Online Poker

Here at Poker.com, we can't start looking forward to the next World Series of Poker soon enough. Joe Cada and Darvin Moon are old news - which means that poker rooms like Full Tilt Poker and Titan Poker will soon begin offering WSOP seats. Here's some advice for players looking to score a seat in an online satellite tournament.

First up, if you are already going to a WSOP event for sure, just enter it directly and play for seats into other events. Then you aren't worrying about how much you could be spending IN ADDITION to a direct entry, which may throw you off your game entirely. Only players who cannot afford direct entries really benefit from satellite tournaments. Elite tournament players are a different story, but do you win tournaments consistently enough to consider yourself 'elite'? Also, if you have the money to enter directly, isn't your time better spent in ring games?

If you are on a low budget, then you should start playing in satellite tournaments as early as possible and enter tournaments with loyalty point buy-ins. Many poker rooms offer qualifiers in 'steps' where a low cost satellite moves you up to a higher cost one, and so on, until you are playing for a WSOP prize package. If your budget is very low, this may be the only way you can get to the WSOP, so you will need to start working on climbing the steps right away for as cheap an entry as possible per tournament. Don't expect a rise straight to the top - you'll probably stumble a few times before getting near the prize.

Make sure to take advantage of every single freeroll qualifier you can enter, if you have more time than money. Even if you are just playing for a ticket into the first stage of qualifiers, having the time to play in all the freerolls gives you some kind of advantage over the higher stakes players. Considering how many people play for WSOP seats at Full Tilt Poker every year, you can't pass up an opportunity to pull the odds in your favor.

Finally, if you don't have the money to enter a WSOP event directly and you don't have the time to play in every cheap qualifier and freeroll, then you need to choose your opportunities carefully. You should play in the highest step qualifiers you can afford that will give you the best opportunity at a WSOP seat. Other players have the resources to pursue more avenues of getting a seat, but you need to focus all your limited resources into the most likely events to send you to Las Vegas.