Double or Nothing SNGs strategy?

[el_magiciann]

Play TAG ... analyze play of opponents and play to be around at half time not to necessarily have the most chips.

Remember that "winning" is finishing 1-5, not to be #1. These are much easier to win because of this fact.

Keep this in mind and you will win more often ... expect to win at least 3 to 4 out of 5 (60% to 80 %). 75% is what I expect with DON games.

Thanks for the advice it is really helpfull next time i play DON i will feel more comfortable with this play

 

[wanderingthehall]

I play a TAG game in DON, and a somewhat looser game the rest of the time.

In the early stages I treat it much like any other game, but try to avoid riskier situations and fold more to aggression.

In the middle stages, I will tighten up more, but also will use my better hands to steal more. The rest of the table will also tighten up, so I will fold most hands if someone else has already entered the pot, and raise most of the pots when I'm first to enter. It doesn't take much of a raise to get the rest of the table to fold.

In the late stages, if I'm playing a hand, I'll raise about half the time and shove the other half. If I'm short stacked and there are no significantly weaker stacks, I'll wait until no one else has entered the pot yet, and then shove any pair or any suited face card. If I'm first to enter the hand and if I have a mid-large stack, I will usually shove any pair or high ace since the blinds are usually very compared to to stacks.

Of course all of this is dependent on the exact situation.

 

[BearPlay]

After years of breaking even with DoN I've found my form and have improved dramatically.

The first 2 blind levels I fold everything apart from AA KK & QQ, with these I raise 4 BBs

Hands like AK, KQ AJ etc I call when in position

By the time 1 or 2 players get knocked out I'm usually 2nd in stacks and I try to ride it out and steal blinds with pretty much any ace or king. Out of my last 20 games I've cashed in 15

Congrats and solid advice, Bentley. How much are you raising with your blind steals (Ax ; Kx) in the last stages ?

 

[Bentley540]

Congrats and solid advice, Bentley. How much are you raising with your blind steals (Ax ; Kx) in the last stages ?

I like to switch it up, keep opponents confused

It also depends on their stack sizes. Say if they have 12 big blinds or more, I'd raise maybe 3BBs, if they have less I'd put more pressure on them and go for 4/5BBs or put them in an all in position.

I've also learnt to get good reads on opponents, which 8/10 works brilliantly.

Say for example they hit the check button really quick, chances are they are holding nothing, which opens the door for a bluff

 

[BoddJonar]

Play TAG ... analyze play of opponents and play to be around at half time not to necessarily have the most chips.

Remember that "winning" is finishing 1-5, not to be #1. These are much easier to win because of this fact.

Keep this in mind and you will win more often ... expect to win at least 3 to 4 out of 5 (60% to 80 %). 75% is what I expect with DON games.

+1
But certain sites give better payout/100 chips so you usually need to accumulate some for them to be profitable.

Cheers

 

[pcgnome]

Here's an old link that provides a complete DON strategy....
http://www.onlinefreeplaypoker.com/double-up-or-nothing-sng-poker-strategy/
It works pretty good.

 

[BearPlay]

Here's an old link that provides a complete DON strategy....
http://www.onlinefreeplaypoker.com/double-up-or-nothing-sng-poker-strategy/
It works pretty good.

Thank you for that link, pcgnome. It's a completely different approach to the TAG approach I've been using. I'm anxious to try it out. Best!

 

[shaazy712]

sit & go double up are my favorite games .you just have to play tight and be patience.

 

[Swickster007]

I'm assuming this is the 10 players, 5 paid tournaments. Pretty safe to say you can fold your way into the cash on these tables....Just let other players knock each other out and only play the solid hands...keeping bets low.

 

[dasher]

America's Cardroom runs 6 and 8 seat DON's.

Bodava runs 9 player triple-ups that pay the top three as well as 6 player DoNs

 

[BearPlay]

I'm assuming this is the 10 players, 5 paid tournaments. Pretty safe to say you can fold your way into the cash on these tables....Just let other players knock each other out and only play the solid hands...keeping bets low.

This was a good strategy pre-BF, but now with the DON's having huge popularity and increased player errr, skill... the "fold your way to the money" doesn't work anymore, certainly not at Carbon. Most of the DON's I play have a few multi-tabling grinders at each table, whom I've learned to exploit, but almost always the table plays extremely tightly, with only a couple of people donking in with junk. As the blinds increase, steals are vital, as well as opened ranges IP. With 6 or 7 to go, nearly always it becomes a survival contest of shove or fold.

America's Cardroom runs 6 and 8 seat DON's.

Bodava runs 9 player triple-ups that pay the top three as well as 6 player DoNs

Good to know. I can only imagine what kind of strategy is necessary for a Bovada triple-up. Sounds tempting!

 

[Akorps]

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated

 

[dasher]

I forgot to mention about the Bovada triple-ups.... most of them, especially the lower stakes, are not turbos. So they are much more like regular sit-and-gos until a few players have gone out.

 

[madmonster]

to mickmurr19 what site are u playing sng at? and latly ive been playing late at night cuase I work late and when I get on Americas card room bout 12am theres none on the site I play the on demand .50 sng and its only 15 20 playersd and top 9 to 13 places paid its easy to cash in the money but I wish they had more players on at that time

 

[Karozi615]

play the triple ups not the double ups
I would rather watch paint dry then play double ups

 

[BlakeBrown]

I try to double my stack, and then play extremely tight and fold almost every hand... I don't like these at all though if I want a 50% payout I would just rather play HU

 

[madmonster]

ive been on a rollercoaster ill play small 3$ sng win 1 or two then feel like upping my game so ill try a $5 or $10 game and lose then go back to $3 sng win my money back I really don't like playing small $sng but I guess that's my best chance of winning lol

 

[Micro Maven]

What's a realistic ROI in the $50 and under games?

 

[Swickster007]

Don't play against the chip leader. Just fold all day until you get that one hand...then win those chips and fold. Make the other players make moves and knock each other out.

 

[Katyushka4]

I haven't been successful playing these 1.10 and 2.20 DON SNGs and I thinks its for three reasons.
1. I play too much trying to chase my losses.
2. I either play too tight or too loose and cant find the perfect balance.
3. Tilt
Do you guys have any tips for beating them? And how many buyins should I have for these stakes so I practice proper BRM?

This game is for those players who want to get a lot of adrenaline for a minimum period of time.
Right decision in SNG tournaments will not play many hands, and only play hands monsters. You need to master the tight-aggressive style of play. It involves extremely tight game when choosing hands and extremely aggressive play in a situation where you have a good hand. SNG tournaments are good that when you have a monster, one of the opponents will always respond to your bid.

 

[knileh]

Play TAG ... analyze play of opponents and play to be around at half time not to necessarily have the most chips.

Remember that "winning" is finishing 1-5, not to be #1. These are much easier to win because of this fact.

Keep this in mind and you will win more often ... expect to win at least 3 to 4 out of 5 (60% to 80 %). 75% is what I expect with DON games.

i like this guy^ Play TAG and you will win.

 

[strodawg]

I have had the same problems running DON's and thanks to all the advice on this page I will take it with me to the tables and hope to see improvements and GOODGAMEME your post really stuck with me and it made me realize I do try to be a hero to much and I will slow it down and see what happens!

 

[strodawg]

Thx to everyone

I have had the same problems running DON's and thanks to all the advice on this page I will take it with me to the tables and hope to see improvements and GOODGAMEME your post really stuck with me and it made me realize I do try to be a hero to much and I will slow it down and see what happens!

 

[Jacki Burkhart]

First of all, don't get bored because you are card dead and play hands. Follow the 100BI rule to be on the safe side, although you can have at least 50-60BI.


The way I play DON's is the mindset that all you need is a double up, and you can just ride it out. I shove in with 99+, AK, AQ and maybe AJs. You can tweak this a bit, but for some people, I don't advise it. You could always ride it out to the cash and let people knock each other out, or pick up small pots here and there. Depends on how you like to play and your style.

pretty much agree with the above except I really, really don't think you need anywhere close to 100 buy ins to play DoNs. maybe if you're learning 40-50 is a good safe cushion, but anything where an average player is cashing 50% of the time implies very low variance compared to, basically any other type of game. I'd be comfortable playing DoNs with about 15 buy ins. Somebody said cashing more than 60-65% is unsustainable. I disagree. I'm with the guy who said shoot for 75%.

I played a ton of these years ago when Pokerstars first came out with them. Here is a few of my thoughts on them in no particular order.

1. Watch the vig charged on these. Like any poker this makes a big difference on your bottom line. Some sites charge over 10% at the lower stakes. At 10%, you need to win 55% of these to break even. The best players are only winning 60-65%. I'd be very surprised if there are players with a significant sample size winning 75% of these. Ideally you like to find a site that only charges 5-7.5% vig on these.

2. I'd player tighter than I would playing a normal SnG. Remember you are only trying to beat half the field and not win the whole SnG.

3. Be prepared to fold big hands. There will be lots of times you will be required to lay down AA. For example, your 4th in chips and 6th place guy has a 1.5 big blinds, I'd just muck AA the majority of the time here unless I was heads up against the shortie.

4. Similar to #3 is don't be the sheriff if you are the chip leader or have a nice healthy stack. Say you get lucky and get some good hands and you sit at 4500 chips with 6 or 7 to go. It's not your job to take out the remaining 1 or 2 players. You are going to make the money a vast majority of the time. Why risk it? I can't tell you how many times I've seen the chip leader get all in with AJs against 88 and loses the flip. Now he's down under 3000 chips and he's put unnecessary risk on himself to make the money. You don't get paid extra to be the hero for the rest of the shorties at the table.

4. It's extra important to identify the players that you can steal blinds from later. In particular know if you can from the 3 guys to your left. You will need to steal blinds later around the bubble.

5. Finally, this goes without saying and ties into everything above but know where you are around the bubble will make a huge difference on you bottom line. This changes from round to round and even hand to hand. Who has the pressure on them? Who is going to take the blinds before you? Don't be the guy that went out 6th when you didn't have to.

I agree with everything above....now, you're not going to be folding AA a lot preflop...but this is the 1 type of game where that situation is more likely to arise. again, still rare and highly situation dependent but it WILL come up if you're paying attention. AA is 80% to win, meaning 20% to lose. if you are 2nd in chips and the chip leader open jams into you and there are 2 micro stacks left, and you are on the bubble, just fold your AA. 20% of the time you'll lose here and by folding you're virtually guaranteed to cash.

After years of breaking even with DoN I've found my form and have improved dramatically.

The first 2 blind levels I fold everything apart from AA KK & QQ, with these I raise 4 BBs

Hands like AK, KQ AJ etc I call when in position

By the time 1 or 2 players get knocked out I'm usually 2nd in stacks and I try to ride it out and steal blinds with pretty much any ace or king. Out of my last 20 games I've cashed in 15

good early game strategy. try to maintain as much of your starting stack as possible until the bubble. then, by that time you'll either be jamming or folding preflop....OR you might have enough chips for min raising. usually for me, I'm at the stack size where push or fold makes more sense.

Don't play against the chip leader. Just fold all day until you get that one hand...then win those chips and fold. Make the other players make moves and knock each other out.

yes agree.

also, even though it's called double or nothing...if you start with a 1500 stack you often don't need 3000 to make the money. I often squeak in there with 2,200 or even less if there is a micro stack. also, some players don't seem to realize they should basically stop playing when they get like $4,000 chips and they defend their blinds with hands like KJ and 77 and end up going broke....it's crazy to watch but I've seen it happen so many times. (OK, once it was me.....)