Sky Poker has earned a good reputation amongst the online poker playing community for having a good number of deals, offers and games to not only attract new players to the site, but keep them playing. Last week, the site introducted their brand new Sit&Go game, 50/50 and it is an addition to the site that is only likely to enhance that view.
The 50/50 game is an adaptation of the Double Your Money games that are very popular on the Sky Poker platform with new players. In the traditional Double Your Money game, each player puts in an equal stake into the pot at the start of the game, for example £1 and each player starts with the same number of chips.
The game then progresses until half the players at the table are eliminate (so in a six-hand table, the game finishes when three players are eliminated). The remaining players on the table then receive back double their initial entry fee (so in this example, the winning players would receive £2 back).
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However, one of the frustrating points for many players of these games was that chip counts were irrelevant once the end of the game is reached. It did not matter if you held 95% of the chips, or 5%, you both received double your money back if you were remaining at the table when all the other players were eliminated.
This could lead to somewhat frustrating play at times, where players with few chips would simply sit and wait hoping players with more chips would ‘take out’ other players, while they minimised their risk and simply sat on their chips hoping that they would make it through. In essence, some players would simply try and fold their way into a top half finish and this did make for somewhat dull and frustrating game play at times.
In 50/50, this issue has now been addressed. While the organisation of the game and the goals of the players are the same in that everyone pays the same entry fee, starts with the same number of chips and tries to finish in the top half to earn a payout, how that payout is calculated is now very different.
Instead of each player remaining simply doubling their money, what happens is that the players remaining in the tournament after half the other players have been eliminated each win their initial stake back. The remaining money in the pot is then divided amongst the players depending on the amount of chips that they actually have won.
So for example, if you pay £10 to play a 50/50 game and each player starts with 2000 chips, but at the end of the game, players 4, 5 and 6 have been eliminated then players 1, 2 and 3 each receive their £10 buy in back. The remaining £30 in the pot is then divided between the players based on the amount of chips they hold:
For example let’s say:
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Player 1 holds 2000 Chips – They hold 33.3% of the chips in play and so would receive an additional £10 on top of their £10 buy in back for a total award of £20.
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Player 2 holds 3000 Chips – Player 2 holds 50% of the chips in play, so he would receive £15 of the remaining pot for a total win of £25.
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Player 3 holds 1000 Chips: – Player 3 only holds 16.7% of the chips in play, so they would receive £5 of the remaining pot, for a total win of £15.
This is a good move from Sky Poker as it encourages players to play to enhance their stack, not just remain in the game to win a set amount and as such, teaches new players in particular positive poker habits, rather than just encouraging them to stay in the game as long as they can regardless of how they play.
So head over to Sky Poker now and check out the brand new 50/50 games in the Sit&Go section of the site and see if you can turn your stack into a healthy profit!
Want to try another format? Start with our guide to Sky Poker’s Bounty Hunter games
