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How to build your bankroll with Satellite tournaments

July 8, 2021

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Replay Poker has introduced some new Satellite tournaments! And now we’ve got some advice on how to exploit them.

Yes, you read that correctly! These Satellites are a useful source of free tickets, and they can be used to get even more tickets and chips for no cost.

What are Satellites?

Satellites are traditionally low-stakes tournaments which offer a qualification “ticket” to play in a much larger game, instead of a standard chip or cash prize. 

In some venues, the prize is a ticket which is linked to a particular tournament. These are sometimes called “steps.” 

What do they offer and why are they such a good idea?

Replay has a number of different ticket sizes. While we do run some promotions where a particular ticket is necessary, nearly all Satellites on Replay pay out a flexible ticket which can be used in any tournament instead of chips.

The least expensive tournaments which offer tickets are Freerolls

  • There are six 100k Daily Freeroll Satellites which always pay out tickets.
  • Three of the six Community Freerolls pay out tickets instead of chips.
  • You can play as many times as you like risk free.

Once you’ve won a few 2,500 (2.5K)  or 5,000 (5K) tickets, you might want to try and parley them up into bigger tickets — or hopefully heaps of chips!

Replay offers various low stake MTTs and SnGs for both 2,500 and 5,000 chips, and they all accept a ticket as entry.

There are, however, more Satellite tournaments that pay out bigger tickets. These are all called “Satellite to.” The number in the name is the size of the ticket they pay out.

The Satellite to 7.5K tournament, for example, pays up to 4 Tickets for first place and costs 2,500 to enter. The “mark-up” between a 2.5K ticket to a 7.5K Ticket is modest, but it offers you the chance to earn a ticket more often and stay in the action if you are on a low chip bank.

Satellites to 20K and 50K are also available. These tournaments award fewer tickets, but they are a higher value. 

If you acquire any 20K tickets, you can even seek out the Satellite to 250K event, which now runs twice a day and pays three tickets each time.

250K Tickets can be used in the Opal Gemstone MTTs, some of which pay out over 10 million chips in prizes daily.

Why are they described as “good value”?

Replay guarantees a prize pool in all Satellite tournaments. Almost always, the entries taken from the players are supplemented by us to make up the prize pool.

  • For example, Freerolls are effectively guaranteed prize pools. You don’t have to pay anything!
  • A Satellite to 7.5K which pays 20 tickets for 2.5K may be guaranteed for 150,000 in tickets. But even if 40 players play, they only contribute 100,000 of this prize pool, and Replay adds the remainder. This difference of 50,000 is called “overlay.”

Top Tip: Professional poker players are always on the lookout for overlay. Sometimes it’s just cash or tickets added to a prize pool, but it can also be concessions such discounts, vouchers, or even swag.

Because Replay does not tie tickets to enter a particular tournament, you can also use the ones you win in freerolls to play in some Gemstone MTTs or Astral SnGs. Besides having guarantees (and frequently overlay), these games have weekly leaderboards that offer even more chances to get regular income for your play.