Live game, up against "All-in blind"

I play poker in local bars for .50/$1 blinds. A couple times a night, some drunk goes "All-in Blind", meaning they put their chips in before they get their cards, and they don't touch them. I guess it's some kind of macho thing.

The guy on my left goes all-in blind, and everybody folds to me. What is the worst hand I should call with?

I know J4 is an average hand, so it's a coin-flip. I don't think that's good enough.

I called with KT suited and won, but was thinking about what was the worst hand I would have called with. I'm thinking any A, K, Q, or pair would be enough of an edge.

I'd just be steering clear unless you feel you'd be a 50/50 against decent starting hand's. A 10+, Possibly A7+ if suited, any royalty and any pair. Simply because you cannot possibly get a read on your opponents hand. You may as well play coin-flips if you'd call with J4.
The 'computer hand' - meaning the very middle hand and border between good and bad, is Q 5 if memory serves (anyone clarify?). I'd be mucking that though. It just depends on your tendancy to gamble and ability to buy back in. Just a pub game, maybe widen your range a little to teach mr 'All-in blind' a lesson. Even if you lost i'm sure there'd be other opportunities to get it back!

to be honest i would not call unless i am sitting with aces kings or AK... i just think its not worth it because you get no real read... unless they are very low stacked and u can get in with a aj aq at for lower money.. like 2 or 3 bux

Assuming you're properly rolled I'd be calling with QJ+/K9+/77+

That range gives you about 62% equity against a random hand.

BTW where is this game? Sounds fun.

My range is about the same as WV's.

Well number one the guy who is drunk probably does not care.

It's just a dangerous way to play just calling an allin pre cards being dealt.

The things i would look at how much he has pushed with. Would you mind losing it if he beat you?

You cards as somebody said and your position aswell, all you need is somebody else to push after you with AA and you screwed. (unless you get lucky)

you are right. Any ace king or queen probably gives you the advantage. Jack high and anything lower is iffy and i would probably muck it

sharkyo01 said:

You cards as somebody said and your position aswell, all you need is somebody else to push after you with AA and you screwed. (unless you get lucky)

Click to expand...

In the original question, the all-in blind was to my left, and everybody folded, leaving me last to act.

It's true that these all-in blinds sometimes lead to monster hands, and you want a primo hand to call in early position. But it seems to me that in late position, it's all about the math. I'd rather try to double up against a random hand than against someone playing a hand.

I would stick with playing premium hands. The point of poker being a skilled game is to use skill to your advantage to win more often than you lose. Not luck.

Kuberr said:

I would stick with playing premium hands. The point of poker being a skilled game is to use skill to your advantage to win more often than you lose. Not luck.

Click to expand...

The point of poker is to win money and knowing what hands give you a decent equity edge against a random hand is a skill that in cases like this will win you lots of it.

Waiting for a premium hand in a case like this is stupid because this idiot won't keep his chips very long and I'd like to be the one with a great chance at taking them.

WVHillbilly said:

The point of poker is to win money and knowing what hands give you a decent equity edge against a random hand is a skill that in cases like this will win you lots of it.

Waiting for a premium hand in a case like this is stupid because this idiot won't keep his chips very long and I'd like to be the one with a great chance at taking them.

Click to expand...

This is right. Knowing the math so you know when you are favored is one of the skill elements.

WVHillbilly said:

Assuming you're properly rolled I'd be calling with QJ+/K9+/77+

That range gives you about 62% equity against a random hand.

BTW where is this game? Sounds fun.

Click to expand...

But we shouldn't be looking at our range's equity because that's irrelevant. I can think of several ranges that are >50% but include hands that are -ev. We know their exact range and our exact hand, so we can make the decision based on those 2 exact facts. Given that Pokerstove says T9o should be in our range. I'm not going to do the math on everything but for pocket pairs we need to be at least calling with 33+. 22 is a slight edge and I don't think it's the end of the world if we sacrifice our 10c in ev to take a full buy-in of variance so I don't fault a 22 fold but we need to be calling at least 33+, at least down to T9, and just way wider than this range. Each individual hand in our range must be over 50% against his range so our range's equity is really irrelevant unless we want to theoretically figure out how much we win per hand when he open shoves blind and we call with the range we call with.

You could try the irish rule of 17.

Anything higher than 17 is above average.
In ireland if you exit a tournament with cards that meet the rule of 17 then there is no shame.
So any picture with 7 or higher, or 89.

Mocho

JulieK said:

I play poker in local bars for .50/$1 blinds. A couple times a night, some drunk goes "All-in Blind", meaning they put their chips in before they get their cards, and they don't touch them. I guess it's some kind of macho thing.

The guy on my left goes all-in blind, and everybody folds to me. What is the worst hand I should call with?

I know J4 is an average hand, so it's a coin-flip. I don't think that's good enough.

I called with KT suited and won, but was thinking about what was the worst hand I would have called with. I'm thinking any A, K, Q, or pair would be enough of an edge.

Click to expand...

Thats what I say live or on internet. Why go All in when never seeing you'r cards, Must be part Donkey, He He,

Luck,

I definially agree with you. We don't play for hours on end on just Luck. If that was the case I would play the slot's or lotto instead. I like the skill and challenge of the game. Have great day

Kuberr said:

I would stick with playing premium hands. The point of poker being a skilled game is to use skill to your advantage to win more often than you lose. Not luck.

Click to expand...

You would need to make sure that you are in the correct position to call firstly e.g. with chip stack. But of course, i suggest calling with any pair above 99 . Reason being is because they are stronger and have less chance of being beaten by live cards.

RK

Well, obviously if you're gonna call, there's good chance you're gonna have a slight edge over a drunkee because you're only calling with likely better hand. But you have to assume you're playing bingo if you don't have high pocket pair or premium hand. Even AK or medium/low pocket pair means bingo. I remember these types of players about year ago, when I used to play and grind at 1/1. People go all-in blind with random hands since it's only $20 buy-in. I agree with sharkyo01. If it's small amount of chips he's pushing with and you have him covered by miles, then you should call with any medium pairs or any good hands such as KQs, JQs, TJs, etc or any good looking marginal hands. Once in a while, I even call with random suited connectors such as 34s if his push is so minimal and wont' even touch my chipstack if i lose. But if it's for most/half/quarter, then not worth it with any unpaired high cards. I even folded ATo or AJo if it's more most/half/quarter of my chipstack. Pocket Jacks are very tricky. Even if he goes all-in and there's 1 or 2 callers, and you're likely gonna lose lot of chips if you call, then you should consider folding JJ too. JJ and TT are only good during heads-up. They really suck in multi-way pot.

But when you have strong, premium hand, such as AA or KK, make sure you reraise all-in so you can kick everyone else out and go heads-up if there's someone left to act.

These tables are fun and easy to grind. In my casino, 1/1 low stake tables are full of teachers, labor workers who never read single book or practiced, and young'ns who came to chill and have fun instead of taking it seriously. They play very wrecklessly. In my casino, majority don't play online and only poker experience they have is playing in casino. They make lot of common rookie mistakes, lot more than online.

Kuberr said:

I would stick with playing premium hands. The point of poker being a skilled game is to use skill to your advantage to win more often than you lose. Not luck.

Click to expand...

No, poker involves taking the smallest possible edge when given to you and I think I would end up calling something around what zach is talking about. 33+ 10/9s+ etc

This guy just wants to gamble. You are in a great spot because you can choose whether to take it or not, for his whole stack. If you're a nit/on a short roll I could see only calling with TT+/AQ+. If you have at least a little gamble, the previously mentioned QJ+/77+ range is good as well.

Remember, if he has two random cards, it doesn't take much to be 50% against his range of hands. Hands like Q8o and A2o are better than 50% to win.

If this is something he often does and if you can afford the fluctuations, it's probably best to call the wider range (QJ+/77+). If you sit there waiting for aces or kings this is what will happen:

- a different player will call his all in and take his stack (maybe he won't rebuy)
- he'll double up with junk and then decide to not shove his new-found big stack
- he'll fold the table out a bunch of times in a row, then decide to stop shoving blind (remember he WANTS action)

None of these are good for you. So if you have a decent edge, take it while you can.