Putting all but ONE chip in the middle

I was in a tourney the other night where the guy to my left was short stacked (maybe like 4BBs) and we were already deep into the tourney. On two seperate occasions he raised pre-flop, practically going all-in leaving himself only "ONE" chip in his stack (if you even want to call that a stack, lol).

I re-raised on accident (misclicked) forcing him to go all-in luckily I had a strong hand. he called obviously and I took him out. He bought back in and was mad about my re-raise and went on to call me a c**t.

So I have two questions about this:

1. Why would someone put all but "ONE" of his chips in the middle? I have been trying to figure it out but being so deep in the tourney it doesn't make much sense to me.

2. Although, I re-raised by mistake is it bad etiquette to force him all-in PF like that? Or is he just a sore loser?

A1exis said:

2. Although, I re-raised by mistake is it bad etiquette to force him all-in PF like that? Or is he just a sore loser?

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I think it is pretty obvious that he really just wants to see the flop.

Well yes I figured that but why not leave a few extra chips in your stack? Would he really fold leaving himself only one chip? The Ante would eat that the next hand.

A1exis said:

I was in a tourney the other night where the guy to my left was short stacked (maybe like 4BBs) and we were already deep into the tourney. On two seperate occasions he raised pre-flop, practically going all-in leaving himself only "ONE" chip in his stack (if you even want to call that a stack, lol).

I re-raised on accident (misclicked) forcing him to go all-in luckily I had a strong hand. he called obviously and I took him out. He bought back in and was mad about my re-raise and went on to call me a c**t.

So I have two questions about this:

1. Why would someone put all but "ONE" of his chips in the middle? I have been trying to figure it out but being so deep in the tourney it doesn't make much sense to me.

2. Although, I re-raised by mistake is it bad etiquette to force him all-in PF like that? Or is he just a sore loser?

Click to expand...

Just say thank you, I took your money like a c**t does.

No actually your suppose to put the short stacks allin in mtt's thats how the game is played, you don't want to give them any chance of them rebuilding there stack back up the reason for the one chip it's like the old saying goes all you need is a chip and a chair !!! he figures as long as he has a chip anything is possible , I've actually won mtt's being low stack going into the final table !!!

I sometimes go all-in except 1 chip if I have a strong hand and I don't' want to scare a fish off.

In live games, when you just say raise and say the amount where it will leave u with 1 chip left, then people who don't pay attention to others stack but just play their hands will call to see the flop. I've seen this so many times. I have 5.6k stack at blind level 300/600. Someone raised it to 1500. I reraised it to 4k stack. The villain calls because he feels he's priced in regardless of more than half my stack going in pre-flop. On the flop, Instead of shoving, I raise it to 1.5k. Villain calls me off with Ace high because potsize is roughly 10.5k and it's 1.5k more to call. On the turn, I simply go all-in for 100 chips. Villain calls, and rolls over Ace high against my Aces, drawing dead.

If I had gone all-in pre-flop or flop, villain would've folded. But because I priced him in and used the fact that villain doesn't take people' chipstack into an account, I'm able to take advantage of it.

Of course, ur case was different. He's an idiot. Whether you make a reraise or not, it doesn't make a single difference to him. He's a sore loser. Next time, you can just say "u were in the game? I didn't know that. stack was too small for me to see. sorry about that."

Your reraise or call would've been the same thing to him anyways.

MAX101: Ya I know you should make them go all-in especially with a strong hand and a deep stack, I was just simply saying it was actually an accident. There were a couple others who had deeper stacks than mine so I didn't want one of them to shove and risk my tournament life. I also had a situation in a different tourney I played in where I was in 1st but then when they switched me to a new table it said error and was kicked off. about 30-40 mins later I was able to get my seat back but the blinds and antes ate away my stack leaving me only 5BBs left. This is where you see luck come into play: I somehow mangaged to build a very deep stack and ended up placing 3rd in the tourney! That was sweet!

PoKeRFoRNiA: EXACTLY what I'm thinking! I can understand your situation completely. But like you said in my situation there really isn't any logic to what he was doing. It makes no sense he would have to play that hand either way. When antes have kicked in, in a deep tourney and your that short stacked your only play is to go all-in or at least if your goal is to get as far into the tourney as possible. I like that reply, next time ill have to use that lol!

I can't imagine not taking others stack size into account. That's something I ALWAYS take into account and it helps me figure out how I'm going to play any given hand. It's just too important IMO.

A1exis said:

I can't imagine not taking others stack size into account. That's something I ALWAYS take into account and it helps me figure out how I'm going to play any given hand. It's just too important IMO.

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You would be surprised how many people don't take other people's stack into consideration when you play live. It's really ridiculous. Of course, I'm basing this on $1/$2 live and $3/$5 live(I recently starting playing this stake week ago and it's still as bad as $1/$2, at least where I live, aka Los Angeles, California).

If you push all-in, fish will fold because he thinks "aah crap, I gotta have a hand now." But if you just "raise" majority of your stack, their thought process is "well, I can still call and see the flop before I fold. eh, why not?" Of course, you will be facing way more bad beats than to take down the pot uncontested but if it seeks action and make them cough up lot of chips pre-flop or flop where it's the only way to make them put up their chips, then it's worth it. Because at this point, when you lose, then you lost because your villain made bad pre-flop and bad flop call.

It has psychological effect on fishes. I recently had a thread on this.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/tournament-poker-59/i-am-nice-person-i-spare-237623/

And I'm glad you take people's stack into consideration. Because it's very crucial and fundamentals in knowing if it's worth calling pre-flop raise with low/mid pocket pairs, suited cards, etc while knowing how to size your bets based on stacks when you got a good hand. Because many times, it's what also dictates whether it's worth calling or folding. Implied odds heavily rely on chipstack sizes. This is why deepstack cash games heads-up is where your true skills can be put to the test over the long run.

A1exis said:

I was in a tourney the other night where the guy to my left was short stacked (maybe like 4BBs) and we were already deep into the tourney. On two seperate occasions he raised pre-flop, practically going all-in leaving himself only "ONE" chip in his stack (if you even want to call that a stack, lol).

I re-raised on accident (misclicked) forcing him to go all-in luckily I had a strong hand. he called obviously and I took him out. He bought back in and was mad about my re-raise and went on to call me a c**t.

So I have two questions about this:

1. Why would someone put all but "ONE" of his chips in the middle? I have been trying to figure it out but being so deep in the tourney it doesn't make much sense to me.

2. Although, I re-raised by mistake is it bad etiquette to force him all-in PF like that? Or is he just a sore loser?

Click to expand...

My only guess is that he wanted to put next to all of his money in so that if someone else busted that hand he could move up the payout ladder rather than bust? He would get to see one more hand and that means that if anyone busted that hand he'd be ahead of them?

Either way it's a stupid play. There's absolutely nothing wrong with putting him all in pre-flop. It's a better situation for you because you can't make any mistake post flop (not that you can make much of a mistake if he only has one chip left). If he wanted to try to be a coward and last a little bit longer then he should not raise or limp and just let the blinds take his chips away.

I use this tactic in tourneys that count towards a leaderboard(ie. BankrollMob or PSO tourneys). No longer play either but in the PSO the longer you last the more points you get.
It also depends how how agrro the other players are in the hand and table dynamics. Say a fish has made a open of over 5xbb 3 to 5 hands in a row,you know he is not playing position or even playing his cards. So often they snap call you thinking they can bet you off the flop because they are not seeing a allin next to your name. It works against aggro fish or sometimes against nits.
Nits will sometimes see that as stronger than a allin,you really just need a good feel of the table.
This play would most likely be close to the play when you are shortstacked and you call or open 3xbb and shove any flop.

chauncey274 said:

My only guess is that he wanted to put next to all of his money in so that if someone else busted that hand he could move up the payout ladder rather than bust? He would get to see one more hand and that means that if anyone busted that hand he'd be ahead of them?

Either way it's a stupid play. There's absolutely nothing wrong with putting him all in pre-flop. It's a better situation for you because you can't make any mistake post flop (not that you can make much of a mistake if he only has one chip left). If he wanted to try to be a coward and last a little bit longer then he should not raise or limp and just let the blinds take his chips away.

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Yeah well actually we weren't ITM yet so it would have made no difference. I must say I am relieved that I'm not the only one who thinks this was not a logical play.

Just call him a ****** and move on. Hint: it rhymes with eggs laid by flies.