Seneca Trip Report - WSOP Satellite
Forumers took Seneca Casino by storm this week. Aside from the 6 Ching Hill members, pokerJAH, Redington, Big_Chips, Wetts1012, all_aces & his girlfriend, and many other Canadians desperately seeking a decent tournament were there. Feel free to add more, but here are the forumers' accomplishments that I know of:
1) Congratulations to all_aces for winning a satellite then 2nd place in the two-day event with a prize pool of $74,000.
2) Ching Hill had 2 players in the top 5 of the Sunday $225 event! Congratulations to derksen & BigChrisEl.
3) Hayley made it to the money at the Friday $330 event.
4) Shopsy2 won money at the first tournament on Wednesday.
5) My highlight was winning Seneca's WSOP satellite.
I sign up for the WSOP satellite whenever I go to Seneca, but Sunday was the first time I know that there were the 11 signed-up players required to hold one. The information on Seneca's website is hard to understand and actually misleading. There is supposed to be a $400+10 WSOP Super Satellite sometime in March. Each winner will get a $10K seat, airfare, 10-day hotel & $1,000 cash. The number of seat winners and runner-up prizes will depend on the number of players, e.g., there will be two seat winners if there are at least 60 players. The winner of the initial $40 satellite wins a $410 seat to the Super Satellite.
The starting chips is supposed to be 1,500, but we only got 800. The rounds were supposed to be 20 minutes long, but it was only 15 minutes.
According to the structure sheet, the blinds were supposed to be 25/25, 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400 then 300/600. However, the advertised information was again not followed and the 150/300 level was improperly skipped.
The floor person incorrectly claimed that there was no rake for the satellite, but with the prize being a $410 seat, the rake is $30 or only 6.8%. A couple of savvy players suggested putting an extra $10 each so that the runner-up would win cash, and everybody agreed. The effective rake became only 5% ($30/550). Usually the casino will not approve or help with the side deal, so one player kept the $110 cash. When I eliminated that player, I took the cash & put it on the table.
With the wrong structure followed, it was already heads-up with 300/600 blinds only one hour and 15 minutes into the satellite. The average M was less than 5. My opponent on the puck limped. I checked with
:jd :9d
The flop came
:ad :7d :9c
We went all-in. He had A-2, and he probably intended to trap me from the beginning. He had top pair, but I was actually a 51% favourite. The turn was a brick, but I got one of my 14 outs on the river:
:js
I had won the $115 satellite to the $1,070 tournament on my first try and I had now won the satellite to the $410 WSOP Super Satellite on my first try. I was asked for government ID and phone number, and was issued a receipt. They are supposed to phone me when they know when the Super Satellite will be held.
The advertised structure is very good for a $40 satellite. The Skill Level is 2, compared to 0 for most Ontario casino SNGs. For anybody else who dreams of playing in the WSOP main event, I would recommend these satellites along with participating in a WSOP league or rake-free satellite. There are a lot of WSOP leagues in the US where the league champion gets to play in the WSOP Championship Event, but there are only a few good ones that I know of in the GTA.
I am going to Las Vegas next week (for the first time since I learned how to play poker), so I may not be back to Seneca for awhile to win more of these +EV transferable seats, but here are my suggestions for those who are interested in the satellite.
1) Print out the two pages I linked to above. Before going to Seneca and paying, verify that they will follow the advertised structure.
2) Every time you phone or sign in at Seneca, request that a WSOP satellite interest list be started and sign up.
3) Get the other players to agree to add cash for a runner-up prize, e.g., $5-$35 each. In the Seneca satellite where my carpool friend won, the 2nd place finisher had refused to participate so she ended up with nothing while 3rd place got all the cash! The rake becomes less of a factor, and the $EV goes up for an above-average player.
OR
hire a "satellite king" to win the seat for you.
1) Congratulations to all_aces for winning a satellite then 2nd place in the two-day event with a prize pool of $74,000.
2) Ching Hill had 2 players in the top 5 of the Sunday $225 event! Congratulations to derksen & BigChrisEl.
3) Hayley made it to the money at the Friday $330 event.
4) Shopsy2 won money at the first tournament on Wednesday.
5) My highlight was winning Seneca's WSOP satellite.
I sign up for the WSOP satellite whenever I go to Seneca, but Sunday was the first time I know that there were the 11 signed-up players required to hold one. The information on Seneca's website is hard to understand and actually misleading. There is supposed to be a $400+10 WSOP Super Satellite sometime in March. Each winner will get a $10K seat, airfare, 10-day hotel & $1,000 cash. The number of seat winners and runner-up prizes will depend on the number of players, e.g., there will be two seat winners if there are at least 60 players. The winner of the initial $40 satellite wins a $410 seat to the Super Satellite.
The starting chips is supposed to be 1,500, but we only got 800. The rounds were supposed to be 20 minutes long, but it was only 15 minutes.
According to the structure sheet, the blinds were supposed to be 25/25, 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400 then 300/600. However, the advertised information was again not followed and the 150/300 level was improperly skipped.
The floor person incorrectly claimed that there was no rake for the satellite, but with the prize being a $410 seat, the rake is $30 or only 6.8%. A couple of savvy players suggested putting an extra $10 each so that the runner-up would win cash, and everybody agreed. The effective rake became only 5% ($30/550). Usually the casino will not approve or help with the side deal, so one player kept the $110 cash. When I eliminated that player, I took the cash & put it on the table.
With the wrong structure followed, it was already heads-up with 300/600 blinds only one hour and 15 minutes into the satellite. The average M was less than 5. My opponent on the puck limped. I checked with
:jd :9d
The flop came
:ad :7d :9c
We went all-in. He had A-2, and he probably intended to trap me from the beginning. He had top pair, but I was actually a 51% favourite. The turn was a brick, but I got one of my 14 outs on the river:
:js
I had won the $115 satellite to the $1,070 tournament on my first try and I had now won the satellite to the $410 WSOP Super Satellite on my first try. I was asked for government ID and phone number, and was issued a receipt. They are supposed to phone me when they know when the Super Satellite will be held.
The advertised structure is very good for a $40 satellite. The Skill Level is 2, compared to 0 for most Ontario casino SNGs. For anybody else who dreams of playing in the WSOP main event, I would recommend these satellites along with participating in a WSOP league or rake-free satellite. There are a lot of WSOP leagues in the US where the league champion gets to play in the WSOP Championship Event, but there are only a few good ones that I know of in the GTA.
I am going to Las Vegas next week (for the first time since I learned how to play poker), so I may not be back to Seneca for awhile to win more of these +EV transferable seats, but here are my suggestions for those who are interested in the satellite.
1) Print out the two pages I linked to above. Before going to Seneca and paying, verify that they will follow the advertised structure.
2) Every time you phone or sign in at Seneca, request that a WSOP satellite interest list be started and sign up.
3) Get the other players to agree to add cash for a runner-up prize, e.g., $5-$35 each. In the Seneca satellite where my carpool friend won, the 2nd place finisher had refused to participate so she ended up with nothing while 3rd place got all the cash! The rake becomes less of a factor, and the $EV goes up for an above-average player.
OR
hire a "satellite king" to win the seat for you.
Comments
I heard a dealer complain vociferously about how much he didn't want to deal a Satellite. So I imagine that's why the cut down the blinds and stacks sizes. Dealers hate satellites. ...
Can you take $11,000 cash as your prize?
I don't think it's good bankroll management to play $10,000 tournaments ...
To play $10,000 tourneys you would need a bankroll well over a million dollars ...
I've heard the main event is really soft and I don't doubt that you have and edge or even that it's probably +ev.
But I wonder if it's the best use of your cash from an expected earning point of view ...
This is my POV. Your investment into the $10K seat is X amount of dollars. You are technically not playing above your bankroll, so why not take a shot and see if you can parlay that into X millions.
Again, assuming you can take cash and not the seat, I know some people might be tempted to just take the cash, but why not try to run hot like Jamie Gold?
The probable reason for the incorrect structure is that the employee on duty was clueless about the advertised structure and simply chose a previously used structure that would finish the satellite ASAP. A similar thing has happened before when all the employees on duty that I asked were clueless about the Monday satellites, so there were not enough players that knew to even hold the satellite.
The $EV for an average player in the $10K Main Event is less than $9,400, but if the cost to him was only a $1000 satellite, then it is highly +$EV for that average player to play.
In addition, poker players seek to maximize utility (e.g., fun, socializing, satisfy a gambling addiction or cover up pain), instead of to maximize just money. Many poker players dream of playing in the Main Event. If they win a $10K seat & they don't desperately need the cash buy-out, most players will get more utility playing out their dream than depositing the buy-out in a bank.
Since I already plan to play in the final WSOP Event #55, if I win a seat to Main Event #54, then I will gladly use the seat. If Seneca or my WSOP leagues has the option of taking the ~$12K seat package in 100% CASH, then the best use of the cash for me from an EV point of view may be to use it to play more WSOP satellites, win a seat & keep the rest of the cash. :smilie:
Seneca Poker will host our first WSOP Satellite at our Niagara Falls Poker Room on Thursday, March 27th at 7 p.m.