All in?

M

meltdown

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.. everybody gives me different answers when this subject comes up --- but I wanna know the 'standard' strategy.

When is it okay to go all-in? .. I mean, obviously if you're shoving a short stack, and obviously if you hit the nuts..

But everyone on pokerstars is ALWAYS all in pre-flop.. and I'm starting to wonder if this is standard poker? .. if I have 10BB, I'd rather see a flop and hope my opponent hits something. The odds are just not in my favor when I shove. whether I have a monster hand, or marginal hands --- I just honestly feel really uncomfortable about it now, because I almost NEVER win all in pre-flop.

I see a lot of pros shoving with 27BB with AQ? .. like just ridiculous. to me, this feels like playing the slots.


so guys,

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO GO ALL IN?
 
pescaofish

pescaofish

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Always in Tournaments never in ring games or cash

1. in a Tournament when you are sick of players bluffing and getting all the money with worse hands than yours.
2. Preflop with AA, KK
3. Preflop Aks,
 
ollaf

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Just when you dont have options: when you have few chips or when you need to win the blinds.
 
croconow

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I like to go all-in pre-flop with ~50% of range when the game came at me in gap and I'm in Bu, Co or Sb position. But, the players ahead of me need to be tight, and it need to be a middle or final phase of a tournament
 
UpUpAway

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Depends on my BBs and position in the tournament. If it's late game and I only have 10-15 bbs a limp is out of the question to me unless I have a really strong gut instinct.
 
Ljuk358

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You can learn this and lot of more in Pokerschool on Pokerstars! Simply go through Pokerstars client to Pokerschool, register there, read few articles about tactics of tournaments, cash or sitngo's and you will found answers on your questions.. You can do quiz about things you learned and earn some tickets to Pokerschool tournaments too!
 
Abramo Della Luce

Abramo Della Luce

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When you become the short stack it's most of the times the best thing to shove all in with several hands and the shorter you become, the more hands you should shove. Some people define short stack as 10BB or less, others at 15BB or even 20BB. I keep myself somewhere around 15BB.
The reason for this is that you can win the pot by making everyone fold. If you have around 10BB and everyone folds, you steal the blinds which is, if ante is play and in a full ring of 9 people, 2.4 or 24% of your stack. This is a good amount of chipping up. The other possibility is that someone calls you and you have the chance of doubling up and be in a comfortable position again.
The range of hands you should be open shoving with as a small stack depend on your position (later position means a wider range) goes from high and medium pairs, high aces, medium suited aces and 2 face cards. If your stack gets smaller or your position later you should also include all pocket pairs, suited aces, medium suited kings and medium suited connectors. If it becomes really small and you're in late position, you can also include all kings, a lot of suited queens and jacks and maybe even suited tens.
Of course when you see someone is shoving all the time with a big stack, you can call him with a medium A or K, but there's always a risk that you're losing a big stack, while the blinds are small, so I prefer to wait till I have a real hand and be almost sure that I get his stack.

The shoving that you talk about with AQ is a decent play being a small stack, for the reason that most of the time you will be ahead or it's a coinflip (if the other person has a pocket pair lower than JJ). So you win either by everyone folding or you go against someone having the advantage (or coinflip). Over the long term you win with this.
This in contrast with 22, in which a coin flip is the best case scenario, while with AK or AQ, it is the worst case.

2. Preflop with AA, KK

I suppose you mean as a short stack, because as a big stack you're most likely have everyone fold and you're only stealing the blinds, while with those hands, you should get at least a caller and build the pot over the streets, until the next card could become dangerous and then you can bet big to make him fold.
 
mbrenneman0

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the reason you get so many different answers is because theres so different situations when you should and when you shouldn't.

first depends on if youre in a tournament or if youre in a cash game. in a cash game you should very rarely go all in. in a tournament, you have to a little more often.

and then there are things like who youre playing against. what cards you have, stack to pot ratio, what the board looks like etc..
 
darkelf1

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ina good spot , When u have J4 , all in ( if FOLDS) . next hand u get AQ (strong hand after weak) , all in again . People get nervous , they call , thinking u have sh* , if you won , table realise u dont messin , next hand you fold.
 
2Pacavelli

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It is relative, we have to go all in when there is a favorable situation , if you are all in for 27 bbs with AQo can be good if you put your opponent on a range of hands worse by example
 
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.. everybody gives me different answers when this subject comes up --- but I wanna know the 'standard' strategy.
...There is no 'standard' strategy because there are too many things to consider for every situation. I can give you examples of when you should go all in with AKs and when you shouldn't. It's the same hand, but because both situations could be different, the decisions differ.

When is it okay to go all-in? .. I mean, obviously if you're shoving a short stack, and obviously if you hit the nuts.
...Honestly, it's not as obvious as you think. Open shoving a hand like A8s from the BTN with 10BBs is much different than calling a shove with A8s in the BB with 3 all-ins in front of you.

The same goes with the nuts. Sometimes shoving the nuts isn't the best way to extract the most value from your opponent.


if I have 10BB, I'd rather see a flop and hope my opponent hits something. The odds are just not in my favor when I shove. whether I have a monster hand, or marginal hands --- I just honestly feel really uncomfortable about it now, because I almost NEVER win all in pre-flop.
...The reasons why you don't want to see a lot of flops with a hand worth shoving are:

a) you miss most flops than you hit with unpaired hands. So, 2/3rd of the time, your hand misses and you find yourself in an unsure situation. You're already short stacked and the last you want to do is to call/fold when you're short stacked and end up even shorter.

b) you want to extract the most value for hands. Lets say you have 10 BBs limp in with AQ and someone checks with AJ in the BB. You both miss the board, check it down to the river, and you win an extra 2 BBs (if there are antes). Yes, you played it safe, but you really didn't improve your situation by much as there is no difference between 10 BBs and 12 BBs.

If you had shoved, AJ may have folded and you'd end up in the same situation as above, but theres also a chance they would've called and you're winning AQ > AJ about 70% of the time.

Not to mention that if you see a flop and you both miss, your opponent can still take a stab at it if you check and that can put you in a bad spot because now you are probably folding.


I see a lot of pros shoving with 27BB with AQ? .. like just ridiculous. to me, this feels like playing the slots.
...Shoving 27 BBs with AQ might seem like a crazy play, but it's really not. There are somethings you need consider:

-27 BBs isn't that much, depending on the structure of the MTT. If we assume that we're seeing 50 hands/hour and blinds increase every 10 minutes, we're only seeing about 8 hands/blind level. So, most of the time, you really don't see a lot of hands per level and with increasing blinds/antes, your stack can drop fast if you don't pick up strong hands.

-AQ is still a very strong hand and still beats a lot of hands you're opponent's could be call your shove with with.

-Most pros are mass multi-tabling MTTs. They're looking to find small edges over their opponents to build large stacks. If they're playing 10+ MTTs, shoving 25+ BBs with AQ is a standard play as they're either a) double up and possibly run deep or b) they'll bust out, but they can always re-enter or reload another MTT and keep playing. They know that shoving AQ is only way behind a handful of hands, flipping against most pairs, and has a slight edge over all other non-paired hands and they're willing to make these risky plays where they feel they have good equity preflop.

-It depends on their style. If they're very LAG, their shove range could be very wide and there is a chance they're get called by and paid off by much weaker hands like A10 or KQ when they shove.


so guys,

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO GO ALL IN?
...It depends.
above.
 
makisaa

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When your judgement allows to play all in. After studying the game you are in, from psycological and mathematical view!
 
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