Double or Nothing SNGs strategy?

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MickMurrr19

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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?
 
Have had the same issues with DON, hope this helps;
1. Set a limit to the number of games you play, I would play one and if I lost maybe play one more after that I'd move on. If I won then I was playing with someone else's money so keep playing.
2. Forget about it being DON play it like a regular SNG but keep in mind that many players have the same problem. I noticed when playing the DON it seems everybody's either tight or aggressive, figure out who's who and take advantage.
3. Find something else to do.

Good luck!
 
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.
 
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.
 
bullishwwd said:
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.
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Def an important fact to remember that some people seem oblivious to
 
Also, Whats a reasonable expectation of profit? Ik im not gonna be raking in hundreds or thousands, but if played correctly and in moderation to limit variance how much could you expect to be your weekly rate?
 
Play as few hands as possible, let the others knock each other out and just play a good TAG style...You will need to win at least 60% of the time to show any profit.
 
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.
 
As @goodgameme stated, first you need to check how much % do the particular room take, if its 10% its not worth playing.
If it is worth it, just play according to the tips he gave you - play tight, when you are ahead dont take any chances. If it is turbo tournament a little ahead it will come to push or fold ( in most hands with big pre-flop raises ) so you wouldnt want to pay with trash hands. If you can double up early wait for premium hands, if you dont hit the flop dont risk anymore. Doubling up early on those tournament is vital for your survival, because it gives you a huge advantage and a significantly higher % to cash out (double your buy-in). So if you get lucky once, dont test your luck another time, it might mislead you. If right on the bubble avoid all-in situations at any cost, unless you are the shortstacked guy. You dont want to risk your chips and become unfavored later. Even if it comes to fold AA. Theres no hand you can be dealt that cannot be beaten.
 
MickMurrr19 said:
Do the best players only win 60-65% because of variance?
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Well it's not variance. Variance would be why some place in 75% - 80% and think this is sustainable.

TBH, I don't really know. I'd guess because it's a lot like how poker is to me. It's about small edges and repeating those edges over and over. To me if you are looking to make decent money in online poker it's about multi tabling as much as possible to make these small edges add up.

For example, I see you play on Carbon. Let's take their $5.50 Double or Nothing 10 handed SnG. Say you place in 60% of these. That would give you an ROI of about 11.27% which is good for low level SnGs. This figures out to about 62 cents a SnG. Not exactly going to get rich on this are we so we need to play several of these and hour to maximize our profits.

I hope I explained that well.
 
Winning the game is finishing 1-5, not to be #1. These are much easier to win.Doubling up early on those tournament and try to avoid show downs and be patience and pick your spots carefully.
 
double ups are boring but if your solid you can definetly beat them, I don't have insight on strategy but there is definitely money to be made in these games
 
I agree with playing TAG. I do well with the DON's by remembering that I just have to place in the top 5 to "win"; I don't have to be CL and dominate the table. Let others risk their stacks for that. You sit back and choose your spots and if you can double with a smart shove, you're set 😉
 
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
 
D.O.N. regular sit-n-go early bubble

Seems like everyone has givin you great advice. Some games I double up early, when that happens I do the same as if I had 1500 chips. Play my position, my hand, and my opponent if I have any info on that opponent. Usually its just position and hand.
 
I think you are on the right track realizing your mistakes. Next step would be learn not to chase your losses, learn to control tilt, learn when is the right time to play loose or tight. As for DOS my advise would be fold, fold, fold .lol fold everything and have patience, you might be surprise you'll make it to the bubble 9/10 times by doing nothing. But seriously I would only try to play good cards. Even if you only double up once you can make it to $$ by just folding the rest. These types of games require lotss of patience because most plyrs fold and not much action and this usually makes you want to play a wider ranges of hands because you are loosing patience, next thing you know you got booted by the guy holding pocket rockets. good luck
 
there's a strategy. its not so difficult. When 6 players are left, you have to play differently depending on your stack. If you are short, you HAVE to play as if you were begging to cash. that's your main objective. If you are kn that situation, you have to call a push only with KK+, the rest fold. you can push with a wider range, depending on remaining stacks. The key of profitability in DON is when you are chip leader. By being the chip leader, you are the only player that cannot get eliminated in the next hand, so you will have to abuse of it. You will have to push 1 out of 3 hands approx. Its not crazy, the rest of the players are going to play extremely tight, and you will earn lots of chips from stealing, cause here, chips=money, and that is very different from a normal sitngo or mtt.
 
Play LAG if whole table is tight... You can pickup blinds with ease,dont play too tight,i remember when i just folded every hand (some QQ also) only cause i was 2nd and was sure i will finish in top 5... That was biggest mistake...

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magicius said:
Play LAG if whole table is tight... You can pickup blinds with ease,dont play too tight,i remember when i just folded every hand (some QQ also) only cause i was 2nd and was sure i will finish in top 5... That was biggest mistake...

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Your not gaining anything by building stacks, why risk playing any cards or loose, I agree you can have patient and wait for blind to increase as most tight players tends to get nervous here and play loose that's when your chance comes in, but doesn't make sense to steal blinds early. When I'm the one doing this im usually the one that takes the rest of the folders to the bubble. It can be visa versa if you have patience meaning you can let others duke it out by being patient, I mean really patient. I play the way I mention above and. 9/10 times I'm in the bubble. there's someone whose bound to break their patience at the table, you have to wait for them , then all you have to do is play right and wait for the good stuff to take their chips. If you play loose and everyone is playing tight then you will be targeted. Like I said it's usually the ones who dont have patience play loose. I used to play about 20 of these games a day and I'm talking about what I see at the tables. I used to try to build stack early or try to be loose but eventually I relize I'm the one kicking everyone out of the table and still loosing.
 
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You can choose to player DON against loose players and adopt a tight strategy and exploitable strategy on the bubble. I don't like to play DONs because is ver very tedious
 
Nah i didnt mean start stealing right away,i played a lot of fiftty59 turbo on stars,and in those blinds can eat you stack quickly,and whole table is ultra tight (thats why i stop playing those)

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magicius said:
Nah i didnt mean start stealing right away,i played a lot of fiftty59 turbo on stars,and in those blinds can eat you stack quickly,and whole table is ultra tight (thats why i stop playing those)

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Yep those turbos are killers as it pushes you to play more loose . Dos is not for everyone, I don't play it very often anymore due to the lack of patience.
 
crusinnn said:
Yep those turbos are killers as it pushes you to play more loose . Dos is not for everyone, I don't play it very often anymore due to the lack of patience.
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Same reason i stopped.. + when i calculate i make more with other games..

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