Way back in the year two thousand nine, I wrote an article laying out basic strategy for Double or Nothing (DoN) Sit-and-Go tournaments. I had taken a break from them for a little while, just to mix up my game, but this month, I have gotten back into them full force. While it does seem that the competition in these tourneys has gotten tougher, there are still people who routinely make the dumbest mistakes imaginable. Thankfully, this has not only allowed me to make a few bucks, but it also gave me a topic for this article: common mistakes in Double or Nothing Sit-and-Go's.
Playing Too Many Hands Early
Anyone who has studied Sit-and-Go strategy knows that it is generally a good idea to play fairly tight in the early stages of the tournament. So, when I say that the most common mistake I see Double or Nothing players make is playing too many hands early, it sounds rather obvious. But I'm not talking about playing suited connectors or one-gappers too frequently. I'm talking about playing anything but the most premium of hands during the first couple levels.
To give an example, it makes perfect sense to play any pair early on in a regular Sit-and-Go, as long as you're not calling gigantic raises or anything with, say, deuces. You could flop a set and potentially win a significant pot. But it's different in a Double or Nothing. Most players are not going to stack off to you if you flop a monster. While there will always be a couple donks at the table, most of the players will have at least some idea that tighter is better. It is less likely that someone with top pair is going to get all their chips in post-flop in a Double or Nothing than it is in a standard tournament.
Even strong hands like A-Q, A-J, and Tens are suspect in the first couple rounds. When you start tossing chips around with those hands, you are getting yourself in too deep when it is likely that only those with better hands are going to tangle with you.
Calling too Much
Double or Nothings are interesting in that at first glance, the value of chips seems counterintuitive. Players who are new to these games will think that since it's easier to cash when half the table makes the money, chips are not valuable. After all, you can have one ante left and still win. But in reality, chips are more valuable in a DoN than they are in a regular Sit-and-Go.
Why? Because DoNs are all about survival. They aren't about chip accumulation. In a regular Sit-and-Go, it can be well worth it to make some speculative calls in the hopes of scooping a gigantic pot, as the goal is to build a large chip stack and outlast every single one of your opponents. There is an extra reward for coming in first place rather than second and second rather than third. In a DoN, while accumulating chips definitely helps (I won't turn down an easy chip stack double-up), you don't need to collect all the chips to win. All you need to do is to survive.
I often see players ignoring this fact and making loose calls in DoNs, particularly in the middle stages. What this does is whittle your stack down very quickly when the reward for hitting your hand isn't necessarily that great. Say you're down to 1,200 chips from the starting 1,500 and at the 50/100 blind level, you decide to call a pre-flop raise to 300. You flop a solid draw and decide to call another 300 chip bet on the flop. Here's the problem. What if the turn is a brick? You're down to 600 chips and pretty much have to bail on the hand. And typically at this stage, there are still eight players left in a ten player DoN, so you don't have much chance to get past three more players.
Remember, you need to leave yourself some fold equity. 600 chips might give you that, but at that point, you will need to find a hand worth pushing, and find it fast. In those middle stages, you really should not be entering a pot without raising. The blinds and antes are very much worth stealing and you aren't going to be able to get them by calling. All you need to do is survive. Blind stealing can help you do this, but you can't go losing your fold equity by making iffy calls all over the place.
Feeling Obligated to Call an All-in
I see this one a lot. We're down to six players, with five getting paid, and there's one very big stack who keeps calling the all-ins of the short stacks, no matter what his hole cards are. He does it because he feels that he is obligated, not only as the big stack, but often as the last player left to act, to knock that final player out of the game. To me, that's silly. If you have a significant chip advantage on the bubble, just sit back and watch the others sweat out the all-ins. You're going to be safe for several orbits. There is no extra prize for knocking out the last person. If you have a monster, sure, try to end the game right there, but there's no need to call with any two cards.
What really tilts me is when middle stacks call off most of their chips with garbage or marginal hands just to try to eliminate that sixth place player. In a regular Sit-and-Go, you might take a chance on what you think may be a coin flip in order to put yourself in a position to win, but in a DoN, I try not to call an all-in unless I feel good about my chances of being way ahead. It's not worth it. Let someone else take the chance.
Not Checking Down
I really didn't believe I would ever see this in a Double or Nothing, but I have. The best part is that about ten minutes before I wrote this, it happened at my table. And it wasn't the first time for me. I have actually been in a tournament that, when it was down to six players (again, five got paid), a short stack went all-in, two players called, and one of them bet at some point post-flop. Did I facepalm? Yes. Was I mad because I was also a short stack? Definitely.
Come on people, this isn't a difficult concept to master. Places one through five all pay the same. In fact, there's not really a first through fifth place, as nobody ever gets knocked out after sixth. When that sixth place finisher is eliminated, the player with 5,000 chips wins the exact same amount of money as the player with one chip. If you ever find yourself calling an all-in with another opponent, check it down. Check it down, check it down, check it down. It does you no good at all to steal the pot from the other caller. If you win the pot, you double your buy-in. If the other caller wins the pot, you double your buy-in. The match ends in both scenarios. Those extra chips you might win by forcing the other guy off his hand are meaningless. The way you don't double your buy-in is if the short stack wins the pot and the more players he has to go to showdown against the worse chance he has to do so.
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