Double or Nothing Strategy Guide - Complete

Double or Nothing (DON) Guide


PART 1: PRE-GAME


INTRODUCTION

Disclaimer: This series is going be quite long, there is a lot to digest and I don’t intend that you read it all in one go. It's probably best to read it in several short sections. To help you, I am splitting the guide into several smaller threads, which will be posted in due course. The hands used in this post are real hands I have been involved in. I have sometimes taken a little artistic license and changed some of the specifics to illustrate the point a bit clearer, but usually the hands are unedited. I am intentionally vague in some of the later sections. I would say it’s impossible to write a guide that says “do this when you have AKs etc.” because this depends to a greater or lesser extent on the table specifics, such as stack sizes and opponent tendencies. Rather, I have chosen to write about things I consider when I make decisions.

I have written this post as a guide to ‘Double or Nothing’ tournaments (DONs). DON tournaments are usually single table sit-and-go tournaments where half the field doubles up and the rest go home with nothing. If you are unfamiliar with the basics of these tournaments, I highly recommend you read Kevster’s Introduction to Double or Nothings, which gives a great general introduction.

If you are wondering about my credentials, I don't pretend to be an excellent DON player, but I do have extensive experience at the $5 and $10 levels, where I have been a consistent winner over thousands of tournaments. This guide is based primarily on my experiences at $5.20 and $10.40 DON turbo tables on PokerStars.

Throughout this article, I'm going to talk consistently about fold equity. When I talk about fold equity, this is what I mean. "Pot equity is your share of the pot if the pot were to go to show-down, without any further betting. Fold equity is the forfeited pot equity" - Kill Everyone by Nelson, Streib and Lee.

An example

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds 5 Ante (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 (t1895)
CO (t710)
Button (t1340)
SB (t2000)
BB (t1420)
UTG (t1515)
Hero (UTG+1) (t1470)
MP1 (t2940)
MP2 (t1710)

Hero's M: 12.25

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K, A, Villain is in BB with K, Q

1 fold, Hero bets t150, 6 folds, BB calls t100

Flop: (t370) A, 3, 4 (2 players)

You have top pair versus a flush draw. The villain has 37% of the pot equity. In other words, if the hand were to get to showdown, he would win 37% of the time. If you bet enough to make to make calling unprofitable for the villain, he may fold his hand and your pot equity increases from 63% to 100%.

The bigger your stack is, the greater your fold equity is. Maintaining a healthy stack size is vital in DON as the flat payout structure tends to punish people who call widely on the bubble. However, in order to encourage opponents to fold, you need to maintain a stack with sufficient fold equity. The more chips you have, the better off you will be.

The concept of preserving chips encourages me to play very tightly in the early stages of double or nothings. I am less concerned with winning pots than keeping pots small without the nuts. I will tend to lead out hands like TPTK and two-pair. If I am in position and there is action ahead of me, I will usually call behind and re-evaluate the turn/river. If I am out of position, I may check-call the flop and further streets depending on my hand quality and the board texture. I make a lot of chips by checking the river and allowing my opponents to bluff with hands they feel are ahead.

Hand 1

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t1360)
UTG (t1695)
UTG+1 (t1390)
MP1 (t3280)
MP2 (t1080)
MP3 (t680)
CO (t2590)
Button (t1455)
Hero (SB) (t1470)

Hero's M: 32.67

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, J

UTG calls t30, UTG+1 calls t30, 4 folds, Button calls t30, Hero calls t15, BB checks

Flop: (t150) 10, J, 4 (5 players)

Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets t30, UTG+1 raises to t120, 1 fold, Hero folds.

Although Hero has TPTK here, the board texture is poor so he checks the flop and waits to observe the action. After a raise and a reraise, the villains are announcing they have hands they like and want to play. Hero should fold since UTG could squeeze him, the number of player involved in the pot in concerning and 120 chips is unlikely to all the chips he will risk in the hand. Remember, risking those chips is bad for maintaining your fold equity.

Before we start discussing strategy and analysing hands, here are a few things to consider before you hit the tables.


MULTI-TABLING

DONs offer a fantastic opportunity for multi-tabling, probably more so than any other form of poker, since the decisions are relatively simple and rarely go beyond the flop. They also have an inherent advantage over multi-tabling normal SnG’s in that there are always 6+ people at the table, which means the period between hands is usually longer.

• Important considerations
  
  -You shouldn't be risking more than 10% of your bankroll when you multi-table e.g. you should not be playing more than 10 $10 tables if you have a bankroll of $1000. The reason for this is very simple. If your ISP or the poker-site goes down and you sit out on all tables, you could potentially lose more than 10% or your roll if you are over-extending yourself.
  
  - Consider running a stack instead of tiling. It allows you to play many more tables at once. You can find the code in the Beginner's Guide to Multi-tabling by Nakamura and Rage2100
  
  - Do not try to jump in and multi-table 15-tables. I have gradually built up my stack size and multi-tabling experience. Add 1 or 2 tables at once and see how you cope before adding more.
  
  - Variance, one set = one data-point. Don't think that because you have played 15 games you have 15 data points. You don't. What you have is what statisticians call pseudo-replication. In other words the tournaments are not actually independent of each other. Perhaps you were a bit sleepy or maybe your girlfriend left you last week? Your play is affected in the same way in all tables in one set and should therefore be treated as one data-point. You can start drawing conclusions at roughly 30 data-points, before that there is usually too much variance to say anything meaningful. If you are multi-tabling 10 tables, that means you need have 300 DONs under your belt before you can even start to consider what your ROI is.

AVOIDING THE GOOD PLAYERS

This is generally pretty self-explanatory. Where possible you should try to avoid the good players. If you see a good regular already registered in the tournament lobby, you should wait a few minutes and join another table. Also try to avoid registering for tournaments where there are several tables that have 4 or 5 players registered. This may mean there are too many regulars on these tables and not enough fish to spread the wealth around.

Personally, I don’t exercise this kind of table selection as I actually enjoy playing against most regulars. I usually have a good idea of how they play and if they sit to my left they usually ‘get’ that they can’t call wide in these spots. I know I can push very wide into them and it’s an easy way to stay afloat in a DON.


VARIANCE AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR BANKROLL

Although variance is probably lower in DONs, since the result is binary; either you lose or a double of your stake, most likely around 50% of the time, there is still considerable variance. Two months ago I made over $1000 at DON tables but I dropped at least 15 BI 3 times. Be properly rolled. I suggest at least 25-30 if you are a recreational player and at least 50-60 if you are a professional player. Being properly rolled will allow you to bring a fearless game to the table and give you an edge over timid, under-rolled opponents. Consider downloading this Excel spreadsheet and playing around with Hero’s edge.


TO TURBO OR NOT TO TURBO

Should you play turbos or normals? To a certain extent, this is personal preference. Off the top of my head, here are a few things you should consider.

The rake in the turbos is half that of the normal-speeds. If you choose to play the normal-speeds, you will need to overcome this extra rake. Turbos will generally be much quicker and allow you to play more tournaments in the same time period. On the other hand, there will be less time before blind increases and therefore you will have to push more marginal hands in turbos. Consequentially there is generally a trade off that means you trade a lower ROI for higher volume.


RUNNING A HUD

A HUD or Heads Up Display is a graphical interface that overlies a table and provides an indication of how opponents play. The two main tracking softwares are Hold ‘em Manager and Poker Tracker. If you are serious about DONs, I seriously recommend running a HUD. They are especially useful if you are multi-tabling.

Here is my design. The top row in my HUD indicates how aggressive a player is, the second row indicates how often opponents steal the blinds and how often they call when they are in the blinds. Since I have started using the stats in the second row I have noticed a big difference in my game.

VPIP / PFR / AF / Hands
Steal / Call in BB / Call in SB

The next instalment of this thread should follow shortly

Very good article. Anyone who is playing, or thinking of playing DoNs, should read this. I know there are other parts to come, and there will be a lot to read, but it's well worth it.

good read.

quick note in "Hand 1" (which should maybe be called Hand 2) it goes bet raise, not raise re raise.

Originally Posted by Rage2100

Very good article. Anyone who is playing, or thinking of playing DoNs, should read this. I know there are other parts to come, and there will be a lot to read, but it's well worth it.

+1

I've been rather busy recently and not very good about posting the rest of this article. Part 2 will start tomorrow once I make the necessary edits.

PART 2: STRATEGY

This is the second part of the thread. We will now start to discuss strategy and look at particular hands. Note this part is written primarily from the TAGG perspective as this is by far the easiest style to both replicate and play. While a small-balling approach is possible, it is a lot trickier to both learn and execute.


EARLY STAGES (10/20, 15/30 and 25/50 + 5 blind levels)


PRE-FLOP CARD SELECTION

As we have discussed previously, you should play fairly tightly in the opening. The exact nature of how tight depends on personal preference. Since I am frequently playing 15+ tables at once, I want to limit both the number of hands I play and the difficulty of those hands. This means I actually open-fold AK from an EP. My own personal raising range is QQ+ and sometimes I’ll limp JJ or TT (normally I open-fold these). If you feel comfortable and play fewer tables you might want to expand your selection of hands. If you are a DON noob, I recommend playing an extremely tight selection of hands in the early stages, until you are confident in post-flop play and stacking off ranges.

My standard raise at the 10/20 and 15/30 levels is 4xBB +1BB for each limper. This will generally thin the field a bit more than raising 3 x BB, which will in turn make the hand a little easier to play post-flop. At the 25/50 level I’ll start making it 3 x BB + 1 BB for each limper.

When I’m in a MP I’ll usually open up my range a little. I’ll add AK and AQs, which I open-raise. I’m usually folding these hands if there has been action in front of me, since if I’m re-raised, I will seldom be able to continue with the hand. If there is one caller, you can throw out a standard c-bet of 2/3 pot on all but the most terrible flops, but you should be prepared to fold the hand if you encounter any resistance. If two or more opponents see a flop, you should probably check-fold if you don't connect with the flop or flop an over-pair.

In a LP you can open up your range even further, although mine tends not to be terribly wide at the early stage. I’ll maybe splash around with hands like KQs or pocket pairs and attempt to steal the blinds.

Once again, this hand selection is personal preference. Some good DON players will play aggressively with AK and perhaps wider in the early. You will need to find your own balance here.


WHY IS STACKING OFF PARTICULARLY BAD AT THESE LEVELS?

When everyone starts a $10.40 DON tournament, they all have 10% of the equity or 0.1 of the prize pool, which is $10 (See the left hand side of figure 1). Consider the example represented in figure 1. Hero stacks off with player 10 and wins the hand. He has now increased his number of chips to 3000, but if you do the ICM calculation, he has only added $5.56 to his stack. Where does the missing $4.44 go? Well each of the other players not involved in the hand have increased their equity by $0.56 (there are slight rounding errors here). Their share of the pie just got larger by doing nothing!


Figure 1: ICM calculator results

So what does all of this mean? Let’s imagine it’s the first hand of the tournament and everyone has 1500 chips. You are on the button with KK. Everyone folds to the tight CO, who pushes (we have a few hundred hands on him). Let’s say we know with absolute certainty that his range here is JJ+, AK+. Can you call here? Well, let’s do the ICM calculation.

KK has 62.6% equity versus a range of JJ+, AK+. You will need to win 10.00/15.56 (or 64.3%) of the time to break even with this call. Unfortunately, kings just don't cut it here. Therefore the rather surprising result of our KK hand, is you should fold, since you aren’t going to win often enough here to compensate for the risk of busting out of the tournament.

I hope this shows you exactly how far ahead you need to be to stack off in the early stages. Avoid confrontations in the early stages unless you are convinced you are far ahead.


SMALL - MEDIUM POCKET PAIRS AT LOW BLIND LEVELS

As you may have noticed, I’ve not talked much about pocket pairs at the low-blind levels. In SNGs, pockets pairs are a great hand to limp or call with, particularly from a LP. Traditionally these are ‘set or forget’ type hands and you may end up stacking TPTK hands that cannot lay down the hand. So now I hear you saying, “But if I call I can just fold if I miss the flop.” The problem is this; the general DON player is playing so tight that they will not give you the implied odds to call. In other words, they are not getting their chips into the middle often enough to for you to recover the chips you are losing from set-mining. In my opinion, maintaining your fold equity is much more important than shooting for the small odds of hitting a set and stacking an opponent.

There are a couple of thoughts to think over.

• - Are you able to accurately place a player (like a regular) on KK or AA PF? If so, you should be more inclined to limp pocket pairs, as they will likely stack off with an undercard flop and you therefore have a high probability of stacking them.
  
  - Be more inclined to limp into multi-way pots, especially from a LP. Obviously in multi-way pots, there is a higher chance that one or several opponents will connect the flop and happily stack off. Feel free to limp or call a small bet in a LP.

I'm not a DON guy, but these are really interesting posts.

Originally Posted by Kijjo

I'm not a DON guy, but these are really interesting posts.

Thanks, more to follow soon if I get some more time tonight.

I like these, keep them going, might convince me to play these more. lol

Nakamura, You are my hero!

THE MIDDLE STAGES (50/100 + 10, 75/150 + 15, 100/200 + 20)

You should generally start to open up your starting hand requirements at this stage. Since there are now antes in the pot, the pot is becoming worthwhile to steal. If the hand is folded around to you in a late position, you should generally make an attempt to steal the pot with any kind of reasonable hand (as long as a maniac doesn’t act after you or is in the blinds). If I have more than 12-13BB, I’ll generally put in 2.5xBB as the extra 0.5BB is now unnecessary, and this will enable you to put in a c-bet if you so chose. If I have 12-13BB or less I will consider pushing or folding, although a standard raise or min-raise (see the min-raise section below) may also be acceptable.

I like to call the 50/100 and the 75/150 levels the ‘re-stealing phases’. There will be plenty or limping or raising to 300 or 400 chips at these levels and you can often take advantage of this by re-stealing. Often players will back down from an encounter here rather than risk their entire tournament.

e.g. a TAGG player running at 8/7/3.4/348 makes a characteristic raise on the button to 250 chips at the 50/100 blind level. Your HUD stats indicate he steals with 62% of hands. If you have a fair amount of FE you should consider defending your blind with any reasonable hand here. You look down and see KTs in the BB. You should re-raise AI here. This is very likely a steal attempt and you have a hand which isn’t hopeless in the face of an unlikely call. Push AI and defend your blind, and expect him to fold most of his hands here. This will also most likely quickly stop this undesirable play from your opponent.

Taking advantage of medium blind-level limpers is another thing I regularly do.

Hand 2

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (10 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1265)
Hero (BB) (t1335)
UTG (t1290)
UTG+1 (t2025)
UTG+2 (t1710)
MP1 (t1490)
MP2 (t1250)
MP3 (t1155)
CO (t2045)
Button (t1435)

Hero's M: 5.34

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, A

4 folds, MP2 calls t100, 4 folds, Hero ??

There are already 350 chips in the pot, which is about 25% of your stack. You have plenty of fold equity and a decent hand if you are called. You should push AI.

Before stealing or re-stealing, consider how aggressive a player is and how likely a player is to call. Generally, the wider the player is going to call the re-steal, the less attractive the play becomes. TAGGs make great targets since they will often attempt to blind steal and fold to AI aggression. Recently, I have noticed many looser players min-raising and then calling AI steals almost regardless of their hand. Be very careful of this breed of player.

Make sure you have enough fold equity before you steal or re-steal. Don’t attempt these plays if your opponent is going to feel compelled to call.


MIN-BETTING

Note: this section is currently probably incomplete. I’m still working on incorporating this into my game. Take advice here with a healthy dose of salt.

Min-betting at these levels or the higher levels is generally not a bad idea. It requires a specific awareness of the stack sizes at the table. You shouldn’t try this if there are short stacks that act after you that you are not prepared to stack off against.

Generally, the concept is that min-bet offers you a good chance to win the hand with a very low-risk bet. You shouldn’t min-bet if you won’t have enough FE to fold opponents in further hands.

The min-bet is highly exploitable by observant opponents. Clever opponents will know that you will very rarely be able to call an AI bet over the top of your min-bet. They know that this is rarely a big hand as you will usually push AI PF with these hands since stacking off with them is usually bad. For this precise reason, you may want to balance your min-betting range by occasionally min-betting with AA or KK, not because you want action with these hands, but to discourage AI re-steals, particularly from regs you may encounter again. Once bitten, twice shy.

A further disadvantage is you may also land up in strange spots where the best play isn’t all that clear. Do you c-bet or check-fold if called?

Despite the negatives, I am blending this more and more into my TAGG game. I will frequently use this technique when I have one of the larger stacks at the table but there is another large stack to act after me.

Hand 3

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds 15 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t1805)
MP2 (t1065)
CO (t1395)
Button (t1685)
SB (t1750)
BB (t5220)
Hero (UTG) (t2080)

Hero's M: 6.30

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, K

Hero ??

While min-raising here is a possibility, I feel you should push all-in here. You have a fantastic hand, which is dominated by only AA or KK. There are plenty of 10BB stacks to act after you and one of them may consider re-stealing (eg. With a medium pair), at which point you may have to fold your hand. Avoiding confrontation is key in DONs. Another consideration is that the big- stack is in the big blind and will likely call a min-bet with any reasonable hand. I tend to make the strongest bet I can here.


Hand 4

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 25 Ante (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t1230)
Hero (MP2) (t3925)
CO (t900)
Button (t3915)
SB (t1305)
BB (t1035)
UTG (t1770)
UTG+1 (t920)

Hero's M: 6.83

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, K

3 folds, Hero ??

This hand is slightly different in that we have a much larger stack, but there is also a big stack to act after. We can min-bet here, and will happily call the CO, SB or BB if they push. We will evaluate the flop if the button just calls.

Result:

Hero bets t500, 4 folds

Total pot: t825

Outcome: Hero won t825


Hand 5

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 25 Ante (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (CO) (t1935)
Button (t4860)
SB (t1095)
BB (t2190)
UTG (t1055)
MP (t3865)

Hero's M: 3.69

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, 9

2 folds, Hero ??

In this example Hero is unfortunate in that a very big stack is immediately to his left. Min-raising here is a big mistake. The big- stacked button is probably itching to call or push back at Hero. Even if he doesn’t the small-stacked SB might decide he has FE on you and push against you. Ok, so a min-raise is out, what about a push? Well, a push is unlikely to be too profitable either with two smaller stacks on the table and on the bubble. By process of elimination you should just fold here.

Result:

Hero folds.

Button bets t4835 (All-In), 2 folds

Total pot: t775

I hope that you are observing that there are a lot of nuances that have to be thought about before you make a min-bet.

"The final stages" and some further concepts will follow shortly

I don't do DON's, but I see another advantage you don't specifically mention with the min-raise. When you have 2 large stacks against a bunch of small guys, you're telling the small guys "piss off, I'll call your shove", while telling the other bigstack "I've got a hand, are you sure you wanna tango?" In the case of another bigstack that calls or re-raises, you've controlled the size of the pot or the size of the bet you're giving up.
Considering how many horrible SNG players understand this as a bigstack on the bubble, I would expect decent DON players with a bigstack to pick their spots carefully.
It's also probably going to mess with your opponent's head when you have your typical raise round after round and suddenly you pop in a min-raise 50 hands into the game.

THE FINAL STAGES (125/250 + 25 and beyond)

ADJUSTING TO OPPONENTS

Ultimately, you are going to need to steal a lot of blinds in DONs. Premium hands don’t come along all that often, so this means you are going to be pushing an awful lot of marginal hands.

Generally, you should try to avoid the players who are potentially going to call with a wide range. If you are running a HUD, displaying calling stats can be very useful to identify which players call wider. Avoid these players. You should also generally avoid the larger stacks. Larger stacks have lower penalty for calling; they will not eliminated by calling a smaller stack. Most of the time, larger stacks have doubled up early by making a marginal call. There is an exception to this rule; if you can find a tight player who has doubled or tripled up early, they may go into ‘lock-down mode’ and consequently be very easy to steal from.

You should also steal liberally from tight regulars, particularly when you are in the SB or button positions. If you are unfortunate enough to have a particularly loose player (or loose caller) immediately to your left, you should consider pushing from an earlier position. This is because looser players love to call SB and button steal shoves. They aren’t particularly discerning with their calls; any Ax will usually do. They correctly figure your range is extremely wide, and incorrectly conclude that they can call if their hand is better than your range.



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). This is where having the calling percentages in your HUD should prove very useful.


WHY IS CALLING GENERALLY A BAD IDEA?

The flat payout structure generally means you need to be quite far ahead of your opponent to call profitably. If you are not sufficiently ahead you will end up damaging both your own equity and your opponents and donating it to the other players at the table.



Figure 3: Calling ranges in SNGWIZ


In this example, even though the villain is probably pushing something like 70% of hands, you can only call with about 6% of hands. In fact, the graph on the right shows that even if he is pushing 100% of hands, you can only call with 8% of hands.

You WILL be punished for calling loose. If you learn one thing from this post it should be “push light, call tight.”


WHAT DO I DO IF THE WORLD'S BIGGEST DONK IS TO MY LEFT?

Well, it’s just unlucky, but it happens to everyone. If he is going to call very wide, you should firstly fold all your below average hands when you are in the SB. Pushing these is profitable against tight callers, but usually a losing play against the wider callers. Wait for a good hand. Failing that, and getting desperate, you have two options. You can push from an earlier position (i.e. not from SB or button), looser players to your left will generally call much tighter, since there will several players to play after them. Pick a hand where the tightest players are in the blind and push fairly wide at this point, almost regardless of your hand.

Alternatively, you can pick on the middle stacks at this point. As we discussed, big stacks are quite likely to call particularly wide. Small stacks may be getting desperate and prepared to make marginal or -EV calls (see section “Making -EV moves”). Middle stacks usually have the mentality that they are relatively secure and therefore don’t really need the chips. Also, they usually stand to lose a lot of equity if they call and lose the hand, making placing difficult. They will usually leave behind blinds, unless they run into a premium hand.


MAKING -EV MOVES

I’m not going to post a specific hand here, but you should use your brain and logic. For example if you are one of two short-stacks at the table and the other short-stack pushes into your BB, you should consider calling fairly wide if you are going to be rather distant in terms of stack size to everyone else at the table. Often ICM will say fold here, but sometimes I will give myself a likely 40-60% flip instead of meekly blinding out.


COLLUDING

On or near the bubble, you should collude with other players to knock out a short stack. Colluding means two or more players call or limp into a pot for the purposes of knocking a short stack out. This increases your own equity and gives you the maximum chance of finishing in the money.

• Factors to consider when colluding.
  
  - Generally you should automatically call if the call costs you less than 10%.
  
  - Will you have fold equity on other players should you call and lose?
  
  - You should strongly consider calling if you are on the bubble and two or more players are already all-in who you ALSO cover.
  
  Things to remember
  
  - Don’t raise if there is a very short stack at the table, even with AA. All you are achieving is folding hands that may actually beat the short stack. Limping in will encourage other opponents to follow suit. This is especially relevant where a short stack will have a very small amount of chips left if he folds.
  
  - Your job isn’t to knock other players out, it’s to place in the tournament. Don’t justify loose calls simply because you have lots of chips; they may be useful in the future.

TIMING THE BLINDS

At every opportunity you have, you should attempt to time the blinds. While some people may consider this unethical, the rules in online poker allow you to take the full amount of allocated time to make a decision. In my mind it makes sense to seize every small edge that is within the rules and etiquette of poker.

• Factors to consider
  
  - You should firstly consider whether you actually want a bigger blind. If you are significantly shorter than the rest of the stacks of the table, you should actually play quickly, as you really want to maximise the number of hands at the smaller blinds, thus maximising your fold equity.
  
  - Consistently taking the maximum amount of time will likely cause you to be target at the table, most likely of players playing one or two tables. They will likely notice your time-wasting efforts and may call you down light or repeatedly steal your blind to ‘teach you a lesson’. Time waste intelligently.
  
  - Time wasting is difficult if you are using a stack, simply because you can’t see the other tables before you actually make a decision on the current table. Timing the blinds will only generally be available when you are tiling (or tiling towards the end of a stack).
  
  - If the blinds are going up in 2 minutes or less you should consider whether you can make it through the cheaper blinds, in which case you should play as quickly as possible. Otherwise you should slow down immediately until the blinds increase, in order make other players put in a larger blind, putting them under pressure.

MOVING AI WITHOUT MOVING AI

Occasionally you have a hand that may warrant a push, but you don't necessarily want your push to be called. You should consider putting most of your chips in, but not all of them.

Hand 6

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 25 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2765)
SB (t1905)
BB (t2171)
Hero (UTG) (t1195)
MP1 (t1005)
MP2 (t4194)
CO (t1765)

Hero's M: 2.17

Preflop: Hero is UTG with J, J

Hero bets t1000, 6 folds

A couple of good things can happen when you use this technique. Firstly, the human brain is exceptionally adept at picking up patterns and, more importantly, things that don't fit into the pattern. Psychologically, someone is less likely to pick up that your bet is an AI bet when you put in 750 chips at the 100/200 level than if you pushed an odd size like 890. Odd-sized bets draw attention by not fitting in with the general pattern of a standard bet size. Most people tend to like to make their bets standard sizes and pushing in 890 chips may set off the alarms bell. If you opponent is a serious multi-tabler, they only have a few seconds to make a decision. They may actually quickly fold not realising your bet does not have many chips behind it. I occasionally make this mistake myself.

Secondly, you may cause a thinking opponent to pause and think about why you are not pushing AI. He may fold a hand that beats you because he is running out of time and can’t make a decision, or he may consider you have a big hand and are trying to suck players into the pot.

Thirdly, if players several call your bet and you only have a minuscule stack, a donk may violate the concept of implied collusion and bet 500 or 1000 or all his chips, potentially forcing hands that could potentially draw and beat you, out of the pot. Believe me, opponents sometimes do this with A-high on the bubble.

Anyway, my opinion is that all in bets where you don’t actually push all you chips in, tend to be called tighter.


FOLDING THE BEST HAND

Often in DONs (particularly towards the bubble) you will be required to fold what is probably or certainly the best hand. If you can’t or are unwilling to do this, you will probably lose at DONs over the long-term.


Hand 7

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 25 Ante (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP (t7410)
CO (t2520)
Button (t1060)
SB (t415)
Hero (BB) (t1920)
UTG (t1675)

Hero's M: 3.66

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, A

1 fold, MP bets t750, 3 folds, Hero ??

Hero obviously has the best hand here, but he should fold rather rapidly. There are three shorter stacks at the table, including one very short stack. You also have virtually zero fold equity on the initial raiser. It will be 1145 chips for him to call and win 2895 and potentially finish the game. With a monster stack, all but the tightest opponents WILL call here.

An analysis in SNGWIZ will show pushing here is a large mistake whatever cards the villain is playing, unless he folds a significant proportion of the time. As we have already discussed, that will not usually happen. Simply fold your way to victory.

An example of why folding the best hand is sometimes the best course of action...


Hand 8

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 10.4 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds 15 Ante (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t6650)
SB (t1155)
BB (t1245)
UTG (t1930)
Hero (MP) (t700)
CO (t3320)

Hero's M: 2.22

Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, 3

2 folds, CO calls t150, Button bets t500, 2 folds, CO raises to t3305 (All-In), Button calls t2805

Flop: (t6925) 2, 9, 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t6925) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t6925) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t6925

Results:

Button had K, Q (straight, King high).

CO had K, K (one pair, Kings).

Outcome: Button won t6925


ICM AND IGNORING IT

When everyone is getting low in chips, ICM is often not a useful tool anymore. Other factors start becoming important, such as who will be forced to play before they are blinded out, etc. Use your brain and mathematical skills while you are playing. Remember, you need a valid reason why you are rejecting what the ICM says.


SHOWING YOUR HANDS

I know some people never show their cards. It’s not a bad strategy as opponents can never be sure what you have. On the other hand, not showing your cards occasionally arouses enough suspicion for an opponent to eventually call you. In my opinion, showing some of your big hands can be beneficial, and keeps your opponents’ fear that you are stealing every hand, at bay. I don’t suggest showing every big hand you have, as it would be easy for an observant opponent to then know which hands are bluffs and which are you big hands. I do however suggest showing big hands where a bluff looks likely. You should be particularly keen to show some of your bigger hands if you are balancing your min-raise hands at mid-high blinds levels by min-raising with AA or KK. This is because you will often be min-raising with marginal hands and you should be keen to demonstrate that you also min-raise with big hands. This may prevent aggressive players from re-stealing when you adopt a min-raise strategy.

On the other hand, showing your bluffs and rubbing players’ nosing in it is generally imprudent. You will make them feel stupid and encourage them to call you, which is generally bad in DONs. Quietly muck your hand and try to get away with stealing again.

In very specific cases it may be prudent to show your bluffs. For example, if a regular is repeatedly stealing your blind, you may decide to re-steal with any decent hand and FE. You should consider showing your hand to demonstrate that you are prepared to defend your blind and prevent further abuse. If he steals your blind again, he either has balls or a good hand.


FINAL WORD

DONs offer a good opportunity for grinders to build a bankroll. Think carefully before you act, remember some of these concepts and I'm sure your results in DONs will improve. Good luck at the tables.

Thanks to Kevster, Rage2100 and rspeirsmlb for some helpful thoughts and comments. They really improved the overall quality of this thread. Thanks guys!

Thank You! Nakamura

Great guide! I was searching for DoN info and found this great post, awesome!

Btw, do you know any software that helps selecting the easiest table BEFORE you register for a DoN tourney?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by drmazi

Great guide! I was searching for DoN info and found this great post, awesome!

Btw, do you know any software that helps selecting the easiest table BEFORE you register for a DoN tourney?

Thanks!

Welcome to FTR! To answer your question, no. I think Sharkscope can do it as long as it's not PokerStars, although this is a pay feature. Maybe there is a similar feature in TopShark? Again, I seem to recall there is, but it's not freeware.

Sorry I can't be more useful, but when you play too many DON's, it makes your brain go mushy.

Awesome posts - nice job naka. I've been playing a few $5 DON's now that I've got a small roll on Starz, and these posts seem to express all the lessons (and more) that I've picked up there. Very nice.

This guide is perfect for noobies to DON's like me. I made a thread, however, with a whole tourney posted start to finish. I would love to see this from some of y'all who play a ton of these.

DON 5 Full tourney w/ notes

This one shows what I've learned lately, how to build a big stack starting around the 50/100 level, by shoving all-in pre at times when the everyone is likely to fold. I'm more comfortable than some with coin flipping as I've played something like 500 HU SnG's lately, so I probably shove more than Naka suggests above. I can verify there's risk of it going horribly wrong at times.

I would be interested in your thoughts and, like I said, similar tourney posts from the more experienced DON guys here

Originally Posted by Robb

This guide is perfect for noobies to DON's like me. I made a thread, however, with a whole tourney posted start to finish. I would love to see this from some of y'all who play a ton of these.

DON 5 Full tourney w/ notes

This one shows what I've learned lately, how to build a big stack starting around the 50/100 level, by shoving all-in pre at times when the everyone is likely to fold. I'm more comfortable than some with coin flipping as I've played something like 500 HU SnG's lately, so I probably shove more than Naka suggests above. I can verify there's risk of it going horribly wrong at times.

I would be interested in your thoughts and, like I said, similar tourney posts from the more experienced DON guys here

I've looked very briefly at your tournament. Nice one with a straight flush over a FH .... it's just so wrong .

I'll comment on some of your thoughts and the tournament tomorrow.

gonna print this out thank you