A Super Satellite to Remember
Part One
By Susie Isaacs

Playing a super satellite at the World Series of Poker to win a seat in the main event has to be one of the toughest hurdles for a poker player to attempt. The buy-in is $225 with multiple rebuys offered during the first hour of play. Players begin with $200 in chips and have the option of rebuying at any time if they have $200 or less in chips. The rebuys are $200 each and you receive $200 in chips. The game is no-limit hold'em, blinds start at $5-$10 and the rounds are 20 minutes.

Poker rooms have a "Zero Tolerancy" policy, I have a "Zero Rebuy" policy in Super Satellites which makes for a great overlay if I do get lucky enough to win a seat. One of the hardest things to overcome in these Super's are the players with deep pockets. These players tend to gamble more and sometimes that makes it hard to avoid bad beats. On the other hand, deep pockets put a lot of chips on the table which can work in your favor when you have the best hand.

My first goal in a Super is to at least double through before the end of the rebuy period. This can very easily mean playing only one premium hand during the first hour. After the rebuy period is over the players with the deep pockets along with everyone else tend to settle down and play real tournament poker, as no more rebuys are available. To win a Super the tough part is knowing what to do and when to do it. Timing is everything.

I have always said you have to get lucky a minimum of five times to win a tournament and that brings me to the good news. I got lucky six times and, yes, I won a $10,000 seat on Tuesday, May 1.

Winning a seat in a Super Satellite isn't particularly newsworthy, a lot of players do it. It was how I won my seat that was not only interesting but also a little scary. Like I mentioned, I got lucky six times, five of those times got me to the final table and the sixth luck factor won me the seat! Luck was not the only factor, skill put me in a position to capitalize on those lucky breaks.

We were at the final table and we were down to five players. They were paying four seats and I must admit I was a little nervous, no, I was a lot nervous.

At one point I was the chip leader at the final table after winning a nice pot with an uncalled hand. Now I can reveal that mystery hand. I was on the big blind and the gentleman on the button made a substantial raise which ultimately took about 75% of his chips. I looked down at my cards to find an A-Q suited. I thought about it and decided he was on a bluff to pick up the blinds so I reraised enough that would put him all-in if he called. He pondered my raise for several minutes and decided to muck his cards. I guess I read him just right. That hand gave me a slight chip lead and now I could relax a little and go back to being very patient.

My plan was, not to risk any unnecessary chips, and just wait out the departure of one more player and collect my receipt for my $10,000 seat in the big one. Well, things didn't quite work out the way they were supposed to, nor the way I had planned. There were now two players with short stacks and in a perfect world at least one would be eliminated and that would be that.

Not so, first the player with the shortest stack doubled through and if that wasn't enough he did it again, and again. Oh, well there was one more player that couldn't make it through his blinds and then it would be over.

Damned, if it didn't happened again! The other short stack survived his blinds and then on the next hand he picked up more chips.

Things had changed so much that my plan to stay out of the way until a player was eliminated was in serious trouble. I was no longer the chip leader due to my blinds being snatched up by the other players and I now had to go back to playing my game, as I was becoming the short stack.

On the next hand I was going to have to post the big blind again, that meant another $1,600, I couldn't keep doing that and survive. I looked down and found a K-Q and being as short-handed as I was becoming, I decided it was time to make a move. I announced, "All-in," pushed my chips to the center of the pot, and held my breath for what seemed to be an hour. The player to my left thought and thought and then announced, "All-in." My heart sank and all I could think was, this could be it. For him to commit his chips, I knew in my heart that his two cards beat my two cards before the flop. My only hope was to suck-out! I never dreamed in a thousand years that another player would call! But one sure was thinking about it. Now what? Stay tuned ... for Part 2.