Re-Buy Satellite MTT Strategy

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Re-Buy Satellite Strategy; Pre-Game Considerations

Before you decide to play re-buy satellite tournaments it’s always best to check whether the reward vs risk pays off.  What I mean is, ask yourself whether the amount of money you’re paying (remember re-buy tournament strategy requires on average 5xbuy-ins) is worth the 1^st place prize.  Because it’s a re-buy tournament you need to take into account the prize should be much better compared to the entry fee than a regular satellite MTT.  Quite a lot of players actually fail to do this.  If on the other hand there’s a specific tournament you’re dying to get your hands on, or a satellite tournament re-buy to a main live event than you can perhaps stray from this rule.  In all honesty it just depends on the price you put on winning the tournament. 

Study the Buy-in Value of the Satellite Seat

Similar to above, you should take into account the actual value of the prize of the seat in the next tournament for coming first in the satellite.  Although most satellite tournaments will actually be worthwhile, there are a few out there that when you really look at them aren’t good value at all.  For example, if you pay $5 to enter a satellite MTT with 500 people, and the prize is a $200 seat in the next event, than you’re getting ripped off to say the least. 500 people x $5 should provide a prizepool of $2500.  If we say the top 10 players all get seats for example, than that’s only a $2000 prize distributed from the original $2500. In essence, you’re getting negative value for the tournament.  Just do some basic maths when you’re registering for a tournament to avoid this problem.  Again this is what I mean though about subjective value – if you put more value on this seat than you may play in spite of the maths.

Work Out How Bad You Want the Satellite Seat Prize

The prize of the seat in a satellite MTT should be reflected in your tournament strategy.  If you’re after a giant prize worth $10,000+ then it obviously pays to play much more aggressive and take bigger risks: bigger reward = bigger risks.  Again, playing aggressively at the beginning of a re-buy MTT Satellite is crucial if you want a positive ROI and the rewards to pay off; because taking risks early on for the chance to double or quadruple your stack puts you in much greater stead for the middle stage of the tournament where you’ll be deeper than your opponents.  Of course this strategy doesn’t necessarily work out for regular MTT games (after all the difference between re-buy tournament strategy and regular MTTs is that you can afford go out and take a second shot).

Lastly, It’s Not Important Where You Finish in a Satellite MTT

A major difference between satellite MTTs and regular tournaments is that in the satellite games the prizes are usually equal among the top finishers.  In contrast, regular freezeout MTTs reward players differentially relative to where they finish i.e. 2^nd place will receive more than 3^rd.  If you’re already in the payoff positions with a healthy stack of 20-30xBBs, then there’s is no need to take big risks.  Normally, if you let the other players attack each other you’ll find it much easier going. 

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