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Poker Tournaments for You This Week
There is never a dull moment in a poker player’s life. Obviously, the main reason for that is the constant existence of poker tournaments and poker events that one can participate in. These events are not just for making money, but also to have some fun and get better at the game in the process. Several live poker tourneys are lined up for this week and the coming weeks. Here is a note on some of the tournaments you can … Read the rest
2012 PokerStars Macau Poker Championships Announced
PokerStars is one online poker room that never takes a break from hosting tournaments. The poker room recently released details about its upcoming event, the PokerStars Macau Live Tournaments. The Macau tournaments hosted by PokerStars is one of the biggest and richest poker events held in Asia. It includes 4 major poker series – Macau Poker Cup (MPC) Red Dragon, Asia Championship of Poker, Macau Poker Cup Championship or MPCC and the yearly Asia Pacific Poker Tour event at Macau. … Read the rest
The $30,000 Winner Wednesday Dozen Unveiled
Winner Poker has partnered with pokernews.com to bring a new promotion to its new members. The online poker room announced its new promotion called Winner’s Wednesday Dozen Freerolls, which literally lets you win free money. The new promotion is open to all the new players who register with Winner Poker and make a deposit. The promo will run for three months, and all you need to do is play poker and earn as many Winner Points as you can. Here … Read the rest
Double or Nothing SNGs on Pokerstars – Building Your Bankroll the Easy Way
Thursday, October 9th, 2008 by Phil
Are you frustrated that you’ve been busting out on the bubble too many times during Sit-n-Gos? Are you the type of player who finishes mostly 3rd and can’t seem to place in the top 2 in SNGs? So Pokerstars has a new game for you Sit-n-Go fanatics. It’s called double or nothing SNGs.
The premise is simple, it’s a regular SNG except that 1/2 the field gets paid off. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
I’m not one who usually plays SNGs or Tourneys online. I usually play in the pokerstars freerolls and cash games but this has to be a great addition to their roster of games offered.
These double or nothing SNGs has buy-ins ranging from $1.10 to $100+$4. In the turbo versions the blinds go up every 5 minutes and the normal game the blinds go up every 10 minutes. For the lower buy-ins antes kick in after level 3.
Pokerstars offers these double or nothing games in NLHE and PL Omaha Hi.
I think this is a great idea as it’s a great way to build up your bankroll. I tested this out and I played 5 $5.40 double or nothing SNGs. I finished in the money all 5 times for a cool profit of $23 out of a $27 investment; that’s a 85% return. Not too shabby.
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The strategy I implemented was very simple. Play only top hands and hang around until there’s about 7 players left. Depending on how many chips I had, I either just folded every hand, or if I had a big stack or even an above average stack I gambled in order to knock out a short stack on or near the bubble or I shoved when I had a smallish stack to steal blinds and antes. The key wasn’t to amass a large chip stack and hope to cruise to 1st place but to hang around until the other players knock each other off and then backdoor into the money (which I did once, as a matter of fact I think I only played like 4 hands out of 50 hands dealt that game).
You might not want to gamble in a regular SNG with a decent stack while holding a marginal hand with 7 players left but not in SNG where 1/2 the field gets paid off. The times when I was big stacked; I started to take chances and tried to knock people out. I knew that even if I lost to a short stack, I still had enough chips to finish at least 5th, whereas I might not have called in that same situation in a regular SNG.
For example:
I had 2,600 in chips because I hit a nice hand early on. A short stack had about 500. He’s on the button and he shoves. I’m in the BB and I have 5/6 unsuited. In a regular SNG I’d fold this in a heart beat with 7 players still in the tourney but since this is a double or nothing, I call hoping to take down a short stack. I call because I know that even if I lose 500 chips, I still have 2,100 chips which is about the average. I wound up outdrawing this guy and we’re down to 6 players and I just fold my way to the money.
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Of course playing 5 double or nothing SNGs isn’t a huge sample to play with and I didn’t play in the higher buy-ins where the game is probably a lot tougher but by playing this strategy I was able to finish in the money all 5 times at the lower levels.
If you’re a halfway decent player or a new player, you’ll probably finish in the money more often than not if you just play solid poker so this is a great way to build bankroll without risking too much (as a matter of fact I saw quite a few people who folded their way into the money) while learning the ins and outs of optimal SNG poker. If these don’t work out, you can always you back to playing in the pokerstars freerolls. If you were smart enough to use a bonus code when you signed up you will at least have a little bit of padding. You can stay up to date with the latest poker bonus codes here; Poker Bonus Code Reviews.
If you’re a SNG shark or even an above average SNG player, this is also good for you because most of the players won’t be nearly as good as you are and you could probably finish in the money more than 70% of the time, which is still a pretty awesome return.
