Tag Archives: stages
4 Tips to Winning Double or Nothing Tournaments
Double or nothing tournaments are much different than normal poker tournaments because they have a very unique payout structure. In a double or nothing tournament half of the players in the field double their buy-in and half lose theirs. The fact that so many players cash combined with the fact that there is no difference in prize amount between first place and the last casher means the strategy for these tournaments is very unique.
Tip 1 Play Tight in the Early Stages of the Tourney At this stage of a double or nothing tournament you want to play very tight and only play big hands. The less experienced double or nothing players will likely be playing a lot of hands and you want to let them. If you do find a good hand you should play it aggressively in order to keep from allowing your opponent to suck out on you.
Tip 2 Maintain Your Stack through the Middle Stages In the middle stages of a double or nothing tournament the blinds will start to increase and you will need to steal blinds on occasion to maintain your stack size. You cant have your stack getting too small at this stage because you want it to carry you through the later levels.
Tip 3 Survive the Late Stages In the late stages you should just be focussing on surviving. At this point there will be about two-thirds of the field remaining which means there will only be a few more busts before you cash. If you have a big stack at this stage you should just hold onto it and not risk any chips when you dont need to. If you have a short stack you will want to compare your stack size to the other short stacks and if you are in a non-cash position you should get aggressive and try to gain some chips. If you need to get aggressive you should try to use your position to your advantage and you should also attack the blinds of the medium sized stacks. These players with about an average stack at this point will be wanting to fold their way into the money and you can take advantage of this by stealing their blinds.
Tip 4 Avoid Coin Flips in the Early Stages In double or nothing tournaments it is best to avoid coin flips in the early stages because they are negative expected value. This is simply because if you lose the coin flip youre out of the tourney and you lose the buy-in, whereas if you manage to win the coin flip you just have double the amount of chips and you arent even guaranteed to cash. This theory holds true only because the top prize you can win is only double your buy-in and by winning the 50% coin flip you havent even guaranteed yourself this cash.
Double or nothing tournaments are a grind and once the non-experienced players go out in the early rounds it all comes down to who can best adjust in the late stages and get the cards when they are needed.
Sit&Go Holdem Strategy (Page 1 of 2)
SIT & GO STRATEGY
Sit & Gos are one of the great things that online poker has introduced to all us poker players. They are, in fact, one table tournaments (there are also Sit & Gos which consist of two or even three tables) where every player starts with an equal amount of chips and the blinds increase after a specific amount of time (usually ten minutes or so) until one player has all the chips. There is a great variety of Sit & Gos in every poker site, like PokerStars.com, PokerRoom.com and PartyPoker.com, and they can really become a very good way for a skilled player to win a lot of money using a specific strategy.
Early stages (first 2-3 levels)
Now, I am a strong supporter of the idea that says that no specific strategy or style of play is the way to win in poker because I believe that every strategy has its pros and cons and there is no hard-and-fast rule on how to play poker correctly. However, throughout my years of experience in online poker I have never seen anyone playing very loose during the early stages of a Sit & Go and actually be a consistent winner. This is one of these few occasions where tight play is necessary, especially in low or medium limit tournaments. Thats because everybody else at your table will already be playing loose because the blinds are so small in relation to the stacks.
The problem with this, though, is that this way, they jeopardize a big percentage, if not all, of their arsenal during a stage in which they dont have any reason to do so. Small blinds usually mean small pots and while it might be useful to win some early pots it certainly is nowhere near as helpful as doubling your stack up during the later stages of the tournament. So in this stage, I will only play quality hands like AA, KK, QQ and AK and usually raise quite strongly with them before the flop because I dont want many people in the pot. I will avoid playing AJ or A-10, especially in early position and hands like AQ, 10-10 and JJ should be played very cautiously. I dont want to go broke early because the later stages, when the blinds will have been raised significantly and several players will definitely have been eliminated, are much more important.
Middle stages (levels 4-6)
By the time you reach the middle stages of the tournament, usually 2-3 players will have been eliminated. At this moment the most important thing is your stack size. If your stack size is bigger than 10 times the amount of the big blind your strategy should not be altered much, although with less players at the table hands like AQ, 10-10 and JJ should now be played more aggressively.
If your stack is less than 8-10 times the big blind then you are in all-in mode. Your goal at this moment should be to find a good spot to push your stack in and try to double up. You want be able to steal the blinds with pot-sized raises and you will certainly not be able to preserve any significant amount of chips by folding to a reraise. What you must realize is that moving all-in while you still have fold equity and you wont have much of that if your stack drops down to 3-4 times the amount of the big blind is very important because winning those blinds without a fight will add a very healthy percentage to your stack size (usually almost 20%).