If you play at FulllTiltPoker or one of the other poker rooms that offer the double-up tournament you should really consider trying them out. If you generally play in tournaments while playing online poker then you definitely will enjoy playing in these tournaments. The double-up tournament is a great bankroll builder as well due to the fact you have a 50% chance of winning money in every tournament you play.
The most common type of double-up tournament played is with 10 players. The last five players in the tournament all win and double up their buy-in. If you were playing in a $20+$.80 double-up tournament and you come in the top five you win $40. You basically double-up except for the fee you pay, but the fee is smaller in these tournaments then traditional tournaments.
This type of tournament has become really popular simply because it’s fairly easy to win money if you know what you’re doing. Many players also multi-table these tournaments since you won’t be in that many pots. In the double-up tournament you really need to be patient and wait for your hands. In the tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $1-$20 you’ll notice that a lot of players seem to play a lot of pots. As you move up the limits you’ll notice how the better players sit and wait for their hands.
In a $100 double-up tournament you might only play 2-5 hands the entire tournament. It only takes a one big hand to basically secure your position in the top five. If your playing style revolves around seeing flops and playing hands then you might not want to play in these tournaments. You won’t see many flops because a lot of the hands will have big raises. There is typically one player every hand that will raise the pot up and steal the blinds.
You will need to make sure that you steal the blinds when you have big hands. When you have big hands in this type of tournament format you always want to raise the pot up by at least 4x the BB. If you have a hand like pocket aces or kings you can try and trap a player by only raising the minimum amount, but on hands such as A/K suited and such you just want to basically push your chips in to let everyone know you’re committed.
I’ve seen players win these tournaments without even playing one hand in the past. This isn’t recommended because you’ll lose more times then not, but it can happen. If you’re trying to build up your bankroll and move up the limits then I really can’t think of a better tournament structure to do so. Many of the full-time poker players online play in double-up tournaments since they’re really quick and there is a lot of traffic for them. The $100 double-up tournaments fill up constantly on Poker Stars throughout the entire day. You also don’t need to be a great player to win these tournaments, you just need to use some common sense and patience.
