+How to Get Started on the Road to Big Tournament Poker
So I was wandering through Caesar’s the other day after a WSOP Players Advisory Council meeting when I ran into a poker player named June. He introduced himself, mentioned he reads my articles in Bluff and then made a special request of me to write an article on a topic that he passionately wanted to know about. It was such a good idea that here it is, by special request of June.
What June said was this: Most articles he reads are written by top pros about already playing at the top levels of the game. His complaint was that not enough is written by the pros about how they got started or about how someone who is a good player, but still playing at the lower or middle limits, can get to the point where they are playing in big money tournaments. He wanted to know more about how to manage the beginning of your career as a player. And I must say, he had a great point. I know I haven’t spent much time on that topic and it is an important one to the majority of poker players.
When I started playing in the WSOP the maximum live game I played in was a 20/40 limit hold’em. And limit hold’em was the only game I knew. At that time no limit hold’em live games were rarely spread. Obviously, I was just limited by the games I played in but by my bankroll as well. I wasn’t playing high limits, I wasn’t ready for it, and I was just beginning to build bankroll. So entering a big money tournament would have represented a huge chunk of my bankroll. Too much of my bankroll for it to be a good money management decision to pony up that kind of money in the particularly high variance situation a tournament offers. Yet I won $70K playing in the WSOP that year.
So how did I do that under the restrictions I faced? Satellites. Satellites are absolutely the best way for a new player to get started in tournament poker for several reasons. First, they allow you to get into the tournaments cheap, for an amount of risk your bankroll can stand. But beyond that, satellites offer other big advantages, the biggest of which is that they allow you to get a feel for no limit tournaments in a situation where your risk is low. They offer cheap experience for a new player and because they go all the time during the major tournaments they can offer a lot of experience in very little time.
In order to be successful in tournaments, you need to understand how to play shorthanded and how to take advantage of the psychology of tournament play. Satellites get short handed very quickly and there are not a lot of other places where you can get so much no limit hold’em tournament short handed experience so cheaply and for so little risk. Play in a short handed cash game when you are inexperienced in no limit short handed play and your bankroll will feel the negative effects very quickly. Short handed is very high variance and the skilled players have a much bigger advantage there. In satellites you can only lose your buy-in, no more, so you go in with a loss limit to get the experience you so desperately need. Not only that but satellites offer something short handed cash games can’t: How to take advantage of the psychology that accompanies short handed tournament play. In a cash game the psychology is completely different because your opponents know they can rebuy. In a tournament, opponents can’t rebuy and this fact alone demands strategic adjustments to your play that short handed cash game play cannot teach you.
Another important advantage that satellite play has to offer is the opportunity to get to know your opponents in a cheap situation so you can play effectively against them in a bigger money situation. The players you play against in satellites will also be playing in the main tournament. Satellites are cheap buy-in, smaller money situations. Tournaments are big money situations. Would you rather spend your time getting to know your opponents when less money is at risk so you can leverage that knowledge when it really matters? I know I would.
I played satellites during most of my free time in my first WSOP. And it is mainly where I learned the game of no limit hold’em tournament poker. It is also where I really got to know my opponents. I cashed in half the satellites I played and entered four hold’em events at that year’s WSOP: two limit events and two no-limit events, including the main events which I won a seat into in a super satellite. How much money did it cost me? Nothing because I was winner to the satellites. I was plus $3500 in satellite play (including my buy-ins to the big tournaments) going into the main event. My total cashes? Over $70K. I got tons of experience, learned about my opponents, learned the game of tournament no limit hold’em and made a nice chunk of change in the process.
So satellite away. They are the nuts for anyone trying to get a leg up in the tournament poker world. And thanks again, June, for getting me thinking about this topic.