PokerStars Double or Nothing SNGs

PokerStars has these new Double or Nothing SNG's. I say new but that may not be accurate since I haven't played there with any regularity in over a year, and its possible I just didn't notice them before. Now its almost impossible not to notice them as you have to sift through a billion double or nothing SNGs just to find a normal one.

They were annoying me to the point of curiosity, so I tried a few. The concept is simple. Its a 10 player SNG where the top 5 double their buy in, and the other five get nothing. The entrance fee is about 20% less than the standard entrance fee.

Given that I've been playing pretty poorly lately I figure that I would try these since I should be able to finish in the top half more than half the time, so it should be easy money.

But its not quite the same as finishing in the top 5 of a normal SNG. There is a very different dynamic that occurs. Once you are down to six or seven players, there is almost no incentive to put yourself at risk. It doesn't matter if you have one chip or a million, when five players are left the game is over. Why try and steal a pot when there's a good chance that if you just fold you'll make it to the money?

I only played four so far, but the strategy seems to be fold unless you have a monster, and if you're the short stack wait until you think you can double up. In both times I cashed there were times when the short stack could barely make a full raise pre-flop, but battled back to cash.

It ends up with everyone, but maybe the chip leader playing not to lose rather than playing to win. I really haven't played enough to decide if I like them or not, or if I think they are money winners long term, but you definitely lose some of the excitement factor when all you're doing is folding and hoping the blinds increase to force that last person out. It is worth a try though, as the chance of losing your money is only 50%.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com