[Iceman]

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The satelites pay a free big tourney entry for 1st and your satelite entry back for 2nd. So basically winner-take-all. I've read that with such a payout schedule, one should play as if it was a live game, that is, fairly aggressive, take chips whenever you can, not the super-tight early normally played in tourneys.

My point is, I don't buy that. I think you still need to survive to the final 5 or so before making your move. Maybe my theory is only true in the low buy-in, maniac-rich environment provided by Party. What do ya'll think?

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You should play it much more like a live game than a normal SNG. With a 50-30-20 payout, it makes sense to play very tight once you're near or in the money. The more chips you have, the less each one is worth, and vice versa. There are many situations with 3-5 players left in an SNG where action in a heads-up hand hurts both players in the hand, and benefits their opponent(s). It would often be correct to pass a 55-60% all-in chance, or even much better chances in extreme cases. Stacks 4000-3700-300(you). The first two move all-in. You should definitely fold AA here. When many of your opponents are too loose, you can often make the money by playing very tight and waiting for others to bust out.

In a winner-take all (the tourney you mention is really 90-10, but lets assume 100-0), you can never fold your way into the money, and action between other players always helps one of them and hurts the others in that hand. You would definitely call with AA in the example I gave above, and would grab a 60% all-in chance even if you were the second highest stack. You have to accumulate 8000 chips to win, and it makes sense to get involved early (when the bad players still have chips, and when the blinds are low enough to really use your skills). If you slowly blind off your stack waiting for premium hands and for others to be eliminated, it does you no good to be down to 600 with 4-5 players left. Now you'll need to repeatedly bet all of your stack on hands that are at best little more than coinflips, and you'll have to win money from people who know what they're doing.