Rio Single Table Satellites

[JuntMonkey]

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As has been mentioned, the competition is weak, but on a short bankroll, running into idiots playing their hands wrong then sucking out on you, or not hitting your monster draw, isn't prudent, which happened both times to me, which was $250 down the drain - a $250 I could turn into $1000 putting in my time at the cash games.

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You should move up in stakes where they'll respect your bets and raises more.

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nh

[Slim Pickens]

Show up with 20 buy-ins. If you bust, you either suck or ran about 95th percentile cold.

[MrTimCaum]

I'm finally back in Vegas after a month in Philly, SC, and NC visting friends and family. After I relax for a little bit, I'm heading over there to play a few of these.

[Slim Pickens]

Disclaimer: This is all just my opinion. Don't blame me when someone wins eight consecutive coin flips and you go home empty-handed.

Deals:

So after getting HU in two of the lower buy-ins (125 and 175), I've developed a few thoughts about deals in the WSOP satellites. All of my experience has been low-level, but unless some of you have experience to the contrary, everything I've heard makes me think it will apply at higher levels.

1) Most of your opponents are worse than you are. They are tourists, wannabe "pros," or low-limit internet players looking for a big score. They are risk averse. As such, you should not be willing to accept anything less than a chips chop under any circumstances.

2) The satellites pay out in $500 buy-in chips, anywhere from two to a whole rack. All of them pay out a small amount of cash, usually $120-150, that can help slosh deal-making around a little bit. It is not trivial to get cash for a chip unless one of the players involved agrees to do it. I can't imagine trying to run around with a complete stranger selling a single $500 buy-in chip when no events are running. Pain in the butt... Now what this means is, unless someone is willing to break a chip, deals are discrete in increments of $500, +-$120.

3) Your risk-averse opponents may let you lock up your equity while still playing for some of theirs. Push hard for these types of deals. An example would be if your opponent had a 2:1 chip lead in a $175 (three chips+$120 cash), and you offered to save one chip each and play for the rest. You've locked up all but $40 of your equity and left $580 of your opponent's on the table. You are wagering $40 against $580 as a 2:1 dog. That's a great bet for you. The break-even deal is where you both lock up the same percentage of your equity, not the same $ amount.

4) If you are unsure, decline. Don't get confused. You will never lose money by playing it out if you absolutely cannot figure out if a deal offered by an equally-clueless opponent is good for you or not.

5) If you can break a chip with cash you have on hand, or can easily sell a chip whereas your opponent can't, use this to your advantage. Say you're even in chips, you can offer to chop a 275 (5 chips and $120 cash) as 5 chips to you, $1120 in cash to your opponent. It sounds stupid, but don't be afraid to offer a deal you'd never take yourself.

6) If you don't trust yourself to figure this all out on the fly, write down potential chops for the buy-in before you play. That way, you'll know where to draw the lines.

Anyways, have fun in these. Remember, ABP... Always Be Pwning.

[MicroBob]

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I can't imagine trying to run around with a complete stranger selling a single $500 buy-in chip when no events are running.

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This really isn't a problem.
The tourney-chips are insanely easy to sell.

You don't have to wait for an 'event' to be running.
You can just sell them at another STT (if they still do it the same way).

Very easy to find a $1050 STT and sell them there. I sold a couple of mine to Scott Fischman last year.


Other parts of your advice were very good.
Even if I felt I was better than my opponent I was more than happy to take a 50/50 or 33/33/33 split for a deal if I was behind even just the smallest amount in the tourney.

But you do need to be prepared to go heads-up if the other guy isn't willing to make a deal.

And it may actually be advantageous to turn down reasonable deals if you think your opponent will be super-bad at heads-up OR you think that the opponent may get bothered and/or tiltish if you refuse to deal (since it's practically expected most of the time).

[Slim Pickens]

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I can't imagine trying to run around with a complete stranger selling a single $500 buy-in chip when no events are running.

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This really isn't a problem.
The tourney-chips are insanely easy to sell.

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I'm not really worried about selling chips myself, but a tourist from Wisconsin might not know how to go about it. It's not so much a reality as a negotiation tactic, but perception is reality, right? Also, I'm paranoid about hit-and-run counterfeit operations, on both the currency and chip side.

[pineapple888]

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Also, I'm paranoid about hit-and-run counterfeit operations, on both the currency and chip side.

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This is one issue that has surprised me after I recently moved to Vegas.

Nobody seems to pay the slightest attention to the actual appearance of the chips and Benjamins that flood the town. If it's green and white piece of paper and says $100 in the corner, that seems to be good enough. Or if it's a chip that's mostly yellow with some other random colors mixed in, then it must be worth $1000.

Maybe the cashiers have some super high tech top secret method, but it sure doesn't seem like it. As for bartenders, etc., fuggetaboutit.

Of course, since everyone here uses Benjamins to wipe their... what I mean to say is, since people here don't seem to have all that much respect for a measly $100 bill, I guess it's not that surprising.

[VORP]

I know there's been some discussion on whether or not you can buy into sng's with tourney chips. I was there today and the latest is that you can use them, but only on the $500+ buyins.

[MicroBob]

Yeah, that occured to me too when I was there. A good counterfeiter would be able to have a field-day in Vegas. Although it wouldn't have to be at the WSOP-Rio. It could be anywhere.

Evidently it hasn't proven to be too much of a problem otherwise they would actually take more significant measures against it.


Then I go to the grocery-store or something here in Memphis and they are running that special-ink highlighter on each $20 bill I have given them to make sure the bills are legit and it just seems really silly to me.


To ensure (somewhat at least) against counterfeit operations:
You sell the chips to somebody who is just about to hand his money to the dealer.
If you're off in the corner somewhere then he could be digging into his pocket to find his 'special' counterfeit bills for the chip-exchange.

But if you're getting them when he's at the actual table and about to buy-in then it's roughly about the same chance of him cheating the casino.
Additionally, if the bills are so good that you can't tell the difference then it probably doesn't matter. You would be able to use them elsewhere in Vegas anyway probably.


I wouldn't be too worried about counterfeiting and stuff like that.
Then again, I'm one of those ignorant/less-worldly midwesterners who might be more susceptible to such schemes.

[MrTimCaum]

I just got back, played 1 $125 and finished 3rd ( [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] ), and played a $175 afterwards and chopped when we got HU, taking $1000 in lammers and $80 cash, giving the other guy $500 in lammers and $40 cash.

Hopefully I'll have time to go back tomorrow to win another $1000 so I can play the $2000 event coming up.