I was fortunate enough to have been invited to the PartyPoker Tour this year, having just returned from the first leg in London. UK live poker has been in need of some competition for a while, and I think this is the tour to do it.
The PartyPoker Tour is a fun, sociable tour in great locations with great staff. However, I would argue that the secret sauce of the tour is the satellite structure, which has already contributed to some big numbers in London. There are several things about the way you can qualify for this series that make it very player-friendly.
Flexible Paths Beyond the Main Event
First of all, you can also qualify for the side events at PartyPoker. One of the biggest frustrations for low-stakes players is qualifying for a live event, busting, and not being bankrolled to play in the other tournaments taking place. At PartyPoker you can also qualify for seat-only tickets for the £150 side events, which is a very welcome touch.
Secondly, the packages are flexible. You get your £500 ticket and £500 in expenses, but you can use them how you see fit. If you qualify for Manchester but something comes up, you can use your ticket for Glasgow. If you win two packages, you can use them both for Manchester if you want to try two bullets (or maybe even three with the extra travel expenses). Some operators force their players to play specific events, which leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
The satellites are pretty fast, especially the final stage, which is a good thing. Let’s be honest, a satellite is a means to an end for poker players, and they include a lot of stalling. Nobody wants to be playing them all night like they might do in a regular tournament.
Perhaps the best part about the satellites is that you have to qualify for the final stage; you cannot directly buy-in. The satellite tree goes £0.20->£1->£5-£25-Final. If you want as short a route as possible, you need to buy in for the £25 phase and then qualify for the final on Sundays.
This might not seem player-friendly, but satellites have always had an issue with satellite experts playing the final direct phases and hoarding all the seats (sorry to say it, but I am one of those players). Nobody wants satellite grinders winning multiple packages for an event they were going to buy in directly to anyway. This system puts the grinders off from playing, and ensures more players who otherwise would not go to these events are able to qualify.
The optimal strategy
There are two key ways in which the strategy is likely to be different in Party Poker Tour satellites. First of all, the early rounds are Phase MTTs, and secondly, the final phase is no direct buy-in.
A Phase MTT is one where you carry your chips from one phase to the next, rather than start fresh with a ‘starting stack’ as you do in regular satellites. For this reason, Rounds Two to Four in the PartyPoker Tour satellites are practically a regular tournament where you want to accumulate chips, rather than just survive.
There may be a ‘bubble’ of sorts at the end of each phase, but it is fictional. There is no reason to play tighter at the end of phase MTTs. The last hand of Round Two is no different to the first hand of Round Three.
Most players do not realise this, however, and they will play too tight. There is room to exploit these players by playing more aggressively than usual at the end of each Round.
The final phase will differ from regular satellite direct buy-in tournaments. It will likely be softer than the equivalent satellites for live events on other sites, because satellite grinders cannot directly buy-in. There will also be some ‘no shows’ from the previous Round, people who qualified but did not play, and players will open up their ranges to steal their dead stacks.
There is also no late registration, everyone starts at the same time, many with deeper than usual stacks. Satellite grinders tend to max late reg satellites and play a very easy shove or fold strategy. There is much more room for good players to make the most of a deep stack in these satellites, and even some satellite regulars will be out of their depth.
Once you get close to the bubble, they become regular satellites again, albeit softer than usual at the buy-in level.
I think satellite players have been overlooked by the industry for a long time but I have been a regular at PartyPoker for years precisely because their satellite structure manages to find the right line between flexibility and disincentivising hoarding. They also overlay quite a lot, do not drag on all night, and they are quite soft. The PartyPoker Tour satellites continue that trend, and I think are one of the reasons why this tour will be a success.
Barry Carter is a PartyPoker Tour Ambassador and the co-author of Poker Satellite Strategy. You can find out more at SimplifyPoker.com.
