Why is it standard for satellite winners to be automatically registered for the live or online start of Day 1, when late registration has so many advantages?
One of the debates this month on poker Twitter is whether satellite winners should be allowed to late register the tournament they have won a seat to.
There are ‘Must Play’ satellites where the winner is forced into the event in question, as well as more robust ticket satellites where you have flexibility.
Live and online, the ‘Must Play’ satellites tend to automatically register the player in question to the start of Day 1. There is a middle ground where a ticket is flexible but only valid for that event, so it is wasted if not used, but those instances are few and far between.
The prevailing argument for automatically registering players is that it helps the overall numbers for the event. It means there are players in their seats from the start, it also means there are softer players from the start to give the more experienced players a reason to show up on time.
Make more people play from the start and inevitably more will bust and re-enter, either by buying in direct or by winning another satellite for another Day 1.
These are all very good reasons. It is also very true that the vast majority of satellite winners want to play from the start, they want to get as much table time as possible. in many cases these are ‘bucket list’ events for them, they don’t want to miss a thing.
The strategic advantage
I would make two counterarguments, however, against forcing satellite winners to play at the very start of Day 1.
The first is strategic. Dara O’Kearney and I have written ad nauseam about the strategic advantages of late registration. You can an instant ICM boost and perhaps more importantly you come in at an easier stack depth to play. Decisions at 50BBs are much easier than decisions at 200BB. Professional players know this, this is why they do it. Recreational players are at an even bigger skill disadvantage during Level 1 as they are Level 7.
It may be a very small percentage of recreational players who want to do this, but denying them the option to late register just widens the gulf between Pro and Rec. We want recreational players to cash more in these events and allowing them to late reg will help that.
I have written multiple books that discuss the strategic advantages of late registration and there are plenty of amateur players who are aware of this. After how tight bubble folds should be, late registration is the topic myself and Dara O’Kearney get asked about most. So while they are a small percentage of recreational players, they do exist and there are plenty of them.
Paying customers should have the same rights
My second argument is simply a customer advocacy one. If most satellite winners want to start from the beginning of Day 1, and there is no argument there, why not let the small amount who would prefer to late register to do so? They are paying customers like any other, they should have the same rights.
Presumably, there is a significant logistical overhead here. It’s much easier to auto-register players for an event than to have them all show up with tickets that need processing alongside the direct buy-in players. My argument there is why not auto-register the players, but allow them the option to unregister and give them a ticket to register later? This is what happens, for example, at PokerStars if you win a seat before the event starts.
It’s a relatively small issue, but late registration is a contentious issue because of the advantage it gives professional players. In my opinion, it’s only a contentious issue if you deny satellite winners the opportunity to do it too.
Should satellite winners be allowed to late register? Let us know in the comments:
