Introduction to Double or Nothing Tournamentswere first introduced to the online poker world most notably by This style of tournament offered players an alternative to the traditional SNG payout structure where the money is weighted towards the top finishes. Besides a fresh style, people found that the tournament strategy was a bit less complex, and the variance somewhat reduced. They quickly began to escalate in popularity and sites ranging from large rooms like Full Tilt and small rooms like Cake Poker and Doyle’s Room began offering them.This book details simple things like “what is a DON”, and more complex things like pushing and calling ranges for bubble situations. If you are already an accomplished DON player, you may want to skip ahead to the strategy section. Noobs, skim through the first few areas to get familiar with these tournaments before delving into strategy. What is a Double or Nothing Tournament?A Double or Nothing tournament is a tournament where the top half of finishers is paid the double what they bought in the tournament.Examples:In a 10-man tournament with a buyin of $10, the players who finish 1-5 would win $20 each. They would net a profit of $10 each, less the rake.In a 10-man tournament with a buyin of $5, the players who finish 1-5 would win $10 each.
They would net a profit of $5 each, less the rake.How it normally works:A player selects a tournament that they would like to play in from the tournament lobby of whatever poker room they prefer.After the required number of people sits down, the tournament starts. Every player has the same number of chips. The blinds start out small, and escalate at a set time interval or by # of hands played. After half of the players are eliminated, the tournament is over and the winners collect their prizes. Where Can I Play DON Tournaments?You can try your luck at the DON tournaments at any of the following poker rooms. Clicking on the links in this guide will take you to feltpoker.com’s special bonuses and rakeback pages. We have a good relationship with the poker rooms, and can offer bonuses not available at other places.
Pokerstars. Full Tilt. Ultimate Bet. Absolute Poker.
Bodog Poker. Doyles Room. Cake PokerDouble or Nothing Strategy IntroductionThis strategy guide is broken into three different sections: There is general strategy given for Early Rounds, Middle Rounds, and Late/Bubble Rounds followed by advanced analysis for Early, Middle, and Late/Bubble rounds. The reason for this is simple. There are distinctly different strategies for each round. The strategy could be broken down even farther, into different situations by blind level, but it won’t be in this guide J. There is also an added “ 3 tips guaranteed to increase your ROI” section at the end.
The tournament structure used in this guide is the Pokerstars Turbo structure. For more info on this structure, see website. Double or Nothing Strategy: Early RoundsWhat are the early rounds?The early rounds are characterized by low blind levels and equal starting stacks. The starting stacks are 1500 chips, and the early blind levels are the 10/20 and 15/30 levels. General StrategyDouble or Nothing tournaments are all about survival.
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It doesn’t matter if the tournament ends and you are the chip leader, or you have 1 chip left; you get paid the same amount. So how do you apply this “survival” strategy?
Tight play is generally bestSimilar to normal structure SNG tournaments, the donks will eliminate themselves early in the tournament. In a double or nothing, this is great because you get even closer to the money, and you are not at as severe of a disadvantage to the larger stacks. Early Coin Flips are BADTaking coin flips early in a DON is a formula for a negative long-term ROI.
Seeking coin flips in a regular SNG is not desirable, but not as bad as a DON. In a regular SNG, winning a coin flip early and getting a big stack significantly increases your chances of winning first prize, which is normally 50% of the prize pool. While winning a coin flip early in a DON significantly increases your chances of making the money, the most you can make is double your buyin.
Think of it like this. Because of the rake, you need to finish in the money (ITM) more than 50% of the time. If you are taking coin flips early, you are losing half of the time, and doubling up half of the time. Every time you lose, you are out with no money.
Every time you win, you have a good chance of cashing, but you will not cash every time.How do you avoid coin flips early?Two hands can get you into big trouble when trying to avoid coinflips early in a Double or Nothing: JJ and AK. Against some players, you may even want to fold QQ. Obviously anything weaker than these two hands is even worse.
Raising these hands in late position and playing cautiously is okay, but facing fierce resistance it is best to just fold. If there are a bunch of early position limpers/raisers, just fold. Simply playing AA and KK only in level 1, though boring, is a sound strategy. Remember, the goal is survival. In level 2 you can feel a bit more comfortable playing QQ, and opening AK in late position. By this time, you may have some reads on some players which will help with the next topic. Exploiting Tight Players in the Middle RoundsAfter playing a few tournaments, you may see the same players showing up at your tables.
You should start to pick up on their tendencies. The player that is exploitable in the early rounds is the player using the same general strategy that is preached in this book. The player you are looking to exploit plays only AA and KK early. Pay attention to the two players to your left.
These are the players who you may be able to exploit. If you notice that these two players to your left, especially the player immediately to your left, are content to sit and wait until the later rounds, take advantage when folded to you. A small raise, maybe just over the minimum, should be enough to take down the pot preflop. Obviously if you face any resistance, dump your hand immediately.In round 2, there are situations where you can even shove all in to force these players to fold. This strategy is examined further in the early round advanced analysis section. Exploiting Loose Players in the Early RoundsLoose players are not easy to exploit in the early rounds. It’s great when you have AA, but you won’t have AA every time the loose player wants to splash around.
The best way to exploit a loose player, or a group of them, is if they limp in early position and you have a pocket pair in late position. If this situation comes up, happily limp along, and if you hit your set, go nuts. If you miss, fold and let the donks eliminate themselves. Double or Nothing Strategy: Middle RoundsWhat are the Middle Rounds?The middle rounds are characterized by 20-30bb stacks relative to the starting stacks. There is also an added variable, the ante. The middle blind levels are 25/50 + 5 ante, and 50/100 + 10 ante.
General StrategyThe middle rounds are still about survival, with a twist. There are opportunities to safely and unexploitably gain chips in the middle rounds. You will do this by raising, sometimes pushing, in late position.
Tight Play is Still Generally BestThere are a few more chips at stake in this level, but the general theme is the same. You want to play tight and survive.
While tight is generally best, there are a few interesting situations which will present themselves in these levels. In some situations, you will want to make your range extremely tight, and others you will want to widen your range quite a bit. When to Keep Your Range Ultra TightThe range of # of chips from big stack to small stack in these levels will usually be much larger in these rounds. The large stacks may try to start bullying you and stealing your chips. Most of the time, depending on your chipstack, the best thing to do is just fold.
You don’t want to be calling or shoving and getting called with less than premium hands at this point. If you are low on chips and have a high ace or pocket pair, by all means shove it in.
Most times, though, you won’t be low on chips because of the tight early game strategy. Situations for keeping your range ultra tight are analyzed in more detail in the middle round advanced analysis section. When to Loosen Your RangeWhile you are avoiding big stacks (read: stacks that can eliminate or seriously damage you), small and mid stacks can be attacked.IMPORTANT.: Do not mistake “loosening your range” for “going ape nuts”. Make sure you have solid logic behind opening up your range. Loosening Your Range Against Short StacksSmall stacks are stacks below 10BB in the middle levels.
They can be attacked by either calling their shoves, or pushing all in against them. Let’s think about the first one, calling their shoves. Most short stacks, if they have any idea what they are doing, will be shoving a wide range. You can make +EV plays by opening up your calling range to match. Use your brain though; don’t just call an all-in with A10 because you have high cards.
Know your opponent.While there can be some opportunities for calling short stack all-ins, the better move is to be aggressive against short stacks by shoving into them. Something important to consider when shoving against short stacks is that some are crazy and will make plays that are –EV for both of you. A lot of times this is your fault, for not adjusting your pushing ranges. But sometimes a player just does something really strange, and there’s nothing you can do.To see more specific situations and how to adjust your range, see the middle rounds advanced analysis section. Loosening Your Range Against Medium StacksMedium stacks in middle rounds are vulnerable to attack.
If you play tight early, you will find yourself in this situation often. Why are they vulnerable? At this point, there are normally a couple of big stacks, a couple of medium stacks, and a couple of small stacks. The medium stacks don’t want to risk their tourney life by calling an all in, when it is possible that they could just fold into the money. If you find yourself being attacked, there isn’t much you can do. Don’t worry; there isn’t much you should do when getting shoved into by a stack that can eliminate you. You can open up your calling range slightly if you think you are being hammered with a huge range by a certain player but most times it’s best to just fold.Another option for taking advantage of middle stacks, and the better one most of the time, is to push against one of your opponents.
The opponents you want to push against specifically are the two to your immediate left. If you are SB and BB is a medium stack playing a very tight strategy, it’s often correct to shove any two cards, even with more than 10 BBs. It is critical that you get some sort of read against the player to your immediate left.
One +EV play here and there against this player over time will have a noticeable effect on your ROI.For more info about playing mid stacks in middle rounds, see the middle rounds advanced analysis section.Double or Nothing Strategy: Late/Bubble RoundsWhat are the Late/Bubble Rounds?The middle rounds are characterized by 5-15bb stacks relative to the starting stacks. The late round blind levels start at 75/150 + 15 ante, and escalate from there. General StrategyThe late rounds of a DON are the most important rounds. They can be played unexploitably, and there is also a twist for very good players. There are lots of situations where ICM (click here if you aren’t familiar with ICM) can’t take into account certain variables. For example, on the bubble if the two players behind you can’t cover the blinds in the next round, but small blind shoves into your big blind and you have AA, should you call? ICM might say you should, but this is a situation where you probably should just fold it and let the blinds eliminate the stacks that can’t cover.
Look at both sides of this situation. You know you should fold, so if you are in the small blind when this situation comes up, exploit the fact that big blind has to fold.Here are a few general pointers for the late rounds:. Find stacks who will fold to your raises. Very rarely call other peoples’ raises, especially on the bubble. Don’t tangle with stacks that can eliminate youThe late stages of a tourney are best examined with SNGWiz. You will find more detailed analysis in the late/bubble rounds advanced analysis section.Double or Nothing Strategy: Advanced Analysis SectionWhat is the Advanced Analysis Section?The advanced analysis section features several situational examples from each stage (early, middle, late) of a double or nothing tournament. For the middle and later rounds, the number-crunching is done by which uses the ICM (Independent Chip Modeling) model to determine the expected value of a given situation.from Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom Online Poker Real Moneyfrom.
At the risk of appearing way out of the loop, I will admit I just discovered the new-fangled “Double or Nothing” Sit & Gos on PokerStars. I know that they have been around for a while, but I just haven’t been playing on Stars lately. They have turned out to be very interesting, a nice change of pace from the standard Sit & Go. And even though almost every time I have been eliminated, I have had the best hand when the money went in (I’ve had Aces cracked three times!), I have had quite a lot of fun with them. This week, I would like to impart my wisdom upon you and share a bit of my strategy for these tournaments.For the uninitiated, “Double or Nothings” are 10-handed Sit & Gos starting with 1,500 chip stacks (on PokerStars), where the top five finishers win twice their buy-in and the other five get zero. “Double or Nothing” indeed! First place wins as much as fifth place.
The nice thing about them is that since it is theoretically easier to make the money – since more people get paid and the payout structures are flat – variance is lower than in standard Sit & Gos. On the negative side, if you are very good at Sit & Gos, you will not be as profitable in these tournaments, as there is no added benefit to placing first. Plus, in order to profit, you must make the money two out of every three tournaments.
Alternate wins and losses, and you lose money to the rake, which is high compared to the payouts.Sit On Your HandsIf I had to boil my strategy down to two words, they would be “play tight.” I mean play really tight. Since first through fifth pay the same, there is little benefit to trying to accumulate chips. You don’t need to build up a huge stack to dominate the table. The guy who squeaks into the money with two big blinds wins the same amount as the gorilla stack.
Early on, when the blinds are low, stick to playing only premium hands, especially from early position. As always, you can open it up more in late position, but don’t take unnecessary risks.Your goal is to tread water for a while. If you can stay around your starting chip stack for a few levels, you’ll be in good shape. Let players who don’t know what they are doing bust out around you. Of course, if you can find a good, high percentage opportunity to double-up, take it. While you don’t need to accumulate chips in the traditional sense of the term, if you can bring in a nice haul in a hand or two, you go on cruise control for a while and fold your way to at least the bubble.Snoop AroundInvestigate your competition.
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Perform a player search on your opponents. If you see someone playing several tables, he likely knows what he is doing. Because of the low variance of these tourneys, experienced players like to grind out small profits on each one, and thus will play many at once. Another way to spot the “regulars” is to check out the lobby. If there are several with the same, low number of players sitting at them, those players are likely all the same – these are regulars loading up multiple tables quickly.
Like with any game, try to avoid tables with lots of regulars.The good thing about regulars, though, is that when taken in moderation, they are fairly easy to play against. They won’t necessarily make big mistakes which will cause them to bust out early, but they tend to be predictable players. They know that playing tight is the key, so they will likely be easy to steal blinds from, and if they do raise significantly you’ll know they have something.Identifying a regular helped me greatly in a recent Double or Nothing tournament. I was in good shape with 2,660 chips, third best out of the remaining eight players.
With blinds already at 75/150, I raised to 500 from middle position. The second biggest stack went over the top all-in, while the shortest stack called. If this was a regular Sit & Go, chances are I would have snap-called, but I paused and evaluated the situation.
The guy who had me covered was a regular and, from what I could tell, had a good handle on how to play these tourneys. He likely knew that it was foolish to risk virtually his entire stack without a major edge, since building a huge stack does not serve the purpose it would in a normal Sit & Go. Because of these, I suspected he had Aces, the one hand he knew would have me beat pre-flop. I made the tough laydown and lo and behold, I made the right read. Turned out, while he turned a set, he lost to K-2 offsuit when the other player rivered a fourth club.A few hands later, I failed to recognize the skill level/experience/tightness of an opponent, and it cost me the tourney.
I was now in the 100 chip big blind (level had gone up) with A-J and a chip stack of 1,885, which placed me in the middle of the pack. The same guy who had gotten lucky earlier, and now had me covered, limped for 200. Action was folded to me and, seeing as I could use the 400 chips plus antes that were in the pot, I decided to push.
I figured there was no way the other guy could call, unless he was trying to trap with a monster hand, since he didn’t have me covered by much. Unfortunately, I did not take notice of his looseness earlier (a drawback to multi-tabling) and he called with K-Q, knocking me out when a King hit on the turn.
Had I recognized his lack of skill before it was too late, I would have known that he could call with many different hands and, even though I was ahead to start, my edge wasn’t big enough to justify risking my whole stack.Middle and Late StagesOnce you weed out the few loose players, the remaining players will likely be pretty tight. Because of this, stacks will become small relative to the blinds fairly quickly, as most players will still be hovering somewhere in the vicinity of their starting stacks – you are not likely to see a bunch of huge stacks and a bunch of small stacks. Just like in a regular Sit & Go, stealing blinds becomes more important as the blinds get larger. In Double or Nothings, it is fairly easy to steal, as long as you remain aware of stack sizes and opponent skill level – the best players to steal from are those who know what they are doing (and are thus willing to fold) and have relatively large stacks (as they will likely be on cruise control).
I don’t recommend stealing on a bluff, though. Because the best strategy is to play tight, it pretty much becomes a fold or shove situation as the blinds get moderately high. Steal with a hand you are prepared to go all the way with, just in case you get challenged – anyone who plays back at you will almost assuredly have a strong hand.When it gets down to bubble time, if you are a short stack you will need to pick a spot and shove, just like in any tourney.
If you are a big stack, though, do not feel obligated to call the all-in of a short stack. You do not need that player’s chips. You just need him eliminated.
If you don’t have a great hand when a short stack goes all-in, just fold. Let somebody else do the dirty work. Of course, if you have a monster, go for it.In a Double or Nothing Sit & Go, always remember that you are not playing to “win.” You are playing to survive. It is not worth it to play small edges.
You need to play huge ones. The moves you make should be done in order to maintain your chip stack, to make it through another orbit or two. Small ball is pointless, as you risk having your stack slowly eroded. If you have a great opportunity to double up, take it, as that will allow you to take it easy for a while, but don’t force things in an effort to dominate the table. Let the game come to you. It is not correct to say that “in order to profit, you must make the money two out of every three tournaments” – nor, really, that the rake is “high compared to the payouts”.For example, consider the $10+0.80 non-turbo double-or-nothing sit-and-gos on PokerStars.
If you make the money 54% of the time, your average return will be (0.54. 20) = 10.80 – i.e. 54% ITM is break-even 0% ROI when the rake is 8%.Similarly, for the turbo versions – e.g. $10+0.40 4% rake – you only need to make the money more than 52% of the time to show a profit.Sorry to quibble;).