The nice thing about Double or Nothings SNGs is fast approaching final stage. You can skip the endless heads-up battle and just focus on making the money thus doubling your buy-in. The final stage before making the money is called “the bubble” and there it will show, who will make the money and who leaves empty-handed. The early stage was already discussed here: Double or Nothing Sit and Gos – The Early Stage.
The bubble stage at the DoN SNGs is different than in normal tournaments. Here it is all about survival and not caring how many chips you have left once the bubble bursts, because then they don't matter. Nobody cares if you reach the money of a DoN SNG as the chipleader or with simply a big blind left, especially the payout doesn't care. Everybody gets the same amount of money. In this article about the final stage strategy of a Double or Nothing Sit and Go you will learn what to do during the bubble – and what to avoid:
A common mistake is fighting the big stack as another big stack. Imagine a six player Double or Nothing Sit and Go with 4 players left; one more player has to leave before the rest of the players double their buy-in . Players A and B sitting at 5k chips each, while players C and D have 1k each. Now player A and B play a big pot against each other. You see this all the time. What they don't seem to comprehend is, that they should pick on the small stacks and try to eliminate either player C or D.
To put this theory to an extreme – is it even wrong to call an all-in from player A, if you are player B and are holding Aces. This might sound absurd at first, but knowing that you win heads-up with Aces only 80% of the time, means you will lose the hand and exist the tournament in 4th place 20% of the time. On the other hand, the chance of reaching the money while there are two very small stacks is a lot bigger than 80%. So folding Aces is a weird but the correct play in that spot.
The correct and only way of playing the short stack is pure aggression. You have to avoid getting eaten alive by the blinds. There is hardly anything worse than to keep folding until you have no chance to come back. There is an exception though. If you have players like A and B who keep fighting each other, you can duck out of the way. If it is too obvious, you are trying to make the money, the big stacks will slow down and knock you out instead.
As a big stack you have to play 180° the other way, meaning extremely passively, especially when there are only big stacks left. If you are the only big stack at the table, you can raise almost every pot if you are the first in raiser or call all-ins with decent holdings. You don't have to offer an easy double up – you can pick your hands and spots. Keeping a good look at the stack sizes around the table is important. Imagine you lose a race – how many chips will you have left? Will you become the new short stack? Let the other players battle it out, sit back and wait until you reach the money while applying ultimate pressure with your strong holdings.
The bubble period is a whole world for it self. When to fold the best hand before the flop? When to sit back and let the other guys duke it out as the big stack? These are the biggest differences between a classic tournament and the bubble stage at a Double or Nothing Sit and Go. If you learn to adjust your play in the various stages, you are chances are looking good to become a consistent winner at the Double or Nothing Sit'n'Gos.
View more on similar or other topics in our poker strategy section:
Double or Nothing Sit and Gos
Double or Nothing - The Early Stage
Browser Poker