I was playing a $5 double or nothing turbo, I folded AJ.
What should I of done?
I eventually ended up in the money.

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $100(BB) Replayer
SB ($500)
BB ($2,970)
UTG ($1,730)
UTG+1 ($1,730)
UTG+2 ($1,310)
MP1 ($1,250)
Hero ($1,330)
CO ($2,890)
BTN ($1,290)

Dealt to Hero J A

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold

BB wins $100

+1

I think you played it fine, you have to play very tight in these kind of sng. Look the STT strategy section, I'm sure you'll find many threads on how to play DONs.

I would probably open here. No action yet and you have decent position. AJ is a pretty solid starting hand imo.

You only have two reasonable choices here, shove or fold. Raising is not a reasonable option. The blinds are already too big, and stacks too shallow, to get involved with anything too fancy.

- Raise/folding a shove is utter spew
- If you're going to raise/call a shove then you may as well be the one who makes the shove to maximise your FE.

OP, if you play a lot of DoNs, and want to understand them better maybe you should head for the Official DoN thread stickied at the top of the STT Strategy Forum, which is under Tournament Poker.

GL

I'd probably shove there.

I don't play many DoN's.

lolll it's such a close call, I couldn't tell. I think I would shove. Can pokerstove tell what the right play is (or, can we set it so it understands the format of the tournament ?)

try Sng wiz

Dude, it's a DoN. Your cards are just about the least important factor in deciding what to do there.
More important factors are:
(1) what are the blinds?
(2) How many players are left?
(3) What's my stack?
(4) What's the stack of those behind me?
(5) How many players are there behind me?
(6) what's the action in front of me?
(7) What are the tendencies of the active players?
after that comes the next factor:
(8) What are my cards?

DON's are soooo nitty that I would shove. You could open 2.5-3x and re evaluate if you get any callers.

this is super standard shove in this spot.

if you were near the bubble and there were a couple of shortstacks it becomes closer.

but basically your open shoving range when u have an M of less than 10 should be real wide. calling ranges of opponents on the other hand, should be super tight.

no, that is 100% the worst option and is actually worse than folding. if u fold after putting any money at all into this pot then you are making a mistake.

ahhhh my bad didn't see the blinds. Thanks for catching this. I agree that shoving is best.

LOL! How 'bout asking a crystal ball? No **** program will tell you right play. All programs are gay anyway.

lol please elaborate on this, anyway I'd shove bb probably not calling too wide here

This is not even close ... 100% open-shoving here.

Programs only tell you your expectations, do the math for you. But barely adjust ranges etc. That's it. They can't make decisions for you, they got no feelings, they can't observe a table and make conclusions. Many of these calculations are not to be followed anyway. You don't play number, nor cards, you play your opponent. I don't see a program doing that.

I don't use any myself, If I can't figure out things myself, well then I suck and need to improve. No programs to make up for me. ;o

^^^^

yea but the idea is that using your reads/ observations u can get a better idea of your opponents range and therefore u can programme a more accurate calculation.

obv u just go "tell me what he has and what i should do", but then no one has ever said that you can.

its just crazy hard to guess your equity vs diff ranges on diff boards and so these programmes help a lot with that if u can work out an accurate range to begin with

Ah, I was expecting a more general question about how to play AJ. This is a very specific situation. Double or Nothing tourneys are a very unique format. I think what to do here is a close decision (others above seem to think it's obvious, but I dunno). It would depend *highly* on the observed behavior of my opponents, especially the guy in the big blind who holds the big stack.

If I'm correctly interpreting the history, the blinds are 50/100, and no one's been eliminated yet? By the action in THIS hand, too, it seems everyone's just sitting out waiting for big hands, which suggests you can take the pot down with a push. You're not going to have long to wait for something better. Still, I'm only gathering the tendencies of the table from the status of one hand. If this was a wild, crazy push fest between maniac opponents all around, then I might fold, not because my hand is not worth a play in itself, but because I'd expect at least three opponent to get knocked out in the next orbit.

mmm, dunno, I like to keep it simple... and at the top of that phil ivey obviously doesn't use any programs himself, why should I? ;-)

Because you are not Phil Ivey.

Are you sure? He could be

You put your hand, the stack sizes, the blinds, your opponents range, etc. into a program like SNGPT or SNG Wiz and then the program tells you (based on ICM) your expectation for shoving and folding and which one is higher.) There's really nothing to argue about with it's calculations, but it's calculations are only as good as how accurate the information you input into it is. The programs are useful study tools away from the table. Instead of having to sit there by yourself and deal out a ton of hands to learn like-things (as Doyle Brunson said he did) you can just use some programs and calculators and get the answers much faster.

Didn't notice the blinds because of the weird HH setup. Yeah, I usually shove, but I'm sure both are ok choices.

Blinds are high enough that with that many folds in front its definitely a shove.