Satellite a Trip

It’s every poker players dream to eventually go on to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. Though it is a dream for players to win the bracelet it is definitely easier said than done. Players have to travel through the large fields and overcome the bad beats along the way in order to obtain pokers most coveted prize. Yet what if the biggest obstacle for you is coming up with the buy-in money it takes to participate in a tournament? This is a problem for many people. We all have different reasons of why we can’t put up that type of money for travel and buy-in fees. If one of your poker goals is to participate in the World Series of Poker, the Los Angeles Poker Classic, or any other major poker series then I strongly recommend using online poker to get there. Chris Moneymaker used this technique and look what it did for him?

I realize that we all can’t have that Hollywood ending like Moneymaker did, but online offers us an opportunity to compete in some of the major tournaments around the world. The majority of the online poker websites available present opportunities for every player to live their dream. These poker sites allow players to ‘satellite’ from online tournaments into the major live events. There are some occasions where players can win $10,000 packages for as low as a $1. It’ll take some time, but players win these packages on a frequent basis. There are satellites available to tournaments that occur all over the world, and low limit players have the opportunity of playing in these events through satellite tournaments. After that there is no telling what can happen. Chris Moneymaker turned a $43 satellite tournament into a $10,000 seat to the WSOP Main Event, and this is essentially is when the poker boom began as Moneymaker won the main event for $2.8 million. Anything is possible once you are entered in the big one.

Another way to obtain these seats from playing online is through a series of sit ‘n’ go tournaments called ‘steps’. Steps are available on some poker rooms and they are a very effective way to gain entry into a major tournament. There some occasions in which sites allow you to play in a bigger tournament on their site instead of continuing in the step process. Steps work as follows. Let’s say we are playing in Step 1 and it’s a 9 man sit ‘n’ go (results vary by poker room). The top 2 finishers of the sit ‘n’ go will earn tickets toward step 2, the third place finisher will receive a step 1 ticket, and everyone else leaves with nothing. If you can make your way through a set amount of steps then you will find yourself as the winner of a very nice package. Packages mostly include tournament buy-ins, travel fees, hotel accommodations, and other various prizes. I really recommend satellite tournaments and steps to players that want to play in the major events all around the world. Good luck at the tables my friends.

Craig Fleck