The traditional Dubble or Nothing (DoN) is just like a sattellite, since all prices are equal. This give a very extreme ICM situation, which definitely should affect your strategy. After all if you cash with 1 chip, you still cashed, and there is nothing more to achieve by cashing with 10.000 chips. I have not played these a lot, and I dont think, those on
888 Poker are long term profitable. The structure is to fast and the rake to high.
Fifty/50 is a format,
pokerstars introduced years ago to replace DoNs. Those I have played a lot, and my ROI is significantly higher than for 9-mans or 18-mans on Stars. Part of the reason for this is, Stars offer them with a very reasonable rake. In this format its still half the field (4 out of 8), who cashes, but unlike in a DoN half the price pool is distributed based on stack sizes. This mean, that your strategy for these games is not substantially different from that used in 9-mans or 18-mans. In fact ICM is less extreme than in a 9-man, because in a 9-man 60% of the price pool is distributed on the bubble, whereas in a Fifty/50 its only 50%.
Just to give an example lets say, we are on the bubble, and everyone have 10BB. The first player move all-in, and it folds to us in BB. In a DoN we can then only call with JJ+, and this is even assuming, that the opponent is jamming any two cards. In a 9-man we only expect the opponent to be jamming 35% of
hands. But even so we can call with 99+, AQ+, ATs+, because dubbling up will give us a better chance to finish first or second.
In a Fifty/50 we only expect the opponent to be jamming 25% of hands, but we can call with 88+, AJ+, ATs, so actually a few hands more than in a 9-man. The reason for this is, that even though the tournament is over, regardless who win, having the extra chips pay out directly and is actually more valuable than having them in a 9-man. But its small details, and if we use the 9-man calling range in a Fifty/50 this is not nearly as big a mistake as using the DoN calling range.
