By Adanthar on April 27th, 2007 (more posts by author)

In addition to sat strategy like the last post, over the years, I've made a couple of big satellite threads on 2+2. At one point, I promised I would update last year's thread and/or talk about how and where to qualify for the WSOP after I got a seat. Hopefully, I'm not done winning seats yet, but here's some things I'll throw out there:

-Just like last year, this year, winning on FTP or Stars gives you a bunch of bonuses if you make the final table or win the ME. The FT first place prize alone adds $1,000 in EV to the tournament if you have an exactly average shot of winning it with 10K entries, $2,000 if it only has 5K, and so on.

-This year, picking between FTP and Stars for qualifying is tricky. When you play an FTP sat, for example, you're basically just playing a regular tournament with a bunch of $12,000 payouts at the top. For a few reasons, this means a tougher field at FTP than normal; FTP also has 12 minute blind levels, where Stars has 30(!) minute blinds, and Stars throws in 1K (or a week's hotel stay) for the first package you win. That makes Stars the best place to win a package if you're only going for one, but the first Stars package is non-refundable or transferable (you must use the seat) and the second only pays out in W$, which are worth around .85 on the dollar. FTP also has the 'King of the WSOP' promo running - I probably won't be playing enough to get there, but clearly, if you're going for multiple seats, Full Tilt's the way to go. (I'm American so I have no idea what, if anything, Party and other non-US sites are doing.)

-Smaller sites remain a good option, but multiple seat satellites are such a huge advantage over winner take all sats that the latter are just about never worth it. The exception is sats with overlays, like the $250+20's at Bodog last year. This year, it looks like Bodog has some overlays again, but they're allowing people to win multiple packages if they're spaced > 30 days apart, which might eventually kill that. (Incidentally, this is a terrible rule.) There are a couple of other sites that might be good this year, too - I won't mention them in print, but you should be discreetly looking around a few out of the way tournament schedules.

Good luck in the WSOP.