Internet poker rooms offer single-table satellites into all sorts of events. They also offer double-shootouts, which is just another way of saying two single-table satellites in a row. Controlled aggression and adjusting to the strategy of your opponents is the key to winning a single-table satellite.

You should be willing to take reasonable chances in single-table satellites, because they typically only pay one spot (see our article on winner-take-all multi-table satellites for a discussion of similar concepts). Early in the tournament, when the blinds are small, you can play more speculative hands, hoping to flop a monster and double up. Late in the tournament, you should be raising aggressively when you get a chance, hoping to take down the blinds and antes.

Raise and re-raise for value early in a single-table satellite, when the blinds are small. With something like KK, your goal in raising is to make the pot bigger so opponents will have to pay you off on later streets as much as it is to raise to shut out the naked aces. You are going to have to win all the chips eventually, so there’s no room for passive play.

You can invite a little risk if it increases the profitability of a hand. Say you have TT and the flop is T-9-5 with two clubs on board. If you are heads up with a single opponent and you both still have a lot of chips in your stack, bet just a little bit more than a straight or flush draw would need to call. The conservative play would be to shut out anyone with two clubs or a QJ or something, but that isn’t the optimal play here. In a regular tournament, you might make a bet of three-quarters of the pot or the whole pot and hope the other T is out there, or maybe a hand like A9-suited. In a single-table satellite, I would bet half the pot, which would make it mathematically incorrect for a straight or flush draw to call, but still make it look attractive to the average player.

I wouldn’t fold too many hands in which I put money into the pot either. If you have a 1,700 stack and raise in late position to 350 with 77 and the small blind goes all-in on you, I would call. There is a decent chance that you are against a larger pair, but it’s more likely you are against two unpaired high cards. In a normal tournament I wouldn’t call that raise against a typical player. In a winner-take-all format, though, you have to adjust your calling values slightly in favor of higher variance moves. This can be taken too far, however. I would probably fold the hand if I had 33 or 22 because your chances of being against an overpair are a little higher and your chances of being against an underpair are zero. Also, if there were two raises after me or a raise and a call, I would fold.

Here’s a Daniel Negreanu article which gives an example of a hand in which it was incorrect for his opponent to fold a big draw.

Toward the end of a satellite you will find yourself playing short-handed. Hand values start to change as more players are eliminated. You can start raising a little more liberally now with hands that were likely to get you in trouble at the beginning of the tournament, like KT-suited. Recognize which players aren’t adjusting their hand values and attack them. Recognize players who are becoming more aggressive and try to exploit them. This is a good kind of opponent to check-raise. If he raises from late position, you call with QJ-offsuit and hit a flop of J-2-8, check to him. He’ll almost certainly make a continuation bet. Then you can check-raise him.

Don’t be afraid to go broke late. You need to take some risks in order to succeed. Remember, the second place guy gets the same prize as the 10th place guy (except in some satellites which return the buy-in to the second place player).

When the tournament gets to heads-up, your play will depend on how high the blinds are. If you each have more than 15 BB you can call and raise a lot on the button. You should fold the following hands: 26-offsuit, 27-offsuit, 28-offsuit, 29-offsuit, 37-offsuit, 38-offsuit, 39-offsuit and 49-offsuit. You should play every other hand, unless this guy is super aggressive. From the button/small blind, I would raise about 50 percent of the time and just call about 50 percent of the time on average. Raise more often with your better hands and just call more often with your inferior hands, but you have to mix that up a little bit, to avoid being predictable. Play tighter from the big blind. You don’t want to play big pots out of position.

If either one of you has a stack that is less than 8 big blinds, a similar strategy applies, except you will be going all-in instead of raising three times the big blind. If I have 20,000 chips and you have 6,000 and the blinds are 500/1,000, I am going to push all-in from the small blind with A9 every time. I’d be incorrect to do that if we both had 20,000 chips, however, even in a winner-take-all format. Stack size should dictate the degree of your aggression.