First Experience at a Huge Buy-in MTT

I played in the 750K MTT at fulltilt yesterday. I think it's the first time I felt the saying "If you cant spot the sucker at the table the first thirty minutes.... It's You." Very Very solid players. I really didnt get any good run of cards the first hour and anytime I would try to make a move in positioin it was only met with a check-raise. Finally got moved to a different table with stacks closer to mine only to get my pocket queens busted with the villian caught his card with his AK suited.
I won the seat through a $7 , 36 person sattellitte because I would never pay $216 to play in a MTT with my bankroll. Anyways I'll be back to that trouney some day, until then I still have lots of work to do.
I finished about 2000 in a 3200 field.

Congrats! You beat more than a third of the field. If this was your first that is pretty good. My first big event was at the wsop. I busted out in the first 20 minutes. I too had won a satellite into it.
The next one was when I won a sat on FT into a 500K for $14. I ended up beating 50% of field but out of the money.
Those two events gave me a lot of expeience to rely on in other tournaments. Now I am sitting in a hotel room in Vegas and waiting to play in the 10K Ceasars Classic tomorrow. A seat which I won through a drawing. I cant wait to face top players who will enter in the field. Poker is an on going game. The only way we learn is to continue to face tougher opponents and events.
Good Luck

In the future, take the T$ instead of playing the tourney.
Use the T$ to pad your BR.
Just something I would do.

shinedown.45 said:

In the future, take the T$ instead of playing the tourney.
Use the T$ to pad your BR.
Just something I would do.

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Thats some good advice and generally how i do things. Especially when it you (the general 'you') in a long shot situation where you would be better off taking the money anyway.

shinedown.45 said:

In the future, take the T$ instead of playing the tourney.
Use the T$ to pad your BR.
Just something I would do.

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Not sure I agree, I played within my Bankroll for the $7 qualifier. This is a long shot but MTT's is what I enjoy and want to get better at and playing the quality competition can only make you better.
Once in a while you have to take a chance... That's what "Qualifier's" are for.

This is something lots and lots of people aren't aware of, but I'll let you in on it... satellites are just a poor excuse to take shots. You entered a 7$ buy-in to win the 200$ buy-in to the 750K. Ask yourself this: if you registered for a 7$ freeze out and ended up winning it for 200$, would you register for the 750K then? I'm pretty sure you'll answer no... so the correct move is to unregister and keep your 200 T$.

If, however, either your bankroll is not too far from the 100 buy-ins needed for good bankroll management (say, you have 70-80 x 200$ = around 15K, maybe less), OR you don't care about the money at stake and don't mind losing your bankroll to a downswing because, say, you're a very rich man, then go ahead and take the shot. Otherwise, keep the money.

I think that secrets been out a long time ago. Except one event changed all that. And that was Chris Moneymakers stumble into the Main Event at the WSOP on a satellite. Many others followed that example and won events by sating in to it.
Now Im sure that Chris M could have taken that 10K an put it into his Poker Stars account where he would have a nice online BR and kept his nice accounting job. But he didnt opt out for that.
Life is all about taking shots. Many corporations started out with one individual taking a shot. Many failed. Its up to you to take that chance or not.

shinedown.45 said:

In the future, take the T$ instead of playing the tourney.
Use the T$ to pad your BR.
Just something I would do.

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i would do this as well. you can always make another run at the big one through a satellite. i fault myself for being too conservative at times, but in this case, dont let your desire to play in a big tourney cloud your judgement. the tourney will be there. its not goin anywhere. no need to rush in to it.

Congrats! Its always exciting when you get to do the huge buy in tourneys! Better luck next time and keep up the good work

In your situation I would opt to take the T$'s as well. Get used to playing in amongst better players by first playing in the $26 buyins (if you haven't already), then try some of the $55's. If you're comfortable in them, give the $216 a shot. Just my opinion but do know that the game changes drasitcally when you move up in buyins in mtts.
In a bigger buyin tourney (ie. the $750K) you'll get a mix of players,.. due to alot of them satelliting their way in there along with many regulars.

$216 T$'s would go a long ways for $14+1 sat's. to a $55 buyin, etc.

Look, if you don't try it once you'll never know. I say good for you. On the other hand if your main objective is padding your bankroll, then keep the $.

If you believe that after playing the MTT, your play is not up to par, then keep digging in the smaller buy-ins until your ready.

OK i got a free entry into the Ceasers Classic 10K event. I won it. I then came to Vegas. Paid for my own air ticket and got a room at Harrahs. It cost me about $1000. I played in the event for two days and ended up in the money. I won $17,783.00. But not only that I got to sit next to and talk to Mike Sexton, John Hennigan, Hevad Khan, Justin Bonomo, and actually play with them. It was a great event with all the top pros. Like Nam Le, Layne Flack, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, etc. etc. Where else can you get an experience like this. I also talked to a lot of online guys and Card Player writers. It was awesome. Dont eve count yourself out of any experience that could enlighted your life.

Ok, I might sound like a total new comer here but I have never played a satellite. If I place well enough do I just get a free entry to the event or do I get the money to get in, and can keep the cash if I want? I'm sorry if this sounds dumb but I really don't know.

I think people are right in what they say about cashing in their prize rather than play the tourny.

However, a few things here

1) Why enter a sat if all you intend to do is cash in your prize.
2) Sometimes people don`t want to look at this as a cash prize - they do want to look at it as a chance to win big.
3) It can be exciting to play in a big buyin event - so why not do it???

I don`t try this much, but months ago I won a place in a $215 buy in event (It was an O8 game)

I placed in the cash and won $700 - I was not far away from getting into the cash big style - normal stuff - I had the hi lo nuts to the river and I was called all the way by the big stack!!!

So overall I would have won some major cash - if I had won that pot I could have almost folded my way to the final table.

Im a little surprised at how many think I was wrong in Playing in the MTT.
Each week I set a goal of $40 to win by small SnG's and small cash games. Last week I won the $40 and then some. That's why I played in the $7 sattelite. Maybe this is a poor strategy in others eyes but I think it was well worth the experience and would do it again.
If you have no gamble in you then why play poker at all?

If you have no gamble in you then why play poker at all?

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Just seems to me like you could have put $150 or so into your BR to make up for some weeks that don't run so great. If you want to take a shot, you could use the remainder for a MTT (I think FT has the 50/50 for $55?) This way, your bankroll is growing, and you still get to play a larger MTT you discussed.

The Shrog said:

Just seems to me like you could have put $150 or so into your BR to make up for some weeks that don't run so great. If you want to take a shot, you could use the remainder for a MTT (I think FT has the 50/50 for $55?) This way, your bankroll is growing, and you still get to play a larger MTT you discussed.

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So why play a qualfier in the first place?

The thing here is when people play these sats they do not see them as part of their BR. It could be en as a bit of a release and the chance to cash big.

Agree with not playing the big tournament. If you have a bankroll of $1000, and win $215 in a $7 satellite, your bankroll is now $1208 - that some of it is in the form of tournament dollars is almost irrelevant. Still, if you value the experience over the bankroll, then go for it.

I play satellites a lot because I think my edge there is greater than in regular MTTs, and they have much lower variance.

A much undervalued element of bankroll management is the size of the tournament. If, in order to make a sizeable return, you need to make the final table of a large field, you need a helluva lot of buy-ins. If you are playing in a 100 player tourney with 18 prizes you can play it safe, stall your way into the prizes a fair proportion of the time, get your buy-in back then take your chances from there.

The smart money will probably always grab the tounament $ and continue on a set path.

I'm not very smart though, so i bet the stash if i feel like it. Tried the 215$ buyin Sunday Million at Stars this weekend backed by my humongeus 500$ bankroll. Got whacked out so fast my head was spinning. Still had great fun and will do it again.

I dont put any of my own money into online poker though. My BR's at various sites are won. That might make a difference.

crancko said:

The smart money will probably always grab the tounament $ and continue on a set path.

I'm not very smart though, so i bet the stash if i feel like it. Tried the 215$ buyin Sunday Million at Stars this weekend backed by my humongeus 500$ bankroll. Got whacked out so fast my head was spinning. Still had great fun and will do it again.

I dont put any of my own money into online poker though. My BR's at various sites are won. That might make a difference.

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So, I won a seat to the Sunday Million this week. Actually felt kind of good about it. Was down to my last $270 and wound up as big stack for the night. Any advice for playing Sunday?

crancko said:

The smart money will probably always grab the tounament $ and continue on a set path.

I'm not very smart though, so i bet the stash if i feel like it. Tried the 215$ buyin Sunday Million at Stars this weekend backed by my humongeus 500$ bankroll. Got whacked out so fast my head was spinning. Still had great fun and will do it again.

I dont put any of my own money into online poker though. My BR's at various sites are won. That might make a difference.

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Disecting what you have said, the `smart money` would not be playing in a qualifier in the first place.

"I think people are right in what they say about cashing in their prize rather than play the tourny.

However, a few things here

1) Why enter a sat if all you intend to do is cash in your prize.
2) Sometimes people don`t want to look at this as a cash prize - they do want to look at it as a chance to win big.
3) It can be exciting to play in a big buyin event - so why not do it???"
quote

1. why enter a sat. if you don't intend on playing in the tourney?.. many reasons. I've had a friend who primarily played in sats. where payout structure was approx. 1 in 4 getting paid ($14>$55; $55>$216) for a period of one week, playing a couple/few of them each day. He profitted over $1,000 in that one week alone (and yes,. he did take a shot at some of the $55 buyins, but his initial intentions were to acquire a bankroll in a tourney he felt confident in beating..... regularly).
On Fulltilt there are many satellites with a good payout structure, including some token ones as well. If one knows how to play satellites then why not go for throwing a bankroll together in them? How far into the payout structure of a reg. buyin mtt do you have to go before you reach 4x your buy-in..... pretty damn far.
In some of the moderate to higher buyin sats. there are also some decent players (I'd personally prefer to play a $14 sat. over a $5 or $10 mtt any day of the week).
Big Reason for not playing in the bigger buyin that you may have satellited your way into --- if you're not used to playing in bigger buyins online,.. chances are pretty good that you'll be dead money as there are numerous top quality players in those tournaments. Sure take a shot at it... maybe. Personally, I'd want to win a couple of satellites prior to taking the ticket to the big game. Then again, I prefer to watch my bankroll grow steadily, affording myself to play in mtt's at buy-ins where I not only like the play but also where I feel most confident in doing well in them (right now that's not at the $216&up buyins, but also not at the $1 to $10's either).
Up to the individual obviously. My preference would be to take the tourney dollars and my 'advice' for a player who's inexperienced at bigger buyins would be to do the same (take the $216 for example... that's quite a few decent-sized buyins from that, whether they be more satellites at higher buyins or just half decent tourneys,... all would be a hell of alot better than playing in the micros unless that's where one's experience lies)

I play satellites a lot because I think my edge there is greater than in regular MTTs, and they have much lower variance.

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Forgot to say - the "lower variance" thing applies to sats that pay to a reasonable percentage - say 10% plus. Having to win a 36-man tourney to get paid is high variance compared to a 200-player MTT.

I believe it is all on what you want to gain out of the experience. If oyu are looking to see how some of the great players paly playing against them can always been a benificial experience but if you are there to make money and you feel as it you could use the money more than the experience than the tournament dollars is the option. It is all about what you want to gain out of it.