Sports Articles Johnson

When should you NOT go all

To a no-limit Hold’em player, going all in is the biggest weapon a player has. Well, that’s not entirely true. When relatively short-stacked in a tournament, going all-in is often times the LAST weapon a player has. As such, it is vital to use it in a manner in which you give yourself the best chance of winning.

Sometimes you feel as though you have no other options but to go al-in pre-flop and hope for the best. Hope for the best? Does that really sound like the best and most effective way of winning? Of course not. Well, I’m here to tell you that you have other options, the stop and go and the call and wait.

The stop-and-go- The stop-and-go is a play designed to give you an extra chance to win the pot without a showdown. Here’s how you do it. You are out of position and call a raise before the flop with a hand with which you plan to go all in, but are certain that your opponent will call if you push preflop. After you call and see the flop, then you go all in. If you’re opponent doesn’t like this flop, he folds and you win. If he calls, you are no worse off than if you pushed all in before the flop. You have to hope that your hand wins.

I’ll illustrate my point. Say you are in the middle stages of a tournament. In the middle of a tournament, the blinds are $500-$1000 with a $100 ante. You have $5,000 left after you post the big blind. A middle-position player with $10,000 makes it $2,500 to go. Everyone folds to you, and you decide to go all in with whatever hand you hold, as mathematically you don’t have much of a choice. If you push all in here, you will get called. The pot will be $1,000 in antes, $1,500 in blinds, and the $2,500 from the raiser. Your all-in push will make it $10,000 and your opponent will have to call $2,500. He has to call given those odds. Don’t just blindly push as its not your best play. Instead, just call the $1,500, see the flop and then push your last $2,500. You do this regardless of whether you hit or not, hoping that your opponent doesn’t like what he sees and folds. Note, this play works when heads up. With more than that involved, you are more likely to get called by someone. A good example of this is when you have pocket 4’s and your opponent has pocket 5’s. The flop is KQ2 rainbow. You push and he will fold a superior hand.

The call and wait – This tactic is used when you are forced to go all-in on a draw. Only do that when there exists the chance when your opponent may fold to your bet, giving you a greater chance of winning without having to hit. Let’s use the same example.
The blinds are $500-$1000 with $100 antes. This time, you have $10,000 on the button. The chip leader, with $75,000, raises to $3,000. You hold the J 10 and decide to call, because the chip leader has been calling all smallish raises and running over the table. You also want to be able to get away from the hand if a raise is made behind you and called by the chip leader. Everyone else folds and the flop is 8-9-4.

The raiser bets $3,000. You have $7,000 left. If you raise all in, you certainly will be called. If you flat-call, you will have $4,000 left and will certainly put it in on the turn if he bets again. But there is a small chance that he will not bet again. Sometimes, people check. The chance to hang on to some chips, however small, should outweigh your desire to "get it over with." Now if he checks the turn, push and hope he folds or you hit.

Try these plays out and see how they work for you. I can pretty much guarantee you will be better off in both cases if you use these instead of blindly going all-in.

Until next time, may the chips fall your way


by Johnson