Author: Brent

Going ‘All-In’ is one of the most widely known plays in No Limit Texas Hold Em and is one that is often misused. There are plenty of times when going all-in or calling an all-in is an excellent move, but there are also plenty of times when it is a poor use of your chips. Going All-in does require great poker skills and guts as you can easily lose your game along with all your winnings. Which is why it is recommended that you practice all your skills and tricks on apps like pussy888 apk to develop those skills and win the game every time you play.

There are a few scenarios in which you may be faced with deciding whether to go all-in:

Pre-Flop: Going all-in pre-flop is only useful in late-position as a way of stealing blinds or if you are short stacked and have a good hand that could potentially double you up if anyone calls. Many people abuse the all-in move pushing chip stacks and forcing everyone to fold which yields little payoff and will eventually lead to another person catching a great hand and eliminating the aggressive all in pusher. Generally a re-raise about 3x the big blind is enough to push mediocre starting hands to fold, leaving less players to catch. (ie the big blind is holding 7 4 off suit and everyone checks while you hold AA) Flop comes 7 7 4; you raise with your AA only to watch the other player push all-in and most of your outs vanish.

On the Flop: Generally if you flop what you feel is a top hand you should check if you are in early position. Going all in now could scare off some players. (remember your goal is to extract as many chips as possible). If you hold the nuts or what is most likely a top hand and someone raises, call as you may be able to extract more chips by slow playing your hand. Of course be aware of the Turn and River and if you fear the person is drawing, going all in can give you the pot and keep the other players from catching.

The Turn: On this 4th card many players are seeing what their hand is becoming; if you see 2 or more suited cards on the table and no one raises you can sometimes use an all-in move to steal the pot as you represent the flush. Be careful though if someone does this to you, unless the player is a known bluffer they may have the flush. Again unless you are worried of someone drawing and catching on the River, a raise or re-raise is good enough to take down most pots here.

The River: Checking here can be an open invitation to attack your chip stack. If you have a monster hand this is the only time to check. A small bet can also lure another player to call and can net you a few extra chips if you win the showdown. Again late position re-raising can be useful by pushing all-in if no one bets.

But what if you aren’t looking to go all-in but another player pushes all in?

Whether or not this will push you all in or just shorten your stack are important things to consider. Pot odds are another thing to consider when another player is pushing all-in. Look at how many chips you’ve invested in the pot, where the hand is at (ie pre flop, flop, turn, river). If a small stack pushes all in and you hold even a moderate hand it may be worth your chips to call them as long as their small stack represents less then 25% of your overall stack. Again if you hold the nuts you can afford to call bigger all in stacks. Also if a larger stack pushes all in and this will put you all in as well, look at what you are holding, the possibilities out there and the pot odds. I can’t stress pot odds enough in this situation. If a stack with only 1k in chips pushes all in and your stack is say 20k in chips, call them every time pre-flop. If you lose you’ve lost a small 5% of your stack, if you win you’ve won an extra 1K. Plus if you already have chips in the pot and the pot is large it may be worth it to take a gamble in this case.

Also people often ask what are the best hands pre-flop. Really its hard to say because even a horrible starting hand (ie- 7 4 offsuit) can turn into the winning hand. But realistically there are a few hands that are considered great starting hands and people pushing all-in pre-flop generally hold one of these. They are, AK suited, AK off suit, AA, and KK. Also many pocket pairs justify a raise as they can easily turn into a set or a full house. QQ and 1010 are very popular with people to push all in with pre flop. Hands that are connected are usually only good if they are also suited (being higher cards doesn’t hurt either). Some examples include J10 suited, KQ suited, and so forth.

If you are small stack, esp. in a tournament you may push all in on weaker hands with the hopes of doubling up or just being forced all in by rising blinds. When your playing with a good size stack folding hands like Q7 off suit is something you should always do, but when your short stacked this hand may be your last chance at building your stack up before losing your chips to a blind.

Keep in mind that going ‘all-in’ can often mean the end of a tournament for you, calling ‘all-in’s’ that will take a huge chunk of your stack should only be called with good hands, and realize that hands like AA and AK don’t always hold up once the cards start dropping.