In line with poker festivals all over the world, all satellites taking place during this year’s Irish Open will be “milestone” satellites awarding seats as soon as you reach a certain chip stack size.
The Irish Poker Open is the longest-running No Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament in Europe and is taking place this year from March 25 to April 1 at the Royal Dublin Society.
In a traditional satellite, seats in the target event are awarded to all players who make the money. If the tournament is awarding 10 seats, then the final 10 players get a seat. It doesn’t matter if you have 2,000 chips or 200,000 chips at the bubble, you all get the same prize.
Milestone satellites are completely different and have become increasingly popular over the last few years, especially in Europe. In a milestone satellite, a player wins their seat as soon as they reach a certain number of chips i.e. the milestone. Once you hit the magic number at the Irish Open – either 50,000 or 100,000 depending on the buy-in, your 100,000 stack is taken out of play, and you get your ticket. Any remaining chips are distributed evenly to all the other players who were dealt into the hand.
In theory, milestone satellites play out faster than traditional satellites as there is no incentive to stall or hang on grimly until the money. The aim is simply to accumulate as many chips as possible and reach the milestone.
The new milestone satellites will award all players a 10k starting stack with players winning a seat as soon as they reach either 50k or 100k in chips, depending on the buy-in level. Of the 11 Main Event satellites, seven of them will be €135 buy-in, “one in 10” satellites which will award a seat as soon as a player has amassed 100k. The rest will be €250 “one in 5” satellites, with players winning seats when they reach the 50k milestone. All the satellites are unlimited re-entry with a 20-minute clock (apart from the last turbo satellite on Friday, March 29.)
In all, there will be 11 Main Event satellites taking place at the Royal Dublin Society during this year’s festival – along with two milestone satellites for the €5k Luxon Pay High Roller and another satellite running for the €3k High Roller. Overall, 90 €1,150 Main Event seats are being guaranteed through the busy satellite schedule. Please see our schedule for more details.
In addition to the 11 Main Event satellites during the festival, there will also be two milestone satellites for the €5k Luxon Pay High Roller and another satellite running for the €3k High Roller. Overall, 90 x €1,150 Main Event seats are being guaranteed through the busy satellite schedule.
Last year 245 players won Main Event seats in live super satellites at the RDS. They included Donegal delivery driver Declan Rice who only played the satellite because he was waiting for a seat in a cash game. He ended up finishing second for a whopping prize of €228,700 after battling his way back from four big blinds.
In addition to the satellites at the RDS, two satellites will be taking place – each guaranteeing five seats – at the new JP Poker Card Club and Casino in Tallaght, Dublin on Monday, March 11 and 18. Both are 1 in 10 satellites (ie all players who reach the 100,000 milestone will get a seat). The buy-in is €130 with unlimited re-entries. JP Poker is easy to get to – it’s only 14km from Dublin city centre and there’s ample onsite parking.
