disadvantage, they just thought it “wasn’t poker”. Well, they are right, but having a big blind equal to 2/3 of the average stack is not poker either. It is not poker at this point, it is a tournament. Players who are more skilled at tourneys tend to do well in these turbos, as they understand how to play the end game of tourneys. Thankfully many players do not.

I am moving Friday, so won’t post again for a few days. Next time I will post “the house that poker built”.