Pocket Guide to Online Satellites to the WSOP

Shawn Perry : May 13th, 2009

It’s that time of the year again, the time where the lobbies of major online poker rooms all become geared, at least in part, to a singular goal – sending players to the World Series of Poker. Each room generally has a multitude of ways to get you there, with some offering a better value (or at least an softer route) to the main event. Here’s our guide to the sattys available at major online rooms.

As always, we do our best to get you accurate information, but times, terms and the like may have changed since we wrote this, so confirm everything with the room before you play.

PokerStars

Stars has a variety of ways for you to win a 12k WSOP package (entry plus expenses).

Cash Qualifiers
Stars is running two large open cash qualifiers per week – a $1,050 buy in qualifier on Fridays at 8:30 PM EST and a $650 on Sunday at 6pm EST. There are also big buy in sattys limited to Australian and European players. Each has multiple super-satellite paths leading up to the qualifier if you’re not interested in a direct buy in. There are also several lower buy in direct satellites that run at multiple points during the day, including a $33 rebuy and various double shootout tournaments. To view a full list, open Stars, click ‘Events’, ‘WSOP’ and then ‘Cash Satellites’.

FPP Qualifiers
FPP (Frequent Player Points) players have fewer options to get the the main event, but that’s not surprising. Expect much larger fields (and much weaker competition) as Stars guarantees three FPP-won seats a week in their FPP WSOP Qualifier Saturdays at 4pm EST. Daily super sattys are available; to view a full list, open Stars, click ‘Events’, ‘WSOP’ and then ‘FPP Satellites’.

Steps Qualifiers
Stars has expanded their steps offerings over the last few years, and the Steps lobby for the WSOP seems to be filling up pretty well in the early going. The Steps tournaments are a tiered tournament system with 6 levels. Each tournament generally awards a ticket to the next step to the top finishers and repeat chances at the current step (or a step below, depending) to some of the the runners up. For example, in Step 5, a nine player tournament, 1st and 2nd get Step 6 tickets, 3rd and 4th get to try Step 5 again, and 5th and 6th head down for another shot at Step 4. Step 6 ($2100) is the tournament that awards WSOP seats, with 2 seats awarded in the 12 player version of Step 6 and 1 seat awarded in the 6 player version.

Full Tilt Poker

Like Stars, FTP is also awarding a 12k WSOP package that includes the 10k buy in to the Main Event and some money for expenses. Their paths to the WSOP include:

Shootouts
FTP is offers 81 player shootouts with a $200+16 buy in running 15:30 ET (20:30 GMT) and 21:30 ET (02:30 GMT), with one $12k package to the Main Event guaranteed. Super-satellites start at $1 or 50 FTP Points.

Weekly qualifiers
Each Tuesday from now until June 21st, FTP is running a $300+22 buy in tournament at 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT) that will guarantee at least two packages. Again, super-sats are available from $1 / 50 FTP Points.

The 150 seat guarantee
At 18:00 ET (23:00 GMT) on Sunday, June 21st, FTP will be running a $500+35 buy in tournament that will award at least 150 12k packages to the Main Event. Satellites for this tournament are running now, with entries as low as $1 / 50 FTP points.

Race to the Main Event
Full Tilt is hosting a series of step-based freerolls that will eventually award 50 free seats to the WSOP. You can find complete details in the Full Tilt Lobby under the ‘Tournaments’ tab.

Cake Poker

Cake is looking to award not only main event seats, but also seats to smaller events. Details:

Event #54
Cake is running satellites on Saturday at 5 PM and Wednesday at 9:30 PM with a $20+2 buy in. For each $2,500 in the prizepool, one package to event #54, including the buy in and $1,000 in travel money, will be awarded. Cake will also be running direct satellites to event #54 via Gold Card Daily Lottery events starting April 1st.

Main Event
Cake is running satellites every Sunday 4 PM. For a $425 + $30 buy in, players can compete to win WSOP packages worth 13k. One WSOP prize pack per $13k in entries will be awarded. Supersattys for the Sunday WSOP tournaments are running now, with buy ins as low as $5 +.50.

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