PokerStars announced this morning that they will be getting rid of the Double or Nothing Sit n Gos on February 15, 2011.

PokerStars will no longer offer Double of Nothing Sit & Go Tournaments as of February 15th, 2011.

This is not a decision that was made easily as these tournaments have proven to be quite popular with players. However, after thorough evaluation, PokerStars has decided that the format needed improvement.

Newly introduced ‘Fifty50’ Sit & Go tournaments have been deployed to provide an alternative for players who have previously played the Double or Nothings. Fifty50s have many of the same attributes that attracted players to Double or Nothing tournaments:

• Half of the players who enter the tournament receive a payout
• The tournament ends when half of the players remain
• There is no shorthanded play
• They end quickly
• They have low rake

Fifty50s differ from Double or Nothings in their payout structure. Only half of the prize pool is distributed evenly amongst the top half of finishers. The other half is distributed based on chip count, with each chip having an equal value.

This difference means that players always have some incentive to care about the size of their chip stack, whereas in Double or Nothings this was not always the case. This added element makes the Fifty50s a more skilful and, to many, more interesting format.

The value of each chip in Fifty50s also makes situations where some players may softplay each other less attractive than in Double or Nothings. Some forms of poker invite this sort of implicit collusion more than others, as the rewards are greater and costs are smaller for making such plays. The Fifty50 format is an improvement over the Double or Nothing format in this regard as there is always a cost for a player to make a decision that doesn’t maximize the size of their own chip stack.

While it is understood that many players may miss the old Double or Nothing format, improvements and changes to game formats are necessary from time to time. While the loss of a familiar game format can be frustrating or annoying initially, PokerStars is confident that Fifty50s will prove to be a superior tournament format.

Rake
The rake structure is different for Fifty50s than for DoNs. It’s somewhat higher for Turbo Fifty50s than it was for Turbo DoNs at most stakes, but is lower at the $1 level. The rake for normal speed Fifty50s is significantly lower than it was for normal speed DoNs. The Double or Nothings offered rake that was in most cases twice as much for normal speed tournaments than for turbo tournaments. The Fifty50 rake is more in line with other PokerStars Sit & Go tournaments.

PokerStars is currently evaluating all Sit & Go offerings, including rake. The stakes offered and rake for Fifty50s are in line with the changes planned for all Sit & Go Tournaments on PokerStars in the coming months.

If players compare Fifty50 rake on PokerStars to the industry standard for similar Sit & Go tournaments, they will find that the comparison isn’t close; the PokerStars’ rake is much lower.

I'm not very happy about this news since I've been getting very into my Double or Nothing SnG Challenge. I've played a few of the new Fifty50 SnGs and I'm not too confident they will be a good replacement in terms of profitability. Especially in the long run. I'm not sure yet what this is going to mean for my DoN SnG Challenge.

There was a lot of speculation on the forums that the Fifty50's were going to replace DoNs because there had been so much cheating at the DoNs, especially with the big Chinese DoN cheating ring.

Based in part on the wording in the announcement as well as some other things I've read my guess is it's not so much the cheating as was the false reports of cheating.

PokerStars thoroughly investigates all reports of cheating. Because of some of the strategy involved in the Double or Nothing format some things may look like cheating, such as implicit collusion where two or more players may call a short stack's all-in on the bubble and check it down to try and knock them out.

Even though a lot of rake was generated by these games the time it took up for the fraud team must not have been worth it? At least that's my guess.

I'm really bummed out about it because I thought I'd have a real shot of making Supernova this year because of the amount of DoNs I play for my challenge. I wish they could have at least waited until the end of the month before killing these games since February is already a short month and I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet my VPP goal.

It's been a couple of months since my last Double or Nothing Sit and Go Bankroll Challenge Update. I've been busy with a few things that didn't leave me much time to play a lot of poker or post updates.

By the way, I'm posting this update using a Google CR-48 Notebook running Google Chrome OS. I haven't had a chance to put it through it's paces yet but I have been using it to update and review my bankroll management spreadsheets. I'll likely post more about it at a later date.

I started this challenge with $150 and the challenge bankroll is now up to $2,804 only about $220 up from the last update. Win rate was pretty pathetic at around 55% with a buy-in ROI of just over 1%.

I'm running around $300 below EV for the period but I think the main problem has been adjusting to the $10 DoN games as well as getting used to playing again after having to take a number of long breaks from the games.

I've also been trying some new things. Some of them worked a lot of them didn't but I feel more comfortable with my game at these stakes now compared to when I first moved up in this challenge.

When I first moved up to the $10 games I played fewer tables than I was playing at $5 so I could focus more and have the time to take notes on the regulars. Playing fewer tables I was able to make a lot of moves I couldn't normally make, pick off more bluffs, trap more, bluff more, etc. The games were less boring but eventually I started over-thinking things more than I should and it cost me.

Eventually I felt more confident at these stakes and started moving from few tables in a tiled configuration to more tables in a stacked configuration like I used to with the $5 DoNs. I've been playing as many as 20 at a time but that was just to make sure I cleared another Stellar Rewards Bonus and achieved Platinum Star before the end of last year.

When I started this challenge about a year ago I had hopes that things would be progressing much faster than they have been. I was hoping to be at least one or two levels higher than I actually am now.  Part of the problem is I spent too time than I should have at the $5 DoNs to acculate FPPs to replace the TV in my office. Very happy with the TV from the VIP Store so I guess I can't complain too much.

Hopefully this year I can do much better. Now that I'm playing the $10 DoNs (and soon the $20's with any luck) it might be possible for me to reach SuperNova status this year but I'm not going to make that one of my goals.

My goals for this challenge are to continue to improve my game, keep moving up in stakes and keep that chart moving up :)

Some of you have been using my Double or Nothing SnG Bankroll Management Spreadsheet to track your own progress in these games. How have things been going for you?

It's been a while since my last post and update. I've been busy with a few other projects and haven't had as much time. I have been playing my challenges but haven't had time to update my blog.

I really wanted to splurge and play one of the $200 WCOOP events but I just couldn't find the time. :(

Since my last update my Double or Nothing Sit N' Go challenge bankroll is up over $1,000 to $2,584. I'm currently playing the $10 DoNs. My winrate since the last update was only 55.6% giving me a little better than a 3% ROI.

Not a spectacular winrate but it's mainly due to one big downswing.

I started out this update playing the $5.40 DoNs even though my bankroll rules allowed me to play the $10.80 DoNs. There were a couple of reasons why I decided to stick with the $5 DoNs.

First, I just got used to playing a large number of tables and was having fun and showing good results doing so and I didn't want to stop.

The other reason (and this is longer than I wanted but I can't stop talking about new toys)  was I needed to replace the TV in my office and decided to use my FPPs to get a new TV from the PokerStars' VIP store. Sticking with the $5 DoNs I was able to generate FPPs faster since moving to the $10 DoNs would mean I would have to play fewer tables.

I had planned to restrict my FPPs to only cash bonuses but just couldn't resist. I'm the type of person that usually goes nuts looking at specs and comparing models before I make any purchasing decision. I hate wasting money and more importantly I hate getting something and then realizing for only a little bit more I could have gotten something better.

The downside is that I start out looking for something that costs let's say $300 and then realize for $50 bucks more I can get something better, and then for only another $25 I can get something even better. Eventually I say screw it if I'm going to spend $200 above my initial $300 budget why not just get the top of the line model!

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I didn't have time to do that and just blindly bought the 26" 720p Samsung HDTV that PokerStars lists on their store. It was the right size and I could do without 1080p in my office. I'm happy with it. The picture quality is good and it has some nice features. My favorite is that it comes with a USB port and I can connect an external drive to play videos from my computer.

OneCall.com seems to be the company that fulfills electronics orders for PokerStars's VIP Store. The TV was listed for $480 when I ordered it for 32,000 FPPs. If I chose to purchase bonuses with those FPPs I would have only been able to get less than $400 worth so it seemed like a good deal. Amazon put it on sale shortly after I ordered it and it would have been a toss-up. Check out Amazon's current price for the Samsung LN26C450 26-Inch 720p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
Overall I was very happy with the process and service and would buy from OneCall.com again but instead of purchasing something directly from the VIP Store I'll go about it a different way. I noticed that in the VIP Store you can purchase $200 gift certifcates for OneCall and that would allow me to be more selective about what item I purchase.

OK, back to DoNs...

After I earned the FPPs I needed for the TV I finally moved up to the $10 DoNs. I started playing one and then two tables at a time and things were going well. Very well actually.

Since I continued with the $5 DoNs longer than I should have my bankroll could actually support playing more than 2 tables at a time and I quickly moved to about as many as I was playing at the $5 level. That's when the downswing hit and it was a pretty big one. I never hit the point where my bankroll rules told me to move down so I kept at it trying to find my bearings.

Moving up quickly probably wouldn't have been such a big problem but a few weeks went by where I didn't have time to play any poker and I guess I forgot how? I should have eased myself back into it.

At the $10 level players generally make fewer mistakes than they did at the $5 level and I found I needed to focus more to keep myself from making mistakes myself. I dropped back down to 2 tables at a time to pay closer attention and make some adjustments to my game.

I slowly worked my way up to 5 tables at a time and I'm playing them pretty much tiled (with a slight overlap) so I can pay attention to the action easier.

I created a custom layout with 5 tables arranged as shown in the image to the right. There's a little bit of overlap but I can still see what's going on.

More important than seeing what's going on, this layout helps me remember the players. This is helpful when there's a player I'm picking up a read on but I don't have enough hands against them for the HUD stats to be reliable.

I'm not good with remembering names or avatars but I'm good at remembering something like the player in the upper right table in seat 1 raises loose and calls shoves light. Playing with my tables stacked doesn't allow me to remember players in that way.

My next step is to play 6 tables. I have a layout where I moved the center table up and added a 6th one just under it. After that 8 tables with a bigger overlap and then I'll see if I can go back to stacking tables.

The challenge is going much slower than I initially thought it would but as long as that chart keeps moving up I guess I can't complain. :)

A few weeks ago a reader, Rishan, sent me an email with some questions about Double or Nothing Sit-N-Go's.

He had some good questions pertaining to variance, bankroll management and some strategy. With his permission I'm posting his email along with my answers in case others find it helpful.

It took a while to find the time to reply but hopefully it's worth the wait.

Here's the email:

This is my best update so far! No major downswings and I had time to put in a lot of volume. I was finally able to significantly increase the number of simultaneous tables I'm playing too which made a big difference.

Current DoN SnG Challenge Bankroll is at $1,542 a whopping $732 more since my last update. An increase of around 90%. That's almost double!!!! Can you tell I'm excited!?!?!?!? :)

I ran pretty decent too. 58% winrate with a 7.6% ROI. When I first started playing these games (before I started this challenge) my winrate was just over 60% so I'm starting to creep back up closer to that number.

Sundays no longer seem to be a problem. They used to be my worst day but last Sunday was my best. I played a little over 100 SnGs and had a 68% winrate which gave me a 26% ROI netting me $145.

There were a number of things I felt made a difference which I'll discuss in further detail below. Plus what's going to happen next with the challenge.

Unfortunately my good run didn't last. After my last DoN SnG Challenge Update things continued to go well and then disaster struck. I experienced my worst downswing ever in these games. Over 30 buy-ins.

The current DoN Challenge bankroll stands at $810. It was up to $883.61 at it's peak before the downswing. I was looking forward to moving up to the $10 DoNs by now but that is going to take a little more time.

Since the last update the bankroll has increased $25 and my win rate and ROI has been 55% and 0.5% respectively. Nothing to get too excited over.

In addition to winnings from the games I also earned a $50 VIP Stellar Reward  as well as a $50 VIP Reward Bonus so things aren't so bad.

What a relief! It looks like the Double or Nothing Sit-n-Gos on PokerStars are profitable again!

For a while I was thinking it was going to be impossible to get anywhere with this challenge so I'm very happy that things have been going well for my last two updates.

Right after I last posted on my DoN Challenge progress I had a nice little run of almost 20 straight wins and I was feeling great (initial spike in Update 9 portion of graph). Unfortunately it was followed by a big downswing that had me tilting again. I tried to regain my composure and rode it out.

It's been a while since I've posted an update on my Double or Nothing Sit-n-Go Challenge.

I had a bit of a down turn. My last two updates were me reporting I was break even. It was a bit demoralizing and I wasn't putting in the volume I needed to meet my goal.

Instead I was taking a look at my stats and hand histories in working on figuring out what adjustments I need to make. It seems to have helped.

Since my last update my win rate has been ~ 58% and my ROI around 8% with a $120 profit bringing my challenge bankroll up to $627.

Time for another update on my Double or Nothing Sit and Go Challenge. The sessions since my last update are around 340-530. My current challenge bankroll is $501.60.

As you can see from the chart, things haven't been going very well in this challenge.  February was a brutal month.

The only impressive thing about the chart is that I figured out a way  to color it so that I can indicate where different blog updates were. The first set of sessions is covered in the first update, second set in red in the second update, 3rd set in blue 3rd update etc.

When I posted my last update my bankroll was up to $514.60. My low point for February was when my bankroll sunk to $371, a loss of $143.60 or around 26 buy-ins!

Things haven't been going as great as they were at first. My ROI has dropped. The current Double Or Nothing Sit-n-Go Challenge bankroll is at $514.60 which is a 243% gain from my initial challenge bankroll of $150.

My high was $527.20 but it's been up and down since then.

I've been having a bit of a hard time lately adjusting to playing 6 simultaneous tables. Not quite sure why since I've played that many and more in the past without a problem.

I'm not using any type of heads up display (HUD) and I seem to be finding myself in situations where I have to call a reraise from a player and I'm not quite sure what range I can put him on. Is he pushing fours? Aces? AQ? JTs? This has forced me to make some tough decisions and they haven't always been correct.  In the near future I'm going to invest in either Holdem Manager or PokerOffice. Not sure which yet. I've tried both in the past, mostly PokerOffice.

Because these games are fairly easy I also tend to do some other things like check email, update websites, return calls, etc, while the action is slow. I should probably play fewer tables when my focus isn't always there.

I've also run across some new regulars and I've been wasting chips calling them down just to see how they play. Maybe not a great idea but hopefully the information gained will start to pay off.

One other big factor is I've been tilting a lot lately. If I have some donk at multiple tables, and he does something stupid to bust me on one table, I'll wind up trying to get back at him at other tables and it just doesn't work out the way I thought. Need to remember this is a game where discipline is important.

On the plus side, I've earned $90 in Stellar Rewards Bonuses and VIP Bonuses. I'm more than half way to my last $10 Stellar Reward and have almost enough VPPs for another $50 bonus. I'm not including bonuses in this bankroll.

If I had started this challenge with a new account and deposited $150, I would have also cleared the first time deposit bonus. With all rewards and bonuses my bankroll would be at $754.60. So it seems the double or nothing sngs are good bankroll builders.

Time to make some adjustments, find my happy place and hopefully improve my performance, otherwise I won't reach my goal of $1k by the end of the month. :(

My bankroll for my Double or Nothing Sit-n-Go challenge is now up to $466.40 giving me around 211% return on my initial challenge bankroll of $150.

While I am still profitable, I'm not too thrilled with my performance. My winrate dropped down just under 60% and my ROI is only around 6%.

You can see from the chart that I had a pretty big downswing when I increased the number of simultaneous tables I was playing. I have since reduced the number but while my gains are increasing, they aren't doing so as fast as they were previously.

I'm see-sawing between playing too nitty and being too confident. I don't play the same strategy every time. I adjust based on table dynamics and to specific players. This has helped me stay profitable in these games but I seem to be making some of the wrong moves at the wrong times against the wrong players more than I'd like. I've been making some great reads on players hand strength but still spewing chips thinking I can get them to fold their trash hand in some cases. I've probably reached my monthly quota of being on the wrong end of a set over set situation so I should be good to push any set I hit for the rest of the month. :)

I also need to control my emotions more. Losing a big pot to a bad player seems to get under my skin a lot more than it should.

When I feel I'm playing well I'm going to play more tables, when I feel I'm not I'll drop back down. I really need to step it up to meet my goal of a $1k bankroll by the end of next month.

In a few more games I'll reach my next Stellar Rewards bonus and I'm also close to clearing my $50 VIP Reward Bonus that I picked up when it was on sale for 3,000 FPP. None of the bonuses are being added to the bankroll.

If I can increase my volume I might just barely reach Gold Star VIP status for the first time. That would increase my Frequent Player Points (FPP) multiplier to 2 instead of my current 1.5. Earning FPPs 33% faster would be nice and help me gain my next VIP Reward Bonus faster but I don't want to jeopardize my challenge for one extra star. (You can find out more about PokerStars VIP Program in a previous post about PokerStars Rewards and Bonuses).

In my last Double or Nothing Sit-N-Go Challenge update I mentioned that my bankroll was almost $400 and I would be increasing the number of tables I play at a time to 6, up from 4.

Things were going really well with 6 tables and I managed to get my challenge bankroll up to $439.

Then things got a little rocky as you can see from the chart. I went on a bit of a losing streak all the way down to around $350 where I switched back to 4 tables until I could re-evaluate what was going on.

I have an idea. I was playing bad. A combination of bad decisions, bad luck and stupid mistakes. I mean really stupid. A lot of misclicks.

As you can see from the chart, around session 120 I went on a tear. It felt like any time I threw chips in the pot, I got back 2-3x as many without any effort. This type of over confidence coupled with playing more tables really did me in. Once I wasn't winning every pot I played I had to play better, but I didn't.

There were also some bad beats along the way which didn't help.

I also give some players too much credit. At these micro limits, a lot of players don't think of anything other than what their cards are. They don't think of what your range might be. It's nearly impossible at times to steal and re-steal. I can fold for 6 orbits in a row, not even completing my small blind and the only hands they've seen me show are group I hands then they keep stealing my blind, I finally take a stand and they decide K2o, AJo, Arag or some other garbage is a good enough hand to call off 75% of their stack. If I'm restealing, I don't get lucky, if I have a hand they get lucky. At least that's how it's felt lately. Or whenever I'm shortstacked and find a hand I can push, someone wakes up with aces.

I have different strategies for different table types and players but I'm probably not using the right one at the right time.

Right now the challenge bankroll is at $386 and I've been getting my game back. It sucks to see almost 20% of your bankroll disappear, but these things happen, which is why it's important to follow good bankroll management practices.

Since my last update I also received my second Stellar Rewards Bonus, which is not being added to the bankroll. 

Time to continue making up the losses. I'll move back up to 6 tables at around $425-450. That will give me enough time to review those games and see how I might improve.

Just a quick update on my DoN SnG Challenge.

I'm doing pretty well. My BR is up to $398.00 and I'll be adding two more tables bringing me to 6 tables at a time.

In my first update I discussed adding more tables when the bankroll gets to around $350-$400. The reason I chose this range is that 6 $5.40 tables totals $32.40. With a bankroll over $350 I don't have more than 10% of my bankroll at risk at any one time. For other types of games that might be cutting it thin but these games have little variance and I do well in them.

Currently, 6 games represents 8.14% of my challenge bankroll which gives me around 12 sessions. Some DoN regulars play for a set amount of time keeping a certain number of tables open at a time. When one game finishes, they open up another one. I prefer to open up all the tables when I start and then take a small break when they are all completed. It makes it easier for me to play when I'm at roughly the same stage at all the tables. The small break afterwards gives me time to decompress before starting a new set. For me, there is such a big difference between the first level and bubble that I need a few minutes to calm down.

Even in these low variance games bankroll management is very important as downswings do occur. For me Sundays continue to be just bad. I'm probably going to skip playing these on Sundays from now on. If I had skipped the last 2 Sundays my ROI would be substantially higher and I'd be almost half way to my first goal of $1,000. :( I've complained about playing DoNs on Sunday before so I won't vent here again.

During this challenge I've earned enough VIP Player Points (VPPs) to get my first $10 Stellar Rewards Bonus and close to getting my second. On the 25th I'll be purchasing getting a bonus when the $50 VIP Reward Bonus is on sale. I got some junk from the VIP Store last month and don't think I'll be able to get enough FPPs for a higher bonus. I wish I knew about the sale beforehand. I was happy I got the Pokerstars Scarf and Beanie but some of the other stuff I could have done without.

I've decided not to add the bonuses or rewards to this challenges' bankroll so the results are purely based on game play.

Overall things look to be on track for completing my first goal of $1,000 well before the 2 months I planned for it. Even with the crappy Sundays my stats aren't horrible and my chart continues to move up. With 2 more concurrent tables it should move up even faster if everything continues to go well.

So I'm playing a few games for my Double or Nothing Sit-n-Go Challenge and I notice a few of the same players at all of my tables.

Some of them I recognize as solid DoN regulars but one I know is a losing player and after checking the stats of another I see he has poor stats as well.

Why?

I know this blog is only a few days old and only a few other people besides myself have visited it but maybe one day someone will land here and be able to answer the question?

The whole point of playing multiple tables is to capitalize on your win rate to multiply your hourly profit.

If you play one game at a time and average $3 per game and each game takes an hour, you're making $3/hr. If you were to play 6 games at a time your win rate will probably go down but lets say your average is still $2/game, you're now making $12/hr.

If you're average tells you you're losing money each game, playing more tables means you're just multiplying your loses.

I understand that most people play online poker for fun, and don't really care about winning any money and by all means keep it up! It doesn't cost a lot and it is entertaining. Does it make it 4x as much fun to play 4 tables?

You're pretty far into a no limit hold'em tournament and at a critical point. Maybe right on or near the money/final table bubble or at one of Dan Harrington's inflection points. The short stack pushes the last of his chips into the pot and it gets folded around to you in the big blind. Eliminating this player and winning this pot would really benefit you. You peek at your hole cards hoping for aces but all you see are two rags. Do you still make the call?

The official definition of a hero call is calling a big bet with a marginal hand when you think your opponent might be bluffing with a weaker hand than yours. So maybe this should be referred to as a fearless call, where you make a call with a possibly weaker hand hoping to suck out on your opponent. You know your opponent could have a monster hand pre-flop but you say "screw you, I have plenty of chips and at least a 10% chance of winning. You want the pot you have to fight for it!"

This situation comes up a lot and sometimes you have to find the guts to make the fearless call.

Just a quick update on my Double or Nothing Sit-n-Go Challenge since I passed a sort of milestone.

I just doubled my working bankroll of $150 for this challenge and my bankroll is currently at around $310.

After 276 games I'm a bit disappointed with my win rate of only 60%.  In the past my win rate was closer 70% and I'm still trying to figure out how to get it back up there.

My ROI is almost 11% which is decent but if I can just bring my win rate up to 65% my ROI will almost double.

Looking around at the stats of some of the other DoN SnG regulars, it seems like maybe DoNs aren't as easy as they used to be.

In a while I'll start adding 2 more tables to my sets as my bankroll allows. That should help the graph move up faster.

I don't want to sound like I'm down on my results. These are pretty good. To put this in perspective, If I was a new player and made a $150 first time deposit, in addition to my $160 in winnings, I would have also cleared $30 in bonuses to bring my bankroll up to $340. In another 200 games or so my game winnings should be around $270 and I would have earned enough VPP to clear another $20 in bonuses and earned enough yearly VPP to get a $10 Stellar Rewards bonus to bring the bankroll up to around $480. In this hypothetical situation, by the time I cleared the total $150 bonus, my bankroll would be around $1,000.

You can see how starting with these DoN SnGs you can quickly build up a reasonable bankroll fairly quickly from a small deposit.

I'm only 4 days into my Double or Nothing Sit-N-Go Challenge and I'm off to a decent start after 144 games. I have an $82.40 profit which brings my challenge bankroll up to $232.40. Not once did I dip below my starting bankroll of $150.

With $150 as a simulated deposit, I have played $777.60 worth of games.

First 3 days weren't great but they were profitable. My win rate was just over 60% and I had a $58 profit.

Then came Sunday. Sunday was just a horrible day. I'm not sure what it is but weekends aren't very good for me. I was surprised Friday and Saturday were as profitable as they were.

On weekends, you get a lot of fish, and that's supposed to be a good thing but it never seems to work out that way for me. I seem to lose many 80/20 and 70/30 situations.

I've played quite a few of the $5 and $10 Double or Nothing Sit-n-Gos on Pokerstars and have done quite well in them so I decided to play them more formally, along with my $50 Cash Game Challenge.

What are Double or Nothing Sit and Gos?

Double or Nothing Sit-n-Gos (DoNs) are a type of single table tournament with 10 players. If you outlast 5 other players you win double your buy-in. So for example, in a $5 DoN you pay $5 + $0.40 in rake and if you win, you win $10.

You need to have a win rate of at least 55% just to break even but these games are fairly easy with the right strategy. They are also fairly low variance. A little over 60% win rate will give you about an 11% ROI, 75% win rate will achieve a 30% ROI and a 75% win rate will give you close to a 40% ROI.

My DoN SnG Plan

My plan is to start playing the $5.40 DoNs 4 tables at a time with a starting bankroll of $150. That's enough to cover almost 28 games or almost 7 4 table sessions. Since these are low variance games that should be plenty since historically my win rate is about 70%. It was higher at one point but either the players have changed or I have and part of this challenge is to get me playing these games better to increase my win rate.

If my starting bankroll dips down too far I'll reduce the number of tables I play at a time.

My first goal is to reach $1,000 within 2 months.

One other issue with moving up in buy-ins is that the tables don't fill up as fast above $10 and that may cause me to stick to my current level. Right now, looking at the Pokerstars lobby, There is only one $108 DoN upcoming and nobody has registered. There are 4 $54 DoNs and 8 $21.60 DoNs but they are taking a long time to fill up.

Below is a table showing how I plan to move up in buy-ins as my bankroll increases. As you increase in levels, the players are a bit better and my win rate might drop and there might be higher variance. To account for that I'm allowing for more buy-ins for the higher levels.

Buy-In	Bankroll	Num Buy-Ins
$5.40	$150	27.78
$10.80	$1,000	92.59
$21.60	$4,000	185.19
$54.00	$12,000	222.22
$108.00	$25,000	231.48

As I mentioned, I'm going to start playing 4 tables at a time in the $5.40 level but as my bankroll increases I'll increase the number of concurrent tables I play as long as the total number of tables I play at one time is less than 10% of my bankroll. As I move up in levels I'll probably give myself a bigger cushion. To give you an idea of what that might look like the following table shows what the maximum simultaneous tables I'm allowed to play based on my bankroll.

Max tables at $5.40
Bankroll	Max Tables
$50	1
$100	2
$200	4
$350	6
$500	8
$750	10

Since I've played many of these before, I'm comfortable starting at 4 tables even though it's below my requirements. If you're reading this and want to try this challenge I advice you start with 1 table at a time until you get the hang of it, then 2 then 4. If you aren't making as much with more tables, move down to fewer.

My goal here isn't to play as many tables as I can at a time, it's to hopefully move up in levels and still play well.

I'll be keeping a chart of my progress on the sidebar of this blog (as well as the top of this post) so you can track my results. Click the following link to see all DoN SnG Challenge Updates.