PokerStars Double or Nothing (50/50 Sit-n-Go) Tournaments
PokerStars (read: PokerStars Review) is very famous for its unique tournament schedule, and the 50/50 Sit-n-Go tournaments certainly make the list of one of the most intriguing opportunities for online poker players. PokerStars 50/50 SNGs, a.k.a. Double or Nothing, give players a 50% chance of doubling their money, or walking away empty handed.
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In the game of poker, a 50% chance of winning at a full table of 10 players is practically unheard of. PokerStars 50/50 Sit-n-Go tournaments do just that. Here’s how it works.
You go through the SNG tourney list and find a $100 50/50 tournament. 10 players pay $10 each to enter the SNG. The top 5 finishers each receive $20 as their prize, essentially tying for 1st place. The other 5 players who finished in 6th to 10th place will win nothing. It’s that simple.
Being a staple of the SNG tournament schedule, PokerStars 50/50 Sit-n-Go tournaments are constantly available at various by buy-in levels. Sit-n-Go tournaments can be the easiest to work your way into the bubble so long as you use the right poker strategy, and change it up as needed to survive to 5th place or better.
How To Win a PokerStars 50/50 Sit-n-Go
Every tournament, regardless of its number of entrants, always has its loose players to contend with. Even a 10-seater SNG will normally one or two weak opponents. The first step is to outlast these loose players and let them knock themselves out of the running. This requires a very tight game to start with, conserving as many chips as possible until the middle stages.
Unless you have a premium starting hand, don’t make any early investments. These guys are very likely to push all-in during the first few hands. They don’t care if they win or not, but they don’t want to waste their time only to lose. Instead, they try to double up early. Calling a low bet just because no players are showing confidence will often result in you being forced to fold when one of these weak players pushes his stack.
Once the loose players are out, continue playing a tight game, but when a premium hand falls into your lap, milk it for all it’s worth. Don’t get too anxious before the flop unless you want to scare everyone else out and take a small pot early on, before their hands can improve. After the flop, if you hit a monster hand, keeping playing it just slow enough to ensure others don’t fold out, especially when you have several contenders vying for the pot. You can greatly increase its value this way. If you have a good hand, but something easily beaten by a successful draw hand, then you’ll want to bet higher to take the pot down early.
Your only goal at this point is to finish 5th. Keep playing a conservative game and if your chip stack begins to falter, hang back and see if another player will risk everything, launching you into the bubble by default. Should the right starting hand opportunity come your way, push all-in and try to double up. Even if everyone else folds, at least you’ve stolen the blinds and given yourself a few more rounds of play to try to make it into the bubble.
