- Before the game starts, check out the lobby. If the second SNG yet to go off has four or more players registered, you have found a table with too many regulars. If you sit here, the other regulars, plus the rake, will eat into your profit enough that this game is not worth playing. It is likely to go off with 6-7 regulars, and there may not be enough fish to spread the wealth between everyone.
- It is vital that you identify the regulars. Know who is who, because you are going to play one type of game against the regulars, and a totally different game against the random players.
- Have enough buy-ins in your bankroll to play your game comfortably. For professionals, that's about 40 buy-ins and for recreational players who can easily replenish their bankroll, that's about 20 buy-ins.
- In a $10 SNG, your starting equity is $10 and should you double up, to 3000, it becomes $15.55.
What this means to you is that, should you end up all-in on hand one, the chips that you risk are worth $10, and the chips that you stand to gain are worth $5.55. $10/$15.55 = 64.5%, so you'll need to win an early all-in confrontation approximately 2/3 of the time just to break even! Try not to get committed in any pot that you don't expect to win at least 2/3 of the time.
Just to give you an idea of how tight that means you need to be, check out this fight between KK and {JJ+, AK}:
| Hand |
Pot equity |
|
|
| KK |
62.6% |
|
|
| {JJ+,AK} |
37.4% |
|
|
- When two players collide, the missing equity doesn't just disappear. It goes to the other players.
What this means to you is that, as in the example above, when two
players collided, one player loses $10.00, and the other player won
$5.55. That leaves $4.45 of "missing equity". That $4.45 doesn't just
disappear from the game. It gets divided up among the remaining
players. In this case, $.55 goes to each of the eight players that were
not involved in the clash. So, if two players do battle on the first
hand, and one doubles up, your 1500 chips that were worth $10.00 are
now worth $10.55. As you can see, if there is one really bad player in
your SNG, this nice benefit can basically eliminate the rake for you.
Later, as more players are eliminated, the "missing equity" from these
clashes becomes greater, and gets divided up among less players. This
means that your benefit from watching two other players collide later
in the game will become immense!
Early Game Tactics
- To open from early position, you need a very strong hand. I
would recommend opening only with big pairs and possibly AK from very
early position. Feel free to play a wider range of hands in late
position if your opponents in the blinds are 16-tabling regulars that
are only playing 10% of the time or less against a raise.
- It is very seldom correct to flat call. In general, re-raising or folding is the most appropriate avenue to take.
- Don't do too much set mining. In most games, set mining
requires approximately 11-1 to 15-1 implied odds to profitably try.
However with the difference between cEV and $EV being as great as it is
(as in the example of risking $10 to win $5.55), you now need 20-1 to
24-1 implied odds to set mine! Therefore, as a general rule, don't set
mine, even at the early levels, unless you are limping behind in late
position in a multi-way pot.
- Your main motive at this level should be to preserve your stack,
because if you succeed in doing so, this offers you the chance to
threaten a large raise at the later levels. If you can maintain even
just 1300-1400 chips, you'll really put the pressure on even a
bigger stack to fold in the later stages. Also, tighter play may earn
your raises some respect later in the game when that respect might make
the difference.
Mid Game Tactics
- Once the antes have kicked in, the
incentive to steal blinds is much greater. While the antes seem small,
in relation to the blinds they are actually very great. By the time
50-100 rolls around, stealing blinds becomes an important strategy to
preserve your stack.
- Be aware that the shortest stacks will
need to make a stand, and as a general rule, avoid playing pots where
you are not at least 70% to win. This is especially important in games
where more than two players have busted.
- Fighting and losing against a big stack is a disaster at
this point if your stack is healthy. With a healthy stack, you
generally need to win 80-85% of your pots against them. Keep in mind
that usually amounts to calling with AA only, and sometimes, not even
that!
Endgame Tactics
- With 6 players remaining, so long as
you are not in last place, the value of your chips is likely 85% of the
final prize or greater. In a $10 SNG what that means to you is that
your chips are worth approximately $17 to you, even though the prize is
$20. Given this, calling shoves with even aces is often borderline,
and definitely a no go if you are in 4th or better.
| Player |
Chips |
Equity |
|
|
|
|
Player 1 |
2500 |
$16.67 |
|
|
|
|
Player 2 |
2500 |
$16.67 |
|
|
|
|
Player 3 |
2500 |
$16.67 |
|
|
|
|
Player 4 |
2500 |
$16.67 |
|
|
|
|
Player 5 |
2500 |
$16.67 |
|
|
|
|
Player 6 |
2500 |
$16.67 |
|
|
- If you have a large stack, it is NOT your responsibility to eliminate players. Your responsibility to yourself is to finish top 5. Don't worry about calling with exceptional pot odds, or whatever. Your main priority is to avoid disaster. There will be times that raising or shoving is still appropriate, especially if a regular is sitting on a lot of chips behind you.
- Push wide into regulars who are intelligent enough to fold, and push very tight against loose players when your stack is healthy. It is your responsibility to range the potential caller(s). There are many situations where pushing any two is correct against regulars, and pushing only the top 15% of starting hands or so is correct against others. Therefore you cannot solely rely on proper ICM recommendations, and/or knowing the
Nash Equilibrium of a situation. You must adjust, so the slightest difference in an opponent's calling range can often completely change the range you should be pushing with!
- Never limp pre-flop with intent to trap someone into shoving, even with AA. In other types of poker, the advantage of trapping with aces is the strong edge it gives you when you fish someone in. In Double or Nothing events, if you catch someone, you are in a situation where you are 80-85% to win, but you need to win 65-90% of the time just to break even, so your edge isn't large enough to trap. It's hardly a disaster if you raise and win the blinds, and that result will usually be just as favorable to your winning chances.
- Time the blinds if you can. At key times, consider stalling to allow the blinds to move up. While this may cause the table to have a vendetta against you, if you can bring the blinds up to the point where someone else is all-in on their BB, you very well might be able to back into a top 5 finish, even with a micro stack!
- If you are in last place, and the player to your left won't fold to your shoves, it may be worth it to make a borderline call on another hand to save your skin.
Reasons to try Double or Nothing SNG Tournaments - Along with Heads-Up SNGs, they are the form of poker with the least fluctuation. They are truly a game for grinders. This means that you will have less drastic fluctuations in your bankroll.
- The length of time it takes to play a Double or Nothing SNG is much shorter than a regular SNG. This means that your $/hr will still be good despite the fact that you'll be lucky just to maintain a high single-digit ROI. It also means that you will be able to generate
rakeback at a quicker pace.
- With some experience, a Double or Nothing SNG is easy to play because you'll enter very few hands, and when you do, you'll often be quickly committed to your hand. This means that you will have few difficult decisions, and makes it easier to multi-table. Double or Nothing games are perfect for someone just learning to play several tables at once.
- The differences between Double or Nothing SNGs and MTT satellites are so subtle, that if you learn how to play these, you'll automatically know how to play MTT satellites as well. The transition will be easier should you decide to play a super satellite to your favorite live event some day!
- You need just more than half as many buy-ins in your bankroll to play a Double or Nothing SNG as you so a regular SNG. This means that you will be able to play higher levels of Double or Nothing SNGs with the same bankroll.
- If you are finishing third more than first in regular SNGs, then Double or Nothings are for you. Players who finish first a lot in regular SNGs may see a significant drop in $/hr in these events, because there is no additional reward for finishing first.
- There is much literature available about regular SNGs. A few books, and countless articles have been written about SNG bubble play, whereas the information about Double or Nothing SNGs has been limited to a few stray articles here and there. The lack of available information means that more players are unaware of what to do.
- They are still new on some sites. This means that there will be several players who aren't completely familiar with them, which you can exploit.
- They are growing in popularity and some sites still don't offer them! What this means to you is that the likelihood of one or more popular sites beginning to offer these sometime in 2009 is INCREDIBLY high! When this happens, players with experience will have a clear edge over players just learning the game. In this case, you may be able to find games with only 1-2 regulars sitting at them! It pays to know the popular new game that nobody else knows how to play yet!
I hope that you found this article enlightening, and learned something new. Have fun grinding!
JennifearJennifear is
a proud Contributing Writer for Pocketfives.com and a Presto Award
Winner for 2006's Most Valuable Poster, as voted by the readers of
PocketFives. She teaches private poker lessons, and you can find the
details at Jennifear.com. A discount on these lessons is available if
you support pocketfives.com by joining a poker site through one of the
site links.