Stars WPT $650 satellite strategy (and a yucky hand)

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Won a $25+rebuy tourney the other night (after being down to 110 chips with blinds at 200/400 and 25 chip antes!) and am in the Saturday $650 satellite. I see the blinds go up every 30 minutes and we start with 2500 chips. I was knocked out 45 minutes in (called an all-in with AA to his TT), but even though I was knocked out on a bad beat, to that point I had played poorly and was down to T1800, mostly playing marginal hands. Sadly, I'm not sure what to ask other than what a good general strategy is for these.

In my last two satellites, my strategy has been to play very tight and just try to hang around in the middle of the pack. I made very few plays for the pot until the antes showed up, making pots more worthy of bluffs. This worked fairly well in both, but I ended up with a short stack too much of the time.

The hand that almost busted me...

Milo is on the button with K /images/graemlins/spade.gif J /images/graemlins/spade.gif. 50 players remain, so it's far from over (top 7 get seats). I've got a stack of about 4K, as does UTG. SB has 10K. Blinds 200/400 with 25 ante. UTG limps, all others fold to me, and I raise all-in. SB goes all-in amd UTG calls immediately. They turn over QQ and AK, respectively. The flop has an A, the river is a K. I win the 110 chip side pot and UTG gets the rest. Bad play, right?

[DVC Calif]

KJ is such an easily dominated hand that this should have been an easy fold. If you were simply trying to steal the pot, I have always found it difficult to do so after someone else has limped in, as UTG has done. You must give him credit for having some sort of hand to even come in UTG. Medium-high PP would have been my guess. But Ax is also a possibility that is player dependent.

Limping (or raise of 4-5x BB if you still insist on stealing) would have left you with fold equity when SB re-raised.

In general, playing tight and aggessive when you have premium hands is the accepted practice in MTT's. Change gears occasionaly as the situation presents itself (preferrably late positions). Blind steal with PP and strong drawing hands are better plays, but you can steal with rags as long as you are ready to insta fold if someone comes over the top.

I'm still new at this and am sure the veterans will have more specific advice.

At the very least you made it into this tourney, which I have been trying to do for the past few weeks thru satellites. Congrats on that!

Steve

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

I meant to say, "In my one previous WSOP satellite with this structure..."

[ QUOTE ]
...I was knocked out 45 minutes in (called an all-in with AA to his TT), but even though I was knocked out on a bad beat, to that point I had played poorly and was down to T1800, mostly playing marginal hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

[SharkBait]

BigBait-

Congrats on the satellite win. My strategy for the $650 Bahamas satellite was to immediately cash out and use the $650 to play the $150 shootouts. This "strategy" worked for me as I was lucky enough to win the second one I played. Got 2nd in the 3rd one which would have really stung had I not already won one. Keep an eye on these because even if they don't fill up they still give away a seat. The one I got 2nd in only had 50 people instead of 81.

Good luck!