2009 World Series of Poker Satellites

The World Series of Poker is the biggest live poker tournament in the world. It began in 1970 with only six participants, and has since grown to a record 8,773 players in 2006. With the advent of online poker and online WSOP satellites, players no longer had to pay the $10,000 entry fee into the World Series of Poker. Satellite tounaments are smaller tournaments in which players pay a small amount of money to play for a seat into a larger poker tournament. In the case of WSOP satellites, this larger poker tournament is the World Series of Poker Main Event.

WSOP Satellites And The ‘MoneyMaker Effect’

In 2003 an unknown accountant from Tennessee won the $2.5 million Main Event first prize after winning his entry in a $40 WSOP satellite at the online poker site Pokerstars.com. Moneymaker’s dramatic win was shown on ESPN, which combined with the revolutionary poker TV invention of the ‘hole cam’, online poker’s popularity erupted into a poker renaissance that has lasted even through today’s times!

With Moneymaker’s rags to riches story, the popularity of online WSOP satellites erupted as well. Since 2002, Pokerstars.com alone has sent more that 4,700 players to the WSOP Main Event (more than 1100 in 2008 alone).  It is expected that the $10k Main Event will continue to eclipse the 5,000 and 8,000+ entrant mark for many years to come, and with so many options available at the click of your mouse, you can win your own WSOP seat just by checking out our top-rated WSOP satellite-friendly poker rooms (listed below, of course).

Best Online Poker WSOP Qualifier Sites

Types of WSOP Satellites

Single Table WSOP Satellites

Single table WSOP satellites are generally tournaments that are held at one table of 10 players. Each player pays $1000 plus an entry fee, and the first place winner receives a $10,000 seat into the WSOP Main Event. These are the most popular form of live WSOP satellites. These one table WSOP satellites run every half hour or so during preliminary tournaments leading up to the Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas. You can also participate in satellites to win seats to the smaller preliminary WSOP events.

WSOP Step Tournament Satellites

A popular variation of the single table satellite online is a ’step tournament’ WSOP satellite. Step tournament satellites are single table tournaments where you can buy into a very small tournament ($10 or less) and if you win, you receive an entry to a next step up tournament. If you continue to win the tournaments and climb the ’steps’, you can eventually play for a chance to win your $10,000 seat to the Main Event. This is how Chris Moneymaker turned $40 into $3.5 million. You could say that the Main Event win was his last ’step’.

Multi-Table’ WSOP Super Satellites’

‘WSOP super satellites’ are multi table tournaments in which a number of participants win multiple WSOP seats based on the number of players in the tournament. For example, if 10 players each pay $1000 to enter a super satellite, the top ten finishers would win seats.

($1000 entry fee) X (100 players) = $100,000 prize pool

$100,000 prize pool / $10,000 seats = 10 WSOP Main Event seats

Many people consider WSOP super satellites to be the cheapest and most likely chance to win a WSOP entry.

Live 2009 WSOP Satellite Details

All 2009 WSOP satellites are held at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

All of our Mega and Single-Table Satellites will begin on May 26th, 2009

Mega Satellite Schedule:
$330 Mega Satellites Sunday - Thursday at 3 PM.
$550 Mega Satellites Friday - Sunday at 3 PM.
$550 Mega Satellites Sunday - Thursday at 8 PM.
$1060 Mega Satellites Friday & Saturday at 8 PM.

Mega Satellite Days July 1 - 5:
$550 Buy-In Mega Satellites at 10 AM and 4 PM.
$1060 Buy-In Mega Satellites at 1 PM and 8 PM.

Turbo Mega Satellite July 6:
$1060 Turbo Mega Satellite at 8AM

$40k No-Limit Hold’em Mega Satellite Days May 26-27:
$1570 Mega Satellites at 6 PM.

$50k H.O.R.S.E. Mega Satellite Days June 22-25:
$2250 Mega Satellites at 6 PM.

Nightly Tournaments From May 26 - July 14:
$340 Buy-In No-Limit Hold’em tournaments nightly at 7 PM.
$200 Buy-In No-Limit Holdem tournaments nightly at 11pmAll winners will be required to provide a valid picture ID.
Tax forms will be completed for those with winnings in excess of $5,000 net of event buy-in.
Players without a Tax Identification Number and Foreign Players from Non-Tax Treaty Countries are subject to up to 30% tax withholding.