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Double or Nothing SNGs on Pokerstars – Building Your Bankroll the Easy Way

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.

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.