The major benefit of participating in a satellite tournament is that it gives you the chance to play in higher stakes events with a minimal buy-in. For novice and recreational players whose bankrolls do not allow them to play even the cheapest tournament events, satellites offer a unique chance to win a seat at a very affordable cost.
Traditionally, satellites in poker have only awarded tickets, seats, or packages to higher buy-in events, and sometimes there will also be some cash prizes given to one or two players depending on the accumulated prize pool.
partypoker has created a fun and exciting satellite format called Bounty Satellites in which players could see themselves freerolling towards a ticket. In these bounty satellites, each buy-in is divided in half - 50% goes towards the tickets awarded while the other 50% is placed on the heads of everyone who enters (the bounty element), thereby creating a different dynamic throughout the tournament!
The mechanics is simple and straightforward - all you have to do is to eliminate an opponent and you will get half of their bounty amount whilst increasing the bounty on your own head by the same amount, much like in partypoker's PKO Power Series tourneys. The main difference here is that once the bubble bursts and the tickets are awarded, everybody who survived will still get to keep their own bounty.
Benefits of Bounty Satellites
For those unfamiliar with bounty satellites and wondering what are the benefits of joining one, read on below.
This format can reduce variance in satellites dramatically by giving you the chance to win a portion, all, or more than your original buy-in, which gives you more bullets to fire at future satellites.
This new format also improves play on and around the bubble since your equity is not completely tied up in the tickets, which should result to the tournament flowing much better and some interesting bubble dynamics must be thrown into the mix.
If you perform especially well in the early stages of these new bounty satellites, you could possibly end up winning enough bounties to pay for the buy-in to the tournament you were trying to qualify for plus get your hands on a ticket as well!
Where and when to play Bounty Satellites at partypoker
Head over to the satellites filter in the partypoker tournament lobby where you will instantly see the Bounty Satellites waiting for you.
Players will see these Bounty Satellites in a variety of buy-ins at 14:00 CEST, 18:00 CEST, and 18:30 CEST.
