How To Play Double Up (Double or Nothing) NLHE Poker

There aren't many articles on how to play Double Up (otherwise called "Double or Nothing" or DoNs) NLHE poker, so I thought I would share some of my insights on the game.

For those perhaps unversed in the game, DoN is a particular breed of online Sit n' Go poker tournament where the game stops after half the field is eliminated. The payout is then spread evenly amongst the remaining players. For example, in a $1 buy-in DoN game of 10 players, the final 5 players will win $2 each. 

Compared to a typical 50%-30%-20% payout structure of a regular tournament poker (in the example of $1 game, which pays $5-$3-$2 to the top three players), you can see that DoNs are especially attractive for players who consistently place 3rd (or 4th or 5th) in regular tournaments. If you're otherwise a winning poker player, DoN is clearly not worth playing. But for the rest of us donkeys, all we need to do in DoN is outlast 5 players and we earn double our buy-in, minus fees.

DoNs are also attractive due to its win-lose profit margins. Taking Superbook Poker's $1 (plus $0.08 fee) DoNs where I play, for instance, if I play 100 games (paying $108) all I need to do is win 54 times (earning $2 x 54=$108) to break even, and the rest are pure profit. In other words, if my winning percentage is higher than 54%, I'll earn a steady money playing DoNs. Obviously I play the higher buy-in DoNs, the higher my $$$ will be. My personal winning percentage hovers around 65% to 70%, so for me DoN is a no-brainer profit-making enterprise.

That being said, I have to emphasize (and emphasize and emphasize and emphasize) that playing DoN is VERY UNLIKE playing regular single table tournaments (STTs). DoN is a unique poker beast in its own right. You just can't play DoNs like you play STTs. Most players do not grasp this concept and so they play DoNs the way they normally play cash games or regular STTs. These are the players who will regularly lose in DoNs, and whom you'll earn your winnings from.

Let's not mistake it, some typical poker plays still apply in DoNs so don't hesitate to employ them: If your opponent check to you (and they aren't normally slowplaying), then bet the flop; if they call the flop bet and the turn bet, then punish their mid-pairs or draws; if the table is tight, play looser; if the table is loose, play tighter; always have something in your hole cards to fall on when/if you bluff; call an all-in with a tighter range than when you shove all in. 

All these are still relevant in DoNs. The conventional tournament poker adage still holds true: play your position, play the opponent more than you play your cards, attack the blinds, stack sizes are important.

However, in DoNs, one strategy is exceptionally important: HOLD ON TO YOUR STACKS. In regular STTs, where you win by accumulating chips, in DoNs you win by not losing your chips. Even if you're down to 2BB, all that matters is that you are not the last one getting busted out. I'm not saying it's okay to fold your way to 1BB or 2BB, but if the other short-stacked player panics and shoves all-in, let the big stack calls and bust the bubble boy and you just might survive after all.

Here's another tip that is also important: showdowns are bad, bad, BAD. You usually do not want to go into a showdown with a top-pair-top-kicker, or a draw. If you think your hand is already behind, fold it. If you think you're ahead, BET HARD. DoNs are won by exploiting your opponent tendencies, and by exploiting the small edges in hand percentage against your opponent's hole cards. DoNs are won by making opponents fold their blinds and limps and min-raises. But, for God's sake, protect your stacks.

In terms of DoN strategy, looking backwards from the finishing point, what you need is to have a healthy stack (and therefore a good fold equity) by the time you reach the bubble stage. That means you have to try to keep pace with the average stack sizes all throughout the levels, by stealing blinds and by protecting your stack. You don't have to be the overwhelming chip leader (although that would be nice) but you really do not want to be short-stacked during bubble play. Usually if you double up once or twice during the game, you can afford to fold your way into outlasting half the field.

In poker, there is a "Fox strategy" and there is a "Farmer strategy". The Fox strategy applies to ring and tournament games, where you employ various chip-maneuvering tactics to win as many chips as you can. DoN is more the Farmer strategy, where you protect your chip equity for as long as possible.

Here are the DoN strategies, and for simplicity purposes, I'm basing this on Superbook's Double Up tournaments of 10 players:

Before you play

It is your responsibility to find out who your opponents are. I can't stress this enough: you HAVE to know your opponents.

If you see five or six regular DoN players who already signed up for the same DoN tournament, avoid it like you avoid a plague. These players are usually multitable DoN grinders who grasp well the DoN strategies, and therefore hard to play against. While there are ways to play against these multitable grinders, it's generally difficult to beat half the field when half the field are already seasoned players. Sometimes I have to reluctantly take a pass on many DoN games seeing that the regulars keep gobbling seats, but I figured I need to give myself as much advantage as possible by only entering into a weak field. 

An ideal DoN game is when half of the field play loose and players get knocked out quickly that by the time you reach bubble play it's still at relatively comfortable blind levels. If you double up once in these ideal games, you're pretty much secure to win. What you do not want is getting to the high blind levels with most of the field still intact. By then, the blinds will eat you alive, quickly diminishing your fold equity, and the game still have two or three players left to e eliminated before it is over. This is why you'd rather be at a weak table than a strong field of grinders.

Early Stage

This is the stage where the blinds are small at 10/20 and 25/50. The strategy at this level is simple: Play tight. Play VERY tight, goddammit. 

If you get AA or KK, shoved all in. If somebody goes all in and there's one caller, call with AA but fold KK. At this level you do not want to slowplay or min-raise monsters coz even a K9s will casually call a 3BB raise because it's still cheap relative to his stack size, and then he miraculously spikes trip nines. So if your hand isn't very strong, fold fold fold. PROTECT YOUR STACK.

It should also worth mentioning that your table image is very important all throughout the game, so by folding your hands a lot at the early stage you'll establish a squeakytight image - an image you can take advantage of during later stages. So, to reiterate, if your hand isn't very strong, fold that shit.

Should you play AK offsuit? Or suited royal connectors? Or whatever connectors, suited or non-suited? How about QQ, or 88? My take on these hands is that you should fold. (Okay, maybe not so much QQ or JJ, if in late position.) At these early stages, winning a pot usually means winning only a small pot, so it's really not worth risking a dent on your stack by playing AKo against players who are willing to risk a dent on their stack by playing baby pairs. Remember, hold-on-to-your-stack. Let other people gamble away their stack. If you really want to play those strong hands (QQ, JJ, AK, etc), then call and see if you hit something stronger. If you didn't hit, fold. If you think you're still ahead, bet hard. Generally speaking, if you play a hand in DoN, then be willing to shove, or at least be super aggressive. Repeat: showdown to the river is bad bad bad.

The problem at these early levels is that you don't have enough information on your opponents' playing styles and the hands they opt to play. Will they call or reraise post-flop with their top pair or draws? How about post-turn or river bets? You don't know your opponents that well yet.

So, the early stage is the perfect time to analyze your opponents' plays. By now you've already identified the regulars, i.e. the multitablers. By sitting out most hands, you'll have the chance to watch how the other players play. Identify the tight players, those who fold 9 out of 10 hands. See who the loose or semi-loose players are. Pay an especially close attention to the two/three players in front of you, and the two/three players behind you. Take note on the quality of the hands all the players play. Take note on the size of their bets, and their position play. Remember their post-flop and post-turn behavior. These are all important information you'll need during later stages of the game.

In essence, study your opponents and resist the itch to gamble your chips during the early stage. Let other players damage each other. Even if you fold every hand during the early stage, you are down only less than 10% of your stack size and it's still very threatening.

Middle Stage

The middle stage is when the antes start to kick in. The table is still full, or perhaps one player has already been knocked out, or a player (or two) now considerably short-stacked.

This is the level when you change gears and throttle up a little. Blinds at these levels are generally 50/100 with 5 antes and 75/150 with 10 antes. With blinds positions normally having negative EV, and since winning the blinds will increase 10% of your stack, blind stealing must be your UTMOST priority here.

This is the level when having a tight table image at this point will help you tremendously. At this point, you should've already deduced which opponents are willing to give up their blinds or who will surrender their limps or min-raise when you bet hard or shove. Exploit this information. Start attacking the blinds and the limpers and the tight players. Sure, sometimes you will run into AA when you shove against the blinds, but that happens rarely. If it does happen, shrug it off, go on to play the next game. You can't win every poker tournament. You can, however, win most.

Stack sizes are extremely important from this level onwards. The optimal play is to attack the average stacks, especially when they are in the blinds when you're on the button or cut-off. Avoid confrontation with the big stack, if at all possible. Super short stacks will likely shove, obviously, so play only strong hands when you're attacking them.

Position is key. Play especially tight in early position, play looser in late position. Be careful when you're in big blind. When you're in small blind and it's been folded to you, bet aggressively if you have a decent hand, assuming the big blind is likely willing to give up.

At times, you'll need exploit the small edges in hand percentages. If a loose player raise and you highly suspect he's holding bullshit Kx or Ax, then your AJs or your mid-high pair has a slightly better percentage, so shove all in. Same goes with a super short-stacked player whom you believe will push all-in with any Ace high or King high. You've heard it many times: in poker you'll need to win these races. So get in the races, but only against these players whom you're confident you're (even slightly) ahead.

You still have to play relatively tight, for sure. If a tight player raises, be wary. Your edges might not be good against these players. If a multitabler enters the pot, be wary. A multitabler usually has very little time to decide on whether or not to play a hand, so if he calls, he likes his hand. If he checks after the flop, normally he's behind. If he raises preflop/postflop, he's strong.

If you are only relatively short-stacked, do not panic (yet). You will still have ample opportunities to win the blinds. If you are severely short-stacked, well then, you're fucked senseless. Ship it.

If you are the big stack, you most likely got there by virtue of doubling up once, or twice, along with your share of blind stealing. Good job, you're nearly there to the finish line. Here's a phenomenon that often occurs if you're the big stack: people tend to surrender their small blinds to you uncontested, because they rather not risk their hard-earned chips in a pissing contest against your big you-know-what. Chips, I mean, chips.

Now, as the big stack, pick your battles. Do not relinquish your tight image. Don't be the table bully because otherwise other players will not respect your raises or shoves.

Speaking of deep stacks, there are two types of them: the first is the ones who already know they can fold their way into a win (or enter the pot with only premium hands), and the second type is the ones who think they can now bully everybody at the table. You've probably seen them in action, those deepstacks who shove all-in five-six times in a row. In my experience playing DoNs, I have yet to see these first type get busted out. But I have seen many the big stack bullies tragically flamed out. So sad, tsk tsk.

Against these bullies, obviously you have to steer clear if your stack is still relatively big, and keep protecting your stack. If you are average- to low-average-stack, then challenge him when you have a premium hand. It's simply near impossible for any player to have three monster hands in a row. So if you know the bully is shoving with Ace-rag, or low pair, or suited connectors, then call his bluff with your edges. I love it when these bullies show up, coz they are what I'd refer to as 'Bankers'. If I'm desperate for chips, I'll go to these Bankers to hand me their chips. Easy money.

In summary, play the positional+stacksize game. Still play relatively tight but steal blinds and punish the limpers, if knowing that they will fold. Take advantage of the edges whenever possible.

Sidenote: There is a later mid stage to consider. This is the stage when 3 players are already knocked out and the blinds are getting to be high, such as 150/300 15 antes. You'll see that by this stage, players will will start shoving instead of calling or min-raising. If there is a raise+call, it's typically between the big stacks. When you actually get to see a flop, it's when you're big blind and the bigstack limps. A player (likely the short stack) who limps into the pot are usually willing to play all the way to broke, so be prepared if you decide to enter. But otherwise, keep staying away from the deep stack. Keep attacking the blinds. With the blinds being high, representing about 25% of an average stack, winning them will pad your stack considerably.

Bubble Stage

At this point, there are six players remaining, with only one knock-out left before the game is over. The blinds at this stage are usually very high: 200/400 15 ante or (God help you) 250/500 20 ante. Hopefully by now you have a somewhat healthy stack because the bad news is that you're going to get hit by the blinds. Hard. The good news is EVERYBODY also gets hit by the blinds. Hard.

If you're very short-stacked, then you have only one strategy: ship it. You now do not have the luxury to wait for premium hands. So if you see a semi-decent hand such as an Ace, a King, face cards, high connectors, etc., or if you're big blind and down to 1BB with rags hand, then just shove it already and pray and scream at the computer screen to hit your outs. If you can still fold your raggedy-ass hands, then fold, of course. But you can't wait long. Because of your zero fold equity, even your KK will get called by the bigstack's 57off in the big blind. Or worse yet, you get called by two/three other players because it's cheap to call, and your hand is now are in terrible danger of losing. If you win, cool. But you're still a long way from comfy. Keep looking for spots to shove.

If you're the big stack, then sit tight. You've practically already won your double up. Just fold fold fold. It is not your responsibility to bust the short stack. Repeat: it is NOT your responsibility to fuck-rape the short stack. You get paid no more than the next four players, even if you have a monster stack. So get out of the way already. Let the mid stacks battle it out against each other. Let the short stack hang himself. If it's going to cost you mere pittance to bust the short stack (because you're in the blinds), then sure, call it. You might get lucky, because even 27o still has a 11% chance against AA, after all. But otherwise, fold that stupid AK.

Oh no I din't! I said fold AK?? You betcha. Do not "refudiate" it. Bubble stage is where, as I've alluded earlier, that the normal STT play does not apply in DoN. The reason is that in DoN bubble play, much like satellite play, a quirky phenomenon occurs. It's is a little something called ICM, or Independent Chip Model.

Here's the math: Let's say we have a hypothetical 10-player $3 buy-in DoN game, where the top five players get paid $6 each and the sixth gets nothing. So in total, there are $30 prize money. Let's also say that we get to the bubble stage and there are six players remaining, and six players currently have 500 chips each, a total of 3000 chips for all six players, so a chip is worth $30/3000 = $0.01 per chip. Each player has 500 chips, which means that a player has an equivalent of 500 chips x $0.01 per chip, or $5 worth.

Another way of viewing it is that, if this were a cash game, every player is playing with $5 worth of chips. But the difference is, once a player got busted out, the remaining five players will win $6 each. Repeat: only $6 each.

With me so far? Good (hopefully). What this means is that if one player moves $5 all in and you call, you are risking your $5 to win - no, not $10 - but only $6. That is, you risk $5 to win an extra $1 (in terms of odds, it's 5:1 or 83.33 percent), or else you lose and win $0.

Think about that for a sec. What ungodly hand must you have for an odds better than 83%? Even in an AA vs KK situation, the odds are 82%.

This ICM analysis is why during bubble play you have to make a counter-intuitive move, such as folding AA. Yes, I said fold AA.

Naturally, ICM applies only if everybody is even-stacked. If you are VERY deep-stacked and you peek at pocket Aces, then shove it. If your AA got cracked (and sometimes it will), you won't get hurt much. If you're severely short-stacked, AA is a welcomed relief but a player (or two or three) will call your all-in and you can do nothing else but beg for the hand to hold. If your stack is average, however, you may want to consider folding AA or KK or AK. Like I said, it's counter-intuitive. But this is the reality of DoN bubble stage, with its inherent bubble play. If your stack gets hit, you're in a whirl of hurt. If you get busted, you win nothing. So protect your stack. If maybe I didn't say it loud enough: PROTECT YOUR STACK.

You will notice, due to ICM factor, and especially when all remaining six players have relatively equal stack sizes, that there will a lot of fold-fold-fold all the way to the big blind. Because of the blinds being monstrously high, calling or raising at this point means that players will be pot committed anyway, so the only move is typically shove or fold. Bubble stage is not the time to get frisky and shift gears and gamble your stack away. Keep protecting your stack and pick your spots when/if you decide to shove.

Another phenomenon that occurs during bubble stage is collusion play. It's when a short stack moves all in and, because to call is cheap, two (or three) people will call. But rather than duking it out by betting the flop/turn/river to win more chips, the remaining players will check-check-check instead. The reason is simple: Even if a player hit top pair top kicker, there's a chance that the other caller hits two small pairs, or a backdoor straight, or whatever - anything that will beat the short stack's hand - and they get to finish the game right there and then. So set your ego aside if you happen to have a monster; the goal during bubble stage is not to win as many chips as you can, but rather to give as much opportunity as possible for other players to bust out the short stack so that you all can be in the last five.

Which brings up another phenomenon that is often overlooked and undervalued in DoN bubble stage: assisting the midstacks. If I'm bigstacked and I see a decent hand while in small blind and everybody else folded to me, I will happily fold it to the big blind midstack instead of contesting him. He'll get his BB back (which at this level is high), plus the antes, along with my SB. This puts him in a much more comfortable position, so that we all can gang up against the short stack in future hands.

Final thoughts

Double or Nothing tournament is a true grinder's game, there's no other way to describe it. You need to have a LOT of patience, and almost a Zen-like attitude towards playing your hands and your opponent.

In essence, the DoN strategy is: play very very tight in early stages; after having a good understanding on how your opponents play, then start stealing their blinds, limps and min-raises, most especially in later middle stages; and sit tight during bubble play.

Playing poker tournaments (DoNs included) requires you to out-adjust your opponent. The strategy outlined in this article is a sound blueprint to winning DoNs, but you must must MUST adjust your game to fit a particular situation and against a particular opponent.

You can't win every hand, clearly. And you can't win every tournaments. Sometimes, you'll catch a bad run of cold cards. The nature of poker is that, unfortunately, shit happens, dude. But here's where mathematical percentages will help you: If you keep playing solidly, you will win more in the long run.

Which brings up the subject of bankroll management. The typical advice from poker pros is to have a bankroll of 20 times of your buy-in. If you have a $100 bankroll, then you really shouldn't play the $20 games. A $5 game is good place to start. The wild nature of poker swings can sometimes make you lose several tournaments, one after another, so a bankroll of 20 times buy-in should have enough padding to absorb these variances. If you keep losing, go down a level to recapture your winning edge against a generally weaker field. Even if you lose, you only lose a smaller chunk of your bankroll. The worse you can afford to do is barge into a higher buy-in level in an attempt to recover your earlier losses. Don't go on tilt like that. When you start winning lower level tournaments again, then go back up a level.

No matter what, keep faith in your poker strategies. Learn from your mistakes. Go back and analyze your hand history. Improve your game by reading poker books/articles and by watching how the other good player plays. Above all, keep playing. There's no substitute to a wealth of experience by playing thousands and thousands of hands.

Finally, fyi, there are several online poker sites that offer Double or Nothing tournaments. Superbook Poker offers the widest range of DoN game (that I'm aware of) from $1.08 all the way to $108.00 tournaments with 7 minutes (regular) and 5 minutes (turbo) levels. Bodog Poker offers DoNs starting from $7.70 with 10 minutes (regular) and 5 minutes (turbo) levels, but the antes don't kick in until level 7 at 100/200, so given the time luxury and the late antes, a DoN strategy here is a little different. (Interestingly, Bodog also offers 10-player "Beginner Tournament" which is not a DoN - so do not play it like a DoN - but a regular STT except with a payout structure that awards the top 5 players, as in 3x/2.5x/2x/1.5x/1x. The fifth-placed player wins his buy-in back, minus the fee.) AmericasCardroom Poker (formerly Doyle's Room) has $5 and $10 DoN games. BetOnline Poker has what's called 1-Up games, which are essentially six handed DoNs except, weirdly, play doesn't stop after three people get busted out and so the remaining three players will just move all in every hand to end the game simply because all remaining three are being paid equally anyway so there's no incentive to finish on top. All these sites, by the way, accepts US players.

Hope this info helps. Good luck!