Strategies For Going All In
People who don’t play poker normally think of hold ‘em as they see it on television. Lots of all in moves, dramatic bluffs, and loose play. What they don’t understand is that most of the poker you’ll see on television is final table tournament action, when the blinds are high and players are forced to play a loose/aggressive style in order to have a chance at winning the tournament.
The reality is that in tournament poker most pro’s hate to move all in, and in a cash game it’s a move that can ruin a player if they use it too often.
When you’re all in, you’re vulnerable. If you’re in a tournament, and you go all in, you may just get called and have your entire tournament life put at risk. When a good tournament player goes all in they are normally hoping to win the pot uncontested, unless they have an extremely strong hand. Even if you’re dealt AA before the flop, if you get all of your chips in the middle, any random hand still has about a 20% chance of beating you.
It’s a tricky subject to tackle, but we’re going to cover some situations where an all in move may be your best option.
Cash Games: When you’re playing in a cash game, the only way to win over the long run are to make what are called +EV (EV stands for “Expected Value”) decisions. In other words, making bets that are likely to make you money over the long run.
In professional games, the majority of all ins that occur before the flop are when two monster hands have been dealt, such as AA vs. KK. Stacks are usually deep enough compared to the blinds to make standard raises, 3-5 times the big blind, the correct play versus pushing all of your chips in before the flop.
Poker is a game of circumstances though, and there are times when moving all in is the correct play. The first rule is that if you’re about to make a bet for ½ of your chips or more, then you probably want to go ahead and move all in. Once you have half your stack in the pot, you’re essentially committed to the hand anyways.
Other times, two big hands will collide. If you have a full house and your opponent has a big flush, there’s a good chance that you’ll get all of the money in the middle. In these situations you definitely want to be ready to pull the trigger and raise all in.
In some games with different table dynamics, such as a short handed game with high blinds and antis, all in moves will be much more common.
Tournaments: In tournaments, all in moves are both extremely dangerous and absolutely necessary to win. If you ask most professionals, they’ll say that they’re happy to play and win an entire tournament without ever having to be all in and at risk. This makes perfect sense, if you don’t go all in you can’t get knocked out.
The nature of tournaments dictates that under certain circumstances, you have to go all in. The same rules for cash games apply for tournaments. Due to the nature of poker tournaments however, there are certain times when it’s necessary to go all in in order to survive.
When you get down to 8-10 times the big blind, you’re going to want to find a spot to get all of your money in. It gives you a much better chance at winning then being blinded away does. When you do make your stand, you want to be the first to enter the pot, you want as few players left to act behind you as possible, and you generally just want to win the blinds and antis uncontested. Getting called puts your tournament life at risk, so unless you have an extremely strong hand you want to be the one doing the raising as opposed to doing the calling. If you call an all in, you’re seeing the hand to the end. If you raise all in, you can win by having the other players fold, or by getting lucky and winning the hand if you’re called.