In double or nothing sit and go tournaments, half the players lose their buy-in, while the other half double their buy-in – just like the name suggests!

Double or nothing sit and go’s can be very profitable, especially if you multi-table them.  Unlike most sit and go’s it doesn’t matter whether you finish 1^st or in the minimum cash place. In a ten-person $11 double or nothing sit and go on PartyPoker for instance, the top 5 players will all win $20. Therefore it doesn’t matter whether you have the largest stack and finish first or if you only limp in to 5^th place, you still win the same amount of money. Because of this payout structure, good players are forced to adopt a different strategy than their normal sit and go strategy, while players who are new to these tournaments play in the same way they would any other sit and go which is why they lose their buy-in and don’t cash.

In the early stages of a double or nothing sit and go you should play very tight and only play the best starting hands, and play them aggressively. Players who are new to the structure will play lots of hands early because the blinds are cheap, and many will be happy to go all-in with marginal hands in the hope of getting lucky. Therefore if you play tight you could see 3 players put out in the early stages and half-way to the money! You shouldn’t waste any chips chasing pots hoping to catch your draw because these wasted chips could help you when the blinds are higher to steal a few pots.

You should begin loosening up in the middle stages, and this is the perfect time to look for opportunities to steal blinds. In general if you steal 1 big blind every orbit of the table, you should make the top 5 easily if you don’t make any silly moves and lose your chips. Of course there is no point trying to steal blinds with poor hands because your opponents could read what you are doing, instead raise with strong hands, and take notes of who folds to raises when they are in the blinds. Many players will be in push or fold mode, and you could see your raise re-raised to an all-in. However it is all about reads and your position on weaker players, many will fold unless they have very strong hands in the hope of making it into the cash.

In the late stages you should be down to the final five players or six at most. If you have made the final five already you will notice that all players will go all-in with anything just to finish the tournament because everyone in the top five wins the same amount. If the table isn’t down to the final five yet, you will be looking to survive the bubble. If you doubled-up earlier in the sit and go, you should play tight and let other players risk their chips to get a final player out. However if you are a short stack on the bubble you need to double up quickly before you get blinded out. Sometimes you can’t wait for strong hands and are forced into a coin-flip, it is not nice finishing on the bubble but it is a risk you must take in the hope of making it to the cash.