No more Double or Nothing SnG's on PS

Just saw in the PokerStars lobby that are getting of the DoNs after February 15 and replacing them with the Fifty50. I don't understand why, they are very popular...weird.

Too many collusion issues I am sure.

I read somewhere p-stars stopped them because of collusion and cheating problems.So watch out for that on other poker sites with double or nothing sngs.It sucks too,because I like those sngs.I never got to play them on pokerstars tho.

So far I have not seen Fifty50 games for PLO so I am wondering what happens there.

I figured they would eventually get eliminated because of collusion issues, but they were pretty great besides those issues. I remember increasing my bankroll tenfold because of double or nothings, so I am sad to hear they are being eliminated. It makes sense from the perspective of Pokerstars, they don't want to have to monitor all of the collusion problems, but hey at least they replaced them with the Fifty50 games.

Looks like a good move to me. It wouldn't make that much sense to have both the double or nothings and Fifty50 games. I think the Fifty50's are better anyway, the double or nothings seemed to be so much slower paced/

Sorry Dakota, nightmoves you are both wrong.
The real point to why they junked DONs, was they are so easy to place into, you could auto fold your way to place. The Fifty50's where done up so the auto folders now have to play to get a bigger amount of the err pot.
collusion and cheating will still be done in the Fifty50 games something that cannot be taken out all together, unless i go to pokerstars and FT and get all IM's programs banned, well the poker software is running.
Did some looking into this 2 days ago....

I played a lot of the DoNs and it was very hard to place just by folding. Most games would last almost a hour and a half and the blinds would eat you up by then.

But why would Pokerstars care either way? The last DoN I played one Canadian won (me) and the rest were from Germany. It looked like people were donking off their stack to keep others alive.

It all depends on how low they where.. But then it may of just been a bunch of "donks" who did not know how to play.
I played one a week ago, kept my stack at 1500 and placed into dead last, since i knew i was not getting anything more then a buck back, it made no point for me to build a stack.
But with the new games it makes a point to build a stack from the start and keep it.
I mean i could keep my chips by stealing every now and then, build a big stack, but what was the point of building a big stack, you did not get any more of the prize pool, for playing better, or building your stack up.
To ones like me, they became pointless to play anymore, it's all based on the chip stack you got and not just getting the top 5 places out of 10.
And so then DON's sucked after some time of playing them and i quite playing them.
I was able to knock off a reg SNG, within an hours time, got a better payout for my time.
I hoped i cleared it up some mootso.

Well that's kind of the point with DoNs. You don't need to keep building your stack, you just need to stay alive and you double your money. I've played the $1 DoNs and I've played the $50 ones. Obviously there's less of a reward when you're spending 2 hours just to win $1.

DoN and Fifty50 are good because they pay out half the entrants. But I prefer the DoNs. I don't understand why PS doesn't have both. They're still making money on rake, so why get rid of it, they don't care how easy it is to place. The only possible explanation is because of collusion.

I could build a stack, keep it going, but got board of playing them knowing i was not getting anything more then just a 1 buck, i would put pressure on the small stacks, put then all-in with crappy hands. Most of the time i was in 1st place, i wanted more of the prize pool then just a buck.

Someone who works for PS said it had to do with the pay out not being fair, not collusion and cheating. In all of the DONs i've played, I've not seen a buy-in back, for cheating. I watch play in the games and know when i see cheating going on.


Fifty50, build a stack quick, then knock out the rest on high to mid hands, I use the SB and CO to steal from but only play top hands from the button.

I guess it depends on the person and the stakes, If you're playing a $1 game, it's nice to make maybe $4 instead of $2. But when you're playing higher like $50, $50 back is good enough for me.

As to the payout not being fair, that doesn't really make sense. A lot of sites have DoNs now and everyone who plays it, plays it to double their money. They know what they're getting into. They can always play a regular SnG or the Fifty50s if they want more.

i liked the dons and were a great br builder for me.now will have to play them elsewhere i guess.

No - we were both right lol.

It had everything to do with the collusion issues.

Stars extended them til the 28th.

I love the 50/50. Its identical to the DON, but you get paid more if you place. Why wouldn't you like them?

I can't see this as a negative. DoN's were somewhat boring even though I'm sure people did enjoy them I don't think there is much skill in involved in them.

It might effect some of the DoN grinders out there and the micro supernova grinder who 100 tabled them for 14hours per day lol.

as a regular player of dons myself i can say I have seen a lot of suspicious play. Though I don't see how the fifty would eliminate this.

its pretty simple concept I will break it down for those that may not grasp this yet. if there are six players left five get double the buyin back and the 6th gets nothing then if player (assuming everyone has equal stacks) if player A and B both go all in the other four players have just gained significantly. if player B is in a team with the other four players excluding player A and they are splitting all there profit equally amongst themselves then player B can profitably call player A with almost anything.

the fifty makes half the price pool payable based on chip stack so is supposed to reduce collusion if you are splitting your profit with your team though it will not achieve this. As chip dumping is still profitable and in the above example ok it may be less profitable to call but a call would still be profitable with a very wide range. this does not in anyway hinder or limit collusion.

What it would reduce is strategic play which some may see as a form of collusion I do not.
by this i mean say one guy is put all in by the blinds or antees 6 players left I have a junk hand in the BB guy under gun has strong hand chooses just to limp i check and hit two pair on the flop.

since we are all been paid the same and the all in guy could have anything my only priority is to eliminate the all in guy I want to give the other guy a chance to hit straight flush or set incase the all in guy has a big hand. So i don't bet it and check the hand down.

Obviously in the fifty strategy may be different and people may bet there hand here.

collusion will not be eliminated it just creates a completely different game.


I think the fifty are an interesting concept and not a bad idea but I do not think eliminating the dons is wise.

personally i find this annoying when I play dons I usually play 12 at a time and work on the basis I have to win 7/12 to turn a profit. I know if I have won 4 already and busted on 3 for example that I now have to win 3 out of the remaining 5.

with the fifty I can't work this out for obvious reasons. minor nuisance shouldn't really influence my play though so don't know. I had liked the dons because yes I was turning a reasonable profit from 6.50 turbos but it would be like win $80 win $70 win $40 lose $140 and etc. swings were just uncomfortable. (i did play 20 6.50s at a time) dons are more stable if you know what your doing. though recently I have had all in shoves called by 74 suited when doing so would leave a healthy stack with only 600 left had they lost (they didnt yay not) and 7 3 off suit called a 1500 shove when they had a stack of 3000 basically they were safely through and decided to risk been right back in the muck to try and bust me.

both highly suspicious plays.

lol wat?