Page 10 - March 2006 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
World Series of Poker® on $240 a Day
Part 1 of 4
by Jim Mercurio
is is the rst of a four-part series that will prepare readers for this year’s World Series of Poker® (WSOP). My next few columns will discuss satellites, satellite strategy and the adjustments to a $1500 two-day event. is is aimed toward a recreational player who would like to attend the almost two-month series of tournaments ( June 25th–August 10th) or a similar event and has up to $2,000 with which to gamble.
L et’s be honest. We don’t want to be Joe Hachem, the 2005 WSOP main event winner. His Australian accent and soul patch are just too cool for school. Our secret desire is to be Steve Danneman, the “ah shucks” amateur who I am sure is reveling in being the
biggest loser: 2nd place, $4.25 million.
Unless you are lucky enough to have a rich Uncle And I am going to do it by playing $200 satellites.
Poker: Wired Aces and River Rats
Page 10
March 2006
Errol who wants to stake you
$10,000 for a 1 in 100,000
long shot at the WSOP main
event, the way you take your
shot at the big time is through
satellites. I am not going
anywhere near the main event,
which will be an 8000-person
circus with a $10,000,000 $1000intournamententrychips.” I spent a day playing
nale. I am taking my shot at
the $1,500-ish events where a
score can still be well into six- gures.
nothing but satellites at
the Los Angeles Poker Classic last month and I earned $2100 in tournament
“A satellite is a ten-person mini- tournamentwhere,say,each person puts up $110 and the
A satellite is a ten- buy-ins for about $800. Immersing myself in the live
satellites helped me sharpen my satellite play. Here are a few pointers on satellite play.
1) Deals. Often times, in the service of risk- and time-mitigation, the nal 2-3 players will make an agreement to split the money. If one player has 7000 chips and two other players have 1500 each in chips for a $1000 pay-out, they may agree to split it $700-$150–$150. If you have been playing
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winnerofthetablegetsa$1,000 a $1,000 entry into a tournament or $1000 in
entry into a tournament or tournament entry chips.
person mini-tournament where, say, each person puts up $110 and the winner of the table gets