Using Small Satellites to Experiment ... UB Improvements Needed

With four big tournaments a week now at Ultimate Bet (Sunday & Wednesday $200, Tuesday WSOP $200 and Friday WSOP $300), there are a lot of reasons to play satellites to try and save entry fees. I typically play these while I work and often play by rote. But they also offer a way to try new things that you might not yet feel comfortable in a $100 and up tournament.

In the last few satellites, I've gone deep and cashed or just missed. In them, I've tried things like raising under the gun with average hands after a big win, slow playing AA pre-flop (AK too), forcing myself to play position more than I normally do. I've had mixed results (one big AA win, one moderate loss I would normally not have had, and AK never wins if I slow play it). But it's been interesting. I haven't been saving these hands (I don't necessarily grab hand histories for satellites because UB doesn't make it easy to save) but I'll try to do so and will post some different types of plays.

Rebuys: One interesting thing is that I'm doing very well with these $5 and $3 rebuys. I'm often in the top 10% after the rebuy. So now I'm wondering how much different is a $3 rebuy from a $30 rebuy? I played the $30 rebuy on Paradise maybe 5 times and I cashed twice in huge 900 to 1000 people fields, but no big cash. Those didn't seem that much tighter to be honest than a $3 rebuy (yes, some, but not overly so). So I'm starting to think I should try the $30 rebuys in earnest at Paradise and Pokerstars and see if I'm ready for that type of play.

UB -- Two things UB really needs to do to improve: They need an automatic way to save hand histories, like FullTilt and Pokerstars. There should simply be a preference that lets you save a hand to a specific folder on your hard drive. I'm really tired of the software I am using now, which grabs each hand and thus "grabs" control of your cursor on each refresh. It makes it hard to do other things and interupts chat. The second idea is to create a "Super Tec" that you can win in a $200 satellite. A super tec can then be used to enter ANY of UBs $200 tournaments.

The current TEC system just isn't working because not enough people play for a tec. I end up playing the same guys once or twice a day and they are KILLERS. It's not easy play Texas Troll, 2004Champ, AngryClec, PoleCat, Gandalf80, ozzzzzzzz66, and any other number of players just to win a tec. A Super Tec won from satellites would be cool because I think I would actually PLAY MORE. Right now, I'm not really sure what my plans are for this Friday, so I will not play in a satellite for the Friday WSOP. But if I were playing for Super Tecs, then I would jump into that satellite. So that would benefit UB and benefit me.