Even though I'm not a big fan of Online Poker, I have found one thing that seems to be quite profitable for me. Someone in the CPMG was kind enough to point me towards the 'Double or Nothing' Sit-N-Gos on PokerStars.
On the surface, they would seem rather pointless. Ten players enter a $10+$1 tournament, and five of those players 'double up' to $20. That doesn't seem too difficult.
Well, they're not. In fact, they can be rather brainless. Which means you can play more than one at time without much problems.
Ya see, the way you make money in this is volume. You need to win about 60% to make these worth the time. These are high variance games. You need to win some coin flips, and avoid the terrible play that people do, especially on the Bubble.
Here are my numbers:
PokerStars: + $190.80
Total: 59% ~ 71/120
($10+.80) 76% ~ 22/29
($20+1.60) 52% ~ 43/82
($50+4) 67% ~ 6/9
Cake Poker: + $271 (with 33% Rakeback)
Total: 59% ~ 57/96
($10+.80) 68% ~ 17/25
($25+2) 55% ~ 33/60
($50+3.50) 64% ~ 7/11
Here are a few tips from my own experiences:
- Play More Aggressive with Less Chip.
Contrary to common sense, 'folding to the money' is not the right way to play these things. Yes, it will work sometimes, but not often enough to be making any profit. The main reason is because that's how most of the other players are playing. As you know, one of the basic concepts of Poker is, 'Do the opposite of what the other players are doing.'
The best strategy, in general, is to play more aggressive with less chips, and less aggressive with more chips. At the third level (25/50), start stealing blinds every chance you get. When your stack gets over 2000, then you can ease up on it a little. Over 3000, you can do a little blind stealing just to maintain your stack size. If you're lucky enough to get over 4000, then just play premium hands to knock out shorter stacks. Don't ever hit 'Sit Out.' You'll be missing out on opportunities to end the tournament.
- Just Play Pre-Flop
Since you start with the standard 1500 chips, you can splash around a little in the first two levels, 10/20 & 15/30. Just don't commit many chips without a 'real' hand after the flop.
From the third level on, only play preflop, just like you would at a Final Table. Raise with your quality hands. Steal blinds in late position. Watch out for the very short stacks, and the players who want to play every hand.
- Bubble Play
Without question, the worst play that I see is at the Bubble. When you get down to six handed, look at who's got the short stacks. There are usually one or two under 1000. If you're not one of them, or very close to them, then wait to see what they do. Usually they will wait until they absolutely have to go All-In. If nobody is under 1ooo, then keep stealing blinds so you don't get short stacked.
If the short stack shoves it in, don't be afraid to call with any two cards under the following conditions. A) You are not the only player calling the All-In. B) Calling the All-In won't leave you as the short stack if he wins.
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. Figure 2: Hand decay in SNGWIZ. In this example you will show a profit unless your opponent is calling wider than about 15%. It he is so bad that he is calling with any ace and any pair, you should fold (If Hero pushes any two cards, villain should fold no matter what his cards are). It's more profitable to try to double-up several times after a big win than to try for multiple big wins. The point of double or nothing is not to do it once, it's to try to run it up and get a massive payout. Doubling up 2 times will lead you to 4x the winnings. 3 double-ups is 8x winnings.
On the surface, they would seem rather pointless. Ten players enter a $10+$1 tournament, and five of those players 'double up' to $20. That doesn't seem too difficult.
Well, they're not. In fact, they can be rather brainless. Which means you can play more than one at time without much problems.
Ya see, the way you make money in this is volume. You need to win about 60% to make these worth the time. These are high variance games. You need to win some coin flips, and avoid the terrible play that people do, especially on the Bubble.
Here are my numbers:
PokerStars: + $190.80
Total: 59% ~ 71/120
($10+.80) 76% ~ 22/29
($20+1.60) 52% ~ 43/82
($50+4) 67% ~ 6/9
Cake Poker: + $271 (with 33% Rakeback)
Total: 59% ~ 57/96
($10+.80) 68% ~ 17/25
($25+2) 55% ~ 33/60($50+3.50) 64% ~ 7/11
Here are a few tips from my own experiences:
- Play More Aggressive with Less Chip.
Contrary to common sense, 'folding to the money' is not the right way to play these things. Yes, it will work sometimes, but not often enough to be making any profit. The main reason is because that's how most of the other players are playing. As you know, one of the basic concepts of Poker is, 'Do the opposite of what the other players are doing.'
The best strategy, in general, is to play more aggressive with less chips, and less aggressive with more chips. At the third level (25/50), start stealing blinds every chance you get. When your stack gets over 2000, then you can ease up on it a little. Over 3000, you can do a little blind stealing just to maintain your stack size. If you're lucky enough to get over 4000, then just play premium hands to knock out shorter stacks. Don't ever hit 'Sit Out.' You'll be missing out on opportunities to end the tournament.
- Just Play Pre-Flop
Since you start with the standard 1500 chips, you can splash around a little in the first two levels, 10/20 & 15/30. Just don't commit many chips without a 'real' hand after the flop.
From the third level on, only play preflop, just like you would at a Final Table. Raise with your quality hands. Steal blinds in late position. Watch out for the very short stacks, and the players who want to play every hand.
- Bubble Play
Without question, the worst play that I see is at the Bubble. When you get down to six handed, look at who's got the short stacks. There are usually one or two under 1000. If you're not one of them, or very close to them, then wait to see what they do. Usually they will wait until they absolutely have to go All-In. If nobody is under 1ooo, then keep stealing blinds so you don't get short stacked.
If the short stack shoves it in, don't be afraid to call with any two cards under the following conditions. A) You are not the only player calling the All-In. B) Calling the All-In won't leave you as the short stack if he wins.
Poker Double Or Nothing Profitable Strategy
Poker Double Or Nothing Profitable Meaning
Remember:Poker Double Or Nothing Profitable Means
It doesn't matter who wins the pot. It only matters who loses. - Always check it down, even if you got a strong hand.Poker Double Or Nothing Profitable Stocks
It's not uncommon for some schmuck to bet in to the dry side pot, only to be a bluff. The All-In player then wins the pot, and someone else gets screwed. It happened to me tonight. I would have won the 3-way pot on the Bubble with just A J vs A T, but some moron shoves All-In on the River with just J 3, no pair. I had to fold, and the short stack now triples up with just A high. I was left with a crippled short stack, and end up as Bubble Boy of a $50 tournament.Ben Wilson
Available to suit any bankroll at any level with buy-ins ranging from as little as $1+$0.20 all the way up to the giddy high-rolling heights of $2000+$90, the humble Sit and Go (SNG) or Single Table Tournament (STT) is one of the most universally accepted forms of tournament poker. As beautiful in their simplicity as in their diversity, they come in a wide variety of formats and poker variants: 10-handed or six-max, regular blind structure or turbo, Pot Limit Omaha and Limit Omaha both hi and hi-lo, Limit Texas as well as everybody's favourite – No Limit Texas Hold 'Em.
The focus of this article however, is one of the most basic types of SNG: the 'Double or Nothing' or DoN. This format follows a simple premise – finish in the top half of the field (top five in 10-handed, top three in six-max) and get paid double your money. Sounds pretty easy to make money right? Well yes and no.
Even though it sounds easier to cash here you need to win more regularly than you would if you were just playing a standard SNG – although advertised as Double or Nothing you still have to beat the rake (usually between 8–10% depending on the site) to show a profit: Say you played 100 $10+1 DoN SNG's, that's an outlay of $1,100. Just to break even you have to cash 55% of the time, to show a profit of $100 (around a 9% return on your investment or ROI) you have to cash 60% of the time – yet statistically you only have a 50/50 chance of making the money. However, do not despair – in poker, this is where the skill comes in…
The DoN's while fairly straightforward to play differ from their standard SNG brother in a few subtle ways, playing out more like a satellite where you are rewarded for finishing in the top 50% of the field. Unlike in your regular SNG you are not playing as aggressively – your goal is not to amass all of the chips in play, merely to amass enough chips to reach the payout structure. Get used to folding because you are going to be doing a lot of it.
These are probably one of the more formulaic variants of poker out there and are well suited to the tight ABC style of play – all your chips are valuable and become more so as the tournament progresses and their perceived worth rises alongside the escalating blinds and antes. During the early levels then, you should be playing the top ten starting hands (big pairs from Aces down to Nines and big Aces down to Ace Queen off-suit) and playing them hard and fast when you get them. That's not to say that smaller Pocket Pairs and suited connecters are unplayable; by all means if you can get in cheap and see a flop in late position during the early levels you can often hit a monster for that all important double-up – you just shouldn't be playing them out of position. An early double up will almost guarantee you a cash payout in a DoN, but you do not necessarily have to double up to win – often sitting tight and pulling a few well-timed blind steals during the later levels on the run up to the bubble will see you coast into the cash spots.
While the average winning stack size is normally around 3,000, the key to success is being aware of the other player's stack-sizes and position relative to the blinds; if someone has a stack of 8,000 for just over half the chips in play, the other four players only need a stack of 1,750 to make the money. The key to cashing here is in avoiding the marginal all-in confrontations during the early levels – unless you are short or are getting amazing pot odds you need to be a significant favourite to call all-in, especially as the bubble approaches. Allow me to illustrate:
You are first in chips with a stack of 4,500 with 6 players left, blinds are 100/200 and you are dealt Pocket Kings under-the-gun. There is another solid tight player with around 4,000 in chips in late position, everyone else has between 1,200 and 1,750 apart from one short-stack who is sitting in middle position with around 900 left. In order to induce the short-stack to re-raise all in (which he may well do with any two cards if it is limped or folded to him with his stack size in relation to the blinds) you have just limped with the intention of limp re-raising to isolate. Under-the-gun plus one min-raises to 400 leaving himself 1,100 behind, the short-stack shoves for 900 total and the solid tight player behind him re-shoves for 4,000 total. What do you do?
Even if this were a standard SNG you would hesitate in making the call here as one misstep could see your 4,300 remaining chips become just over one big blind. In a DoN then, this is an easy fold: Your Kings may well be in front of the short-stacks range here but under-the-gun plus one has to have some sort of hand and for the player in late position with no chips invested in the pot to re-raise all-in, he HAS to have a monster. You fold, under-the-gun plus one calls showing Ace King, the short-stack has Pocket Sixes, the big stack tables Pocket Aces and eliminates both players to burst the bubble leaving you in the money.
Learning to beat the DoN is fairly straightforward and also helps improve your tournament skills, especially in relation to bubble play; as you progress your positional awareness should improve as you need to be aware of the other players chip stack sizes, their position in relation to the blinds and their playing tendencies. Steal from the tight players, value bet the calling stations and learn when to shove and when to fold. While the SNG has a lot to recommend it to poker players of any level, the DoN's in particular are especially good at serving as an introduction to the intricate and intriguing world of poker for the novice player. You won't become a poker millionaire playing DoN SNG's but it's all about volume – the DoN offer you a small but fairly risk free margin to show a profit so all you need is time and lots of patience. Taking a straightforward ABC approach to them makes the DoN a great way to learn how to multi-table in a fairly risk free way. They also present a steady way to make extra money in rakeback or VIP loyalty perks (For example, they are one of the quickest way to hit SuperNova on Pokerstars) or clear a sign up bonus.
Conservative is the way to go here, especially in relation to your bankroll. If you are a wining player and want to be completely sure that you never have to reload, your bankroll should be around 100 buy-ins, so if you are playing $10+$1 your roll needs to be around $1000. The higher your win-rate, the lower bankroll you can get away with. After playing in around 2,000 or so tournaments you should have a fairly good idea of your win-rate and if you're cashing 55% to 60% of the time you should see your roll grow at a steady rate.
While it's possible to play with a smaller roll you should be aware that no matter how great a poker player you are, the occasional downswing is part and parcel of poker and some negative variance might just see you go broke.
The most DoN traffic is found at Pokerstars, but you can find some juicy shorthanded games at Poker770.
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Double or NothingBeginner Strategy