Super-satellite strategy is similar to normal tournament strategy in the early and middle stages of a tournament. Late in a super-satellite tournament, it’s a whole different ball game.

Late in a super-satellite you aren’t thinking about what the most profitable move is for your chip stack. You should be thinking of what you have to do to win one of the seats the poker site you’re playing on is giving away in that tournament. The prize structure should trump all other factors, including the strength of your hand, when you’re deciding how to play a hand.

For example, imagine you go on a rush in a regular $20+2 tournament with over 500 entrants and now have 70,000 chips when the blinds are at 400/800 and you are 10 eliminations away from being in the money. You now have a license to bully the table, because most players will be playing tight to avoid getting eliminated before they’re in the money. Even if you do lose a big hand, you will still have a fairly healthy stack. This is a time to be aggressive.

If the same situation occurred in a super-satellite near the bubble, you would be a fool to raise the pot so frequently. Sure, you would be successful most of the time, but you already have a seat locked up. Why would you invite variance here? You have nothing to gain by playing aggressively in this example and everything to lose.

I can’t stress this enough. Don’t play in situations where you have nothing to gain by winning. I would fold AA in the above example and not think twice about it. If you were in a slightly more tenuous chip position, but still healthy, you might consider pushing the AA. I wouldn’t invite a caller unless I really needed a double up, though. AA gets beaten 15 percent of the time by a random hand. There are many players with big stacks late in a super-satellite who just can’t bring themselves to make this fold, which is one of the reasons satellites are so profitable. Often they will lose a seat because they can’t slow down.

A more common problem for most players is how to play with a medium-sized stack late in a super-satellite. You can’t fold your way into the money, but your stack is too big to adopt a simple fold or go all-in strategy. You're in a spot where if you raise and are re-raised all-in you will almost have the pot odds to make a call with most hands, but not quite. Even though it may be tempting, I would avoid limping (just calling the big blind before the flop) in this situation. Limping is generally a bad idea late in any tournament, unless several others have done it in front of you. It provides no way to win a pot before the flop.

Let’s clarify the situation. By medium stack, I mean a stack containing 10 to 15 big blinds late in a tournament. Anything less than 10 BB and you should be pushing all-in or folding, nothing in between. Anything more than 15 BB and you are able to raise a normal amount and then fold. If your stack is in the tricky spot between those two landmarks you should be patient. Tighten up as a rule. Steal-raise as the exception.

The reason I advise a tight strategy as a medium stack is only one of the following four scenarios is good for you if you steal-raise: 1. You raise 3.5x the BB, get re-raised all-in and have to fold. 2. You raise 3.5x the BB and get called. 3. You push all-in and get called. 4. You win the pot pre-flop.

You’re kind of in no man’s land when you have this size stack. None of your aggressive options really make sense, yet you don’t have enough left to fold your way to a seat, especially if the blinds are increasing in the next few minutes. Consider this a lower pressure short-stack period. You’re an outfielder and it’s the warning track.. I would push all-in most of the time when I am going to play, unless I pick up QQ, KK or AA and feel like I could get a caller with a normal raise. Any other hand you play you should go all in with. Your immediate goal is to get your stack to one of the playable sizes, though you’re in no hurry to do so. You may pick up a good hand during this interim period and win yourself a nice pot as a bonus. Since the situation makes “playing” difficult here, we’re not going to “play.” Think of it more as “fishing” for a good hand until you acquire a stack bigger than 15 big blinds or smaller than 10 big blinds.

Keep in mind that this process might happen very fast in a turbo satellite, in which the blinds increase every five minutes. Also keep in mind that the blinds practically double every two levels on most sites. On Pokerstars, for example, the blinds increase by an average of 48 percent each level. Play cautiously when appropriate, but don’t let yourself get swallowed by the blinds.

Playing a small-stack late in a super-satellite is relatively easy if you’re not quite near the bubble yet. You should be in push all-in or fold mode. If you spot a player who seems like he’s playing tight, you should probably try to steal his blind with an all-in move occasionally, if you’re four seats or fewer away from him. Your preferred hand for this type of move is two medium-connecting cards, like a 78-suited, because your opponent is playing tight. If he calls, he likely has two big cards. You want both of your cards to be live when playing a big pot like this (you wouldn’t want to take your A6 up against his AK, for example). If someone raises in front of you, you need a very good hand to re-raise all in, unless he is in late position and you put him on a steal. Even then, you may get called by a player with 27-offsuit if your stack is small enough, so be careful.

As you near the payout bubble, it becomes very difficult to play a short stack. Imagine having the 16th biggest stack with 20 players left in a super-satellite that pays out 16 places. If you make a foolish all-in play, you cost yourself a seat. If you let yourself get blinded down to the felt, you cost yourself a seat. The best thing to do is to get AA every hand in this situation. I still can’t figure out how to do that, though. My next best piece of advice is to do your homework. Know the odds, know the payout structure, know the blind structure, know your opponents and know what’s going on at the other tables. Pay particular attention to how far away the big blind is from you and from the other short stacks. Sometimes you need to seek out that double up and sometimes you can wait out your opponents. This type of situation is going to take some experience to play correctly.

If you make a mistake, don’t beat yourself up over it. No one likes being the bubble boy or bubble girl, but there’s one every tournament. Learn from your mistake and move on. If you have to fix a wall because you punched a hole in it, that’s money that could have been spent on super-satellites.