Any Winning Double or Nothing Players with Strategy Advice?

[jasonv12]

Something to think about is ICM. Lion covered this pretty well.

Here's a hypothetic I want you to think about: You are 6-handed and everyone has an equal stack size with fairly small blinds still. You are dealt KK. The small blind shoves your big blind. Should you call?

The answer surprisingly is no. While stack sizes and blinds may dictate otherwise in cases where blinds are bigger, think about ICM. For an example, in a $10 double or nothing, there is $100 in the prize pool. This means with equal stacks 6-handed, each of your tournament lives is worth $16.33 ($100 in pool / 6 people). By calling will KK you are risking $16.33 to win $3.67. KK doesn't have those odds against a random hand even.

Really dig down and think about is calling an all in worth it? You'll be surprised how often it isn't. If you acquire a big stack, best to just fold your way to the money. Chip accumulating past the amount needed to cash is pointless.

Just steal blinds to keep yourself afloat and avoid anything that requires cards to roll off, unless you absolutely have to.



Another tip, target those who are playing hands early. They are fish and don't understand the game dynamics. Don't try to steal their blinds. They will call way too lightly. By the same token, feel free to steal blinds from regs or players who are playing tighter like they should.

And lastly, don't enter tournaments with more than 5-6 regs because the money in these is purely based on fish eliminating each other without understanding the game. Same thing goes with entering higher stakes games, like $20+, avoid it. The regs there will mix up play and play looser to take advantage of regs moving up stakes and the game dynamics change altogether.