Winner-takes-all satellites have a proud tradition dating all the way back to the early days of the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas. According to legend, WSOP founder Benny Binion created the first ever satellite as a way of increasing numbers for his new $10,000 World Championship event. With players willing to stump up the buy-in in short supply, he simply suggested that ten players pay $1,000 to sit around a table and play until one of them had gathered it all up into a $10,000 entry for the Main Event.
Since that time tournament poker and satellites to the largest tournaments have flourished, and this ‘shootout’ format - where a single seat is awarded to the winner - is still popular. On PKR, players can qualify to the WSOP Main Event for as little as $7.30, by winning a first round shootout into a $66.50 event, and then winning that to qualify for a $625 multi-table satellite where many seats are awarded (the latter 'super satellite' format is also now a major part of qualification for most events).
However, if you are used to traditional Sit & Go’s, the winner-takes-all format can require a significant change of mindset. No longer are there other prizes to play for and the chance of doubling your money just for surviving until third. Now you must play to win, and coming second is as bad as coming last (not to mention significantly more painful).
Another result is that ICM considerations (which calculate your equity in the prize pool based on relative stack sizes) are now irrelevant, since with one prize your chips have a linear value. For example, in a $1,000 WSOP qualifier with 1,000 chips to start, each chip will be worth $1 at every stage of the event no matter what happens.
Pushing your edge
What this means is that you can play looser and more aggressively than in a normal Sit & Go, especially if your opponents are weaker than you, since getting into big confrontations doesn’t benefit other players at all. In fact, the only things preventing you from playing in exactly the same way as you would in a cash game are the fact that you can’t rebuy and that blinds increase. For these reasons, you want to err on the side of caution in very close situations if better spots might come up later, and you need to be aware of how the changing stack sizes affect your decisions at every stage of the event, as well as how to adapt as players are eliminated.
Adjusting to each stage of play
The value of your chips stays linear in a shootout, as you need to win all the chips to progress, so if you feel you have a skill edge you should get in as many pots with playable hands as possible in the early stages. This is especially relevant against very weak players who are likely to lose their chips to other players. If you can successfully build up an early lead this will give you some insurance against later bad beats and allow you a chance to come back unless you lose several big hands.
When the stacks are deep you want to be playing all of the usual speculative hands like suited connectors and small pairs, as well as looking for spots to three-bet other players, either for value or as a bluff depending on the situation. In the early levels you want to be somewhat cautious about playing big pots with marginal hands, as losing a significant portion of your chips will make it very difficult to stage a comeback. However, if you do get out in front early you should aim to increase your aggression in an attempt to build an even more dominating lead. Losing a few chips in this situation has less impact since you will still cover most of the other players.
Flopping big hands
When you flop a strong draw or a draw with second or third pair you should play the hand aggressively, as doing so will ensure you either pick up chips without a showdown or end up all-in with decent equity and the chance of winning a big pot. Playing this way also makes it more likely you'll get paid off when fast-playing strong hands like sets and overpairs.
In short, don’t be afraid to gamble with a small chunk of your chips in the early stages where you can win big pots for a small outlay. And if you do win a chunk of chips, ramp up the aggression and try to steamroll the table. If you feel your table hasn’t got many weak players or if you lose a few chips at the start, it’s fine to hang back, wait for the blinds to rise, then start playing 'all-in or fold' poker. If you can find situations to reraise other players and knock them off their hands preflop you may just find yourself coming back to win the tournament.
The endgame
As the play becomes short-handed and the stack sizes decrease relative to the blinds, this is when the tournament is won or lost. Depending on how the early game went, you will now have to adapt your game according to your position and chipstack. With less than 15BB you should effectively be in push-or-fold mode. If you have a bigger stack you can make small raises and reraise other players all-in with some degree of fold equity. If you’re the big stack you need to dominate the other players by hoovering up the chips, but you also need to know when to draw a line in the sand if other players start shoving on you lightly.
Of course, you need to assess the dynamics of each situation individually. Pay attention to the vital stats of the game: how many big blinds you (and your opponents) have, how many players remain and how much a round costs you (based on the number of players left and when the antes come in). By weighing up these numbers you then have to make the best plays based on your cards, stack and position.
Make sure you change gears and play progressively more hands as players go out and the blinds increase. This will also depend to a large part on the tendencies of other players, so stay observant. Good players will loosen up later in the game so you can re-steal or call lighter against them, whereas if you’ve identified any overly tight players you should take advantage of them by continually stealing their blinds.
Closing it out
Once you find yourself playing heads-up, stack sizes will still determine what moves you can and can’t make. However, bear in mind that against one opponent you need to play a wide range of hands to avoid getting run over, and that you can push very lightly from the button with a short stack. For example, with ten big blinds shoving hands like J-3 suited or 9-7 offsuit is standard play, and with deeper stacks you should make a standard raise with almost any hand from the button. As long as you keep up a high level of aggression you will always stand a reasonable chance heads-up.