PKR Double Thru Strategy Poker Video

The idea of Double Thru is quite simple: Half the poker table will double up while the other half will loose their buy-in. Double Thru SNGs are a great way to make money playing poker because you would win half the time (everything else being equal). Everything else is not equal however! If you’ve been reading our articles and watching our poker strategy videos, I’m going to assume that you’re beating the odds!

In the video below, I personally show you how to win these SNGs. You’ll get to see the full game and I comment about strategy through the whole poker video. At one point, I do make a mistake and get into serious trouble. It happens to all of us. You’ll get to see how I opted to play, and why, to make it back in the money. Remember, at a 10 player Double Thru table, the goal is not to finish 1st, it’s to finish 5th or better. As such, the Double Thru strategy is different than a regular 10 player SNG. Blinds and position are very significant as you’ll note in this poker video.

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Double Thru Games are Often Tight

As you’ll notice in the PKR Double Thru strategy poker video, this table was pretty tight. It’s not uncommon to see this happen simply because no one wants to go out early. This is an opportunity for you to be a bit more aggressive and make some great bluffs. I’ve done it several times in this poker strategy video. In many cases, I know the opponent had the best hand, but I made them believe that wasn’t the case. This is an important part of Double Thru strategy – take advantage of the fact that people are afraid to go out early and put them under pressure.

At the beginning of the video, I mentioned I like to start slow and avoid taking too many risks. Typically, that is true, but it doesn’t mean you have to pass up opportunities to steal pot when they come. On the second or third hand, when I had the Ace Jack, I decided to put my opponents under pressure simply because the conditions were right. I was in the best position, there were only two opponents who checked, and one had raised pre-flop from middle position. This suggested that he had perhaps an Ace, or KQ or a hand of that caliber. When the flop revealed low cards and the person checked, I had to bet to get them to fold.

Later in the game when blinds get very expensive, it becomes important to steal them to survive. As you see in the poker video, there’s a few of us who have similar chip counts, and we’re all struggling to survive the blinds. Big stacks can really pressure you into folding or in going all in with mediocre hands, as you saw in the video.

Play to survive

When you get in trouble like I did, and there’s just one more player to eliminate before making it in the money, you have to be very careful not to get eliminated. As the short stack, everyone else wants to see you go. I had many opportunities to go all in with an Ace. In most cases, my kicker was terrible, but still. With few players left, and tight table, I opted to not risk being eliminated and waited for someone else to go broke. This is playing to survive, and that is often a good Double Thru strategy to employ when you’re almost in the money and when there’s a couple of players with few chips left.

Double Thru Strategy with a Big Stack of Chips

Suppose that I had instead been the guy with the biggest chip stack at the table towards the end. How would this change my Double Thru strategy? With a lot of chips, and one person left to eliminate, you can take the conservative approach and pretty much secure a win. Let everyone else fight it out. Let the increasing blinds do all the work. It’s just a matter of time before someone will go broke, and you have plenty of chips to keep your head above water. You’re almost guaranteed a win if you’re in this position and use this strategy. Sure, you go also play the role of the table bully like a big stack typically does in a regular SNG. That often works too, but it can backfire as well. In fact, in the poker video I was getting more and more chips and I decided to pressure opponents since I could afford to gamble. I made one huge mistake and that almost cost me the game. So in that sense, being conservative could have been a better strategy for me at the time.

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This poker video was recorded while I was playing at PKR poker – definitely one of the coolest poker room one the web. If you’d like to try it out for yourself (US Players not accepted), you can sign up below and we’ll give you:

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