How to win a WSOP Main Event seat in 22 minutes
Dara O'Kearney won his $12,000 package in just 22 minutes last weekend. Find out how much value the GGPoker satellites have been so far.
This year GGPoker have pledged they will send at least 600 players to the World Series of Poker Main Event via satellite, and the action has been crazy so far.
We have seen a few overlays, but nothing quite as bonkers as PokerStrategy.com contributor Dara O'Kearney winning a Main Event package in just 22 minutes.
WSOP main event seat secured early pic.twitter.com/tpxz76wJEl
— Dara O'Kearney (@daraokearney) April 16, 2023
Dara is well known for being the Satellite King, but even we were surprised at this one. Given satellites are all about stalling, how did he close this out in less than 30 minutes?
The answer is that he late registered for it when they were close to the money already. In case you missed it, late registering satellites is always profitable because the format is all about the mincash. It doesn't matter how you beat the bubble, so starting close to the money is a huge advantage.
The power of late registration
Dara played in a $1,200 direct qualifier (the type you can win a ticket to in our Road to Vegas Raffles, more details below) with two $12,000 packages guaranteed. 18 players entered in total meaning there was a $2,400 overlay.
Dara max late regged the satellite with just eight players remaining, meaning he was just seven players before the money. Using the free tool at ICMIZER, we can work out how profitable late registering was in this satellite. This is a hypothetical mix of stacks assuming Dara came in with 20BBs:
| Payouts | Stacks (BBs) | Equity |
|---|---|---|
| $12,000 | 110 | $6564.01 |
| $12,000 | 65 | $4354.67 |
| 50 | $3448.16 | |
| 45 | $3130.99 | |
| 30 | $2139.28 | |
| 20 | $1447.57 | |
| 10 | $733.87 | |
| 10 | $733.87 | |
| 20 (Dara) | $1447.57 | |
By regging at the last minute with nine players already eliminated, Dara's $1,200 entry fee was worth a whopping $1,447.57 in equity, before he even played a hand. He came in with 20 big blinds so after that obviously there was an element of luck involved, on top of his notable satellite skills.
That means with the combination of the overlay, late registration, and the speed of the satellite, his hourly in this tournament was $32,727!
Be warned, however, if a GGPoker satellite plays down to the money before late registration is over and the guarantee is not met, the players are awarded standard payouts instead. Therefore if you find yourself in a bubble position towards the end of late registration, it is in every player's interest to stall until late reg has finished.
Now that Dara has won his seat, the rest of us have a chance. Check out how you can qualify for the big one, for free, courtesy of PokerStrategy.com:
The Road to Vegas with GGPoker
Online poker market giant GGPoker is once again the official sponsor for this year's World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, offering GGPoker players exclusive satellites to the series, including the WSOP Main Event.
Participating in the world-renowned series is the dream of any poker player, and the hype around this year's WSOP already started to grab players and the industry alike. Naturally, we're jumping on the bandwagon as well, hosting exclusive The Road to Vegas raffles amongst our members playing at the world's largest poker room GGPoker.
Ahead of another attempt to host the biggest WSOP Main Event in history, we're running a total of four Road to Vegas raffles from April 17 until May 14, each one guaranteeing 12x WSOP Qualifier tickets that you can use at GGPoker to qualify for this year's WSOP:
- Week 1: April 17-23
- Week 2: April 24-30
- Week 3: May 1-7
- Week 4: May 8-14
What exactly can I win?
Here's he prizes given away each week, with the last raffle week standing out in particular where we are granting one PokerStrategist a WSOP Qualifier ticket worth $1,200 that can be used for a direct WSOP Main Event Qualifier at GGPoker where WSOP packages worth $12,000 are given away!
| Week 1 | 12x $125 WSOP Qualifier Ticket |
| Week 2 | 12x $125 WSOP Qualifier Ticket |
| Week 3 | 12x $125 WSOP Qualifier Ticket |
| Week 4 | 1x $1,200 WSOP Qualifier Ticket, 11x $125 WSOP Qualifier Ticket |
How exactly can I win?
The tasks to earn raffle tickets in each of the four weeks to have a shot at winning are straightforward and simple:
| Weekly Task | Raffle Tickets earned |
|---|---|
| Create a new account at GGPoker and make your first deposit | 100 Tickets for any first deposit |
| First deposit of $100 or more: 1 Ticket per $1 deposited (up to 500) | |
| Deposit with an existing account | 0.5 Tickets per $1 deposited (up to 250) |
| Earn 50 StrategyPoints at GGPoker | 10 Tickets (repeatable) |
And remember, if any player that qualifies for the 2023 Main Event at GGPoker becomes this year's WSOP Main Event champion, GGPoker will hand them an extra $1,000,000 bonus on top of the main prize—a mere $10,000,000 in 2022's edition of the WSOP Main Event.
Qualify for the WSOP Main Event 2023 at GGPoker
