World Series of Poker 2006

Though the World Series of Poker, often abbreviated WSOP, is still a few months away, there are hundreds of satellite tournaments running both online and off for seats to the $10,000 buy in main event. This has already created a “buzz” that will continue to grow until the WSOP starts.

Though all of the satellite tournaments are for the main event, as most of you are probably aware, there are many other World Series events with buy-ins from $1,000 to $5,000. These facts lead me to a question that I found interesting. If you had the $10,000 buy-in for the main event, would you play in it or play in three of the smaller events with lower buy-ins?

Of course there are plusses and minuses to each course, but I have decided that I would play as many events as possible instead of the main event. The main event does offer by far the largest prize pool, but it also has the most entrants, which make short-term luck just as important as skill. By entering more events that each has fewer entrants, your playing abilities are more likely to award you and luck will be much less of a factor.

Possibly the biggest reason is from a purely mathematical standpoint. Even the very best poker players in the world only win a percentage, often a small one, of the tournaments that they enter. By entering more tournaments, you give yourself the best opportunity to place in the money in at least one, hopefully more.

All of this leads me to question why the online poker rooms don’t offer satellite tournaments to many of the lower buy-in events. They would be able to award many more seats to WSOP events. For example, they could award five times as many seats with the same number of entrants to a $2,000 buy-in event, giving online players a much higher chance of winning seats. That would interest me much more than a $10 buy-in satellite that only awards one seat per thousand entrants.

Whatever your goals are concerning the WSOP; I hope you achieve them and are able to play in the upcoming events. There are hundreds of satellites running now, so find the best one for you, and good luck at the tables.