Dara O'Kearney (Satellite Specialist) - Ask Me Anything about satellites/knockouts

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Hello! Introducing into proffesional poker, for now playing freeroll satellites. Avg. starting stack is 12.4 blinds, what strategy should i have? I cant understand what is most profitable range, for these types of tournaments. Can you please help me
 
Hi Dara, I just wanted to let you know that I am thoroughly enjoying your book, 'GTO POKER SIMPLIFIED'. It is excellent and just what I've been looking for. (I also have most of your other books, PKO, Satties, End game)
Good luck in the World Series this year... and good luck sifting through these posts! (you got some real doozies in here)
 
Hello Dara,

i want to ask you what is a good balance between playing time @table and spending time not@ table- do you could give me an advise in hours ;-)!?

greets Balou
 
Hi Dara

I wanted to ask you a couple of questions.

A few years back I used to spend a fair amount of time watching a select few Pokerstars team pro players. One of them was a Hyper Sit & Go Satellite specialist George Lind (jorg95).

So my first question is do you think Sit & Go Satellites can help your game and give you a transferable skill set that can be useful and put to good affect in MTT Satellites.

My other question is have you ever crossed paths with George Lind (jorg95)
if so if there anything interesting you could tell me about him or your meetings.

Thanks in advance

Also thanks for the work your doing here on the Cardschat Forum.

Gl on the grind all and as always see you at the tables.
 
How should a satellite be played is there any difference with respect to a guaranteed MTT?
 
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Hey Dara
Do you feel there is much difference in the level of difficulty between now and when you wrote your satellite book? Considered that the game is constantly evolving....or so they say....what differences are there to look out for now as opposed to then?
Thank you for your consideration. All the best, David
 
Hi Dara,

I always seem to struggle with satellites at the last hurdle and end up bubbling. What would you recommend to avoid this? I think my main issue is playing too conservative towards the end and running out of blinds.
 
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Hi Dara, just watched the Cardschat video on YT with you on GTO and it was very good !! I have a speculative question for you.... what percentage of online players do you think use at least some GTO theory and what percentage of live players use it?

Thanks
 
ObbleeXY said:
A few questions...apologies if you get these a lot:
1) When a rebuy is immediately available (ie you don't need to bust out), is it foolish to not do so?
2) Similarly, is it foolish to pass up on the opportunity for an add-on?
3) I often play freeroll satellites, and quite often lead the tournament from early on until circa 20-30 players. (Assume 2000 started). I'm happy navigating my way through up until this point, but find it harder when I get to the point where most people have <10BB and everyone is simply shoving.
How do shove and call ranges change when one gets to this point in the match. I'm getting tired of missing out on those tickets.
4) I do manage to win a fair few of the freeroll satellites but find myself getting crushed when I play the next round. How does one adjust to how different the games later satellite rounds are, as it seems the strats that got me there don't work at the higher levels?
Thanks!
Regards.,
JT
Click to expand...
1) Generally it's best not to rebuy unless the rebuy is cheaper than the buyin. If you double up first hand of a tournament the value of your stack doesn't double because of ICM. Same applies here
2) If add on is the same price as buyin then the answer is the same, but add ons are usually more chips for same price as buyin (to encourage them) in which case you should take the addon unless you have an absolutely massive stack
3) Sounds like you need to study ICM ranges in those spots. We explain the overall concepts in "Satellite poker strategy" (https://amzn.to/42EjqxW). You can study these ranges in depthn with preflop tools like Holdem Resources Calculator
4) Generally the higher the standard the closer to GTO you should play rather than relying on individual exploits or tricks.

Thanks for your very interesting questions!
 
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I'm playing in the ACR software and really the variance isn't as much as it is in PS.
Do you think it has something to do with a game on PS as opposed to a game on ACR?
Is the structure of the MTT different in each room?
Is it possible that I feel more comfortable with how the distribution system (in ACR) is favorable right now or will it be a hook to catch me?
 
Dara OKearney said:
Hi Cardschat,

I am Dara O’Kearney, known as Doke online. I am an Irish poker professional tournament player, with over $1 million in live earnings and more than $3 million in online MTTs, not to mention 8 PocketFives Triple Crowns.

I am perhaps best known for being a satellite specialist. I have won over $1 million in online satellites alone and have just written a new book on this subject called Poker Satellite Strategy:

Away from the tables I am the co-host of the Global Poker Award winning Chip Race Podcast and sponsored by Unibet Poker. Prior to poker I was an ultra marathon runner

Cardschat have kindly agreed to let me do an Ask Me Anything thread where you can ask me anything at all about satellites and tournament strategy. This will be on an ongoing basis, I’ll be checking in most weeks starting this one to answer your questions and to begin with I will be around tomorrow to answer the first batch.

Also this month I will give a free copy of my book on Apple iBooks to my favourite question, once a week for the next four weeks.

AMA


Dara
Click to expand...
I am a begginer - firs time i heard about freerols and satelites few weeks ago. Till this time i play only roulette, BJ and slots. I started play poker few months ago - Ind now I LOVE THIS GAME 🙂🙂
I dream about playing last phase Fenomeno at PokerStars - it is my favouritte (because of its Name hiihi) also big 109 is super and Titans. I always started with freerol satelite and try to win 3-4 turnaments to get main event - but it is very difficult. It is needed to win 4 turnaments - I win two - and I am very tired because i play after my normal work(job) - I am sleepy and tired and some times just have no phisicall strengh to play 🙁🙁
I will read all Your posts on Cardschat- I find You today 🙂 and will educate 🙂🙂
Regards, Good Luck, Good hands 🙂🙂
 
Is betting high amounts at the start of the tournament a good strategy to accumulate chips, to remain at the end?
 
W33dzLov3r said:
Hello Dara, thank you for taking the time to answer my question as well, I`m curious how professional poker players deal with emotions. When you have a great hand, what`s Your best "trick" to hide the joy, or when you lose terribly, how do you accept it? I mean, I do focus on various things and end up making mistakes and calling KJo against KQo and the villain hits a Q in the river and I`m done....that marks me for a while, and you see...English is a second language for me, in it, you would call this Tilt. How do you fade it away? or accept it and move on faster? More than 1 question for you to choose as a favorite 😀
Click to expand...
Very interesting question and one could write a whole book on this topic (in fact my co-author Barry Carter did with Jared Tendler, The Mental Game of Poker). I think different things work for different people. For myself I remind myself of the following:
(1) It's all one big session. At the end of my career no one hand or bad beat will make much difference
(2) Luck is a vital component to encourage weaker players to play for money
(3) It balances out in the long run

That said, I sometimes feel tilted immediately after busting a tournament because I'm human 🙂 In that case doing something I like helps clear it
 
In progressive knockout tournaments, I heard you refer to converting the bounty to a rough chip value.

In Mini Sunday Million, It's $10 main prize pool, $10 bounty pool with $5 of this immediately on each player's head.

First hand: 10,000 starting chips, Villain open shoves, the pot is starting stack + blinds and antes+ assigned chip value of immediate $5 bounty only?

Roughly, 10,000 + blinds & antes + 2,500 for bounty because $5 is 25% of buy in?

Rough call of 10,000 chips to win 12,500?

Thanks
 
Marcwantstowin said:
Hello, Daro.

I'm a regular satellite player, with the intention of qualifying for tournaments that would normally be above my range as per my BR.

However, my question is about the variance of these satellites. I noticed that at some point on Pokerstars, playing a series of satellites, I still come across the same players. (Many of those who are polite). However, playing with these players, it seems that their ranges vary so much, is it because they hit the variance button? Or would you or they just change the way you play to increase your winning potential, or is it because you play so often with the same players that you feel the need to change to keep your opponents from guessing?

I hope you understand my drift, but as you know here, I usually use 1000 words when enough is enough?

Kises for help. 😛eak:

Marek
Click to expand...
Hi. To this day, I didn't know what the scope of other players was. As the saying goes - a person learns every day (and by playing poker and being a member of this forum - a person learns twice every day). Don't be surprised that your opponent's hands are changing. For example, I - Grzegorz00pl - have been playing for several months and until recently I checked everything and entered every game. I'm learning every day and I've changed it. I am already limiting myself to specific hands. Sometimes it happens to me to fit with A-6 and once I played all in with every Ace. We need to know that we are growing as players and learning - but others do that too. And for this today you play with Grzegorz00pl who checks everything and plays with each hand - and tomorrow you will play with the same Grzegorz00pl but it will only play AA, KK, QQ, JJ, A color. Thank you for all being here - you give me so much every day🙂🙂
 
Colleague O'Kearney.

Does the range of preflod hands between an MTT and SnG vary? Does it have anything to do with the effective stack when making a call or push?
 
Hi Dara! I have an interesting question regarding about mystery bounty tournaments.

Several sites including GG Poker here in Ontario are offering them with many day 1 flights where you can qualify multiple times and accumulate chips. For example, next week they are offering a $2.10 MB tournament w/ $10k guaranteed and a $1k top bounty prize offered, with flights going every 2 hours or so.

What strategy should one execute to maximize your profitability in this?
 
On your opinion what is the best spot on the table, do you have a preference?
 
I love playing knockout poker....I usually attempt to get my buy-in by playing satellite's.
Would greatly appreciate any tip that would give me any kind of edge to make optimal gain's with minimum risk...
So far I have noticed that there is less players in certain timer and day's.
Also people tend to play poker under the influence of alcoholic beverages in the weekend's.
It seems that one has better odds for a payday when they participate in the higher price range games....
Would you have anything to add ?
 
Hello Dara!
In your opinion, how much the entry has to be worth it the time playing satellites. For some low buy-in torneys are also worth it playing its satellites?
 
Hello, Dara.
To be honest, I don't pay attention to satellites - I don't really understand them. Could you tell us what advantages you see in satellites, compared to other types of tournaments?
 
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As a professional tournament poker player, what strategies do you employ to adapt to different stages of a tournament, such as the early stages, the bubble, and the final table? How do your tactics and decision-making processes change as the dynamics of the tournament shift?
 
Dara OKearney said:
Hi Cardschat,

I am Dara O’Kearney, known as Doke online. I am an Irish poker professional tournament player, with over $1 million in live earnings and more than $3 million in online MTTs, not to mention 8 PocketFives Triple Crowns.

I am perhaps best known for being a satellite specialist. I have won over $1 million in online satellites alone and have just written a new book on this subject called Poker Satellite Strategy:

Away from the tables I am the co-host of the Global Poker Award winning Chip Race Podcast and sponsored by Unibet Poker. Prior to poker I was an ultra marathon runner

Cardschat have kindly agreed to let me do an Ask Me Anything thread where you can ask me anything at all about satellites and tournament strategy. This will be on an ongoing basis, I’ll be checking in most weeks starting this one to answer your questions and to begin with I will be around tomorrow to answer the first batch.

Also this month I will give a free copy of my book on Apple iBooks to my favourite question, once a week for the next four weeks.

AMA


Dara
Click to expand...
Good afternoon Dara,

My family originally hails from Ireland, some day I am hoping to visit!

I was trying to read through all the posts but there are so many! I appreciate your time and help you are providing us all.
I have a couple questions here I may ask more but I do not want to bombard you!

1. What are the key differences between playing satellites and regular tournaments, and how should players adjust their strategies accordingly?
2. How important is bankroll management when it comes to satellite play, and what advice do you have for players in terms of managing their bankrolls effectively?
3. What are some common mistakes that players make when playing satellites, and how can they avoid them?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Joey
 
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