Gambling terms, explained straight

Poker

Satellite tournament poker

A poker satellite is a smaller tournament where the prize for top finishers is a seat or entry fee to a bigger event rather than cash.

Buy-in range
Typically one-tenth to one-fiftieth of the main tournament’s buy-in 2
Prize structure
Top finishers receive seats or entry fees to the target tournament 12

Key points

  • Satellites let players access high-buy-in events for a fraction of the cost, with seats awarded instead of cash 12.
  • The format applies to both online and live multi-table tournaments 23.
  • Not to be confused with ICM poker tournament (a valuation model) or 6-max (a table format).

Where this term is used

Not the same as

Sources

  1. Tournament en.wikipedia.org Defines satellite tournament and gives basic qualifier prize structure.
  2. Poker tournament en.wikipedia.org Provides buy-in range (one-tenth to one-fiftieth) and confirms prize format.
  3. Online poker - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Confirms satellite tournaments are used in online poker.
  4. The Independent Chip Model and Risk Aversion arxiv.org Used to distinguish ICM poker tournament from satellite format.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.