Satellite

Also known as: sat, satellite qualifier, step satellite

A tournament that awards seats into a larger event rather than cash, where every winning seat is worth the same.

A satellite pays out identical prizes — usually seats — to everyone who finishes above the seat line. This flattens the payout structure: 1st place and the last qualifying spot win exactly the same thing. That makes the ICM implications extreme.

Because all seats are equal, chips above the amount needed to lock a seat are worthless. Once you are comfortably above the bubble line and a seat is near-locked, you fold almost everything — including hands like AA when a call risks your locked seat against a covering stack. Conversely, very short stacks must gamble while big stacks should avoid all marginal confrontations.

The winning satellite strategy is therefore the tightest bubble play in poker: maximize survival, never put a locked seat at risk, and let other stacks bust into the seats. Chip accumulation only matters until your stack clears the line.