The All-In

Ah, the all-in. Everyone loves an all-in. All that excitement, all that attention. People respect a player who can push all their chips in the middle of the felt, don’t they? Or do they welcome a donk pushing all-in simply to impress the table?

The more you read about the all-in play, the more confused you will become, because everyone has their own opinion when it comes to putting all your chips on the line. Pro Phil Hellmuth is famously a huge critic of the pre-flop all-in. He doesn’t like the powerlessness of being all-in and waiting for the cards to determine his fate so he tries his best to never be all-in pre-flop. On the other hand, many aggressive pros will point out the obvious point that it is much harder to call an all-in bet than to push in your own chips.

One strategy which is universally frowned upon, even by those often focusing on ScratchCards, is going all-in during the early rounds of a tournament. Late on however, this strategy goes out of the window, as the blinds and antes rack up and play becomes more frenetic. Try to use the all-in to your advantage. Use it to disguise either the strength or weakness of your hand. If you are short-stacked, the all-in is a brilliant tool when you have a great starting hand because it looks like a steal or a ‘last gasp’ effort to stay in the tournament. If you are big-stacked, you can use your chip advantage to feign strength and bully your opponents. There is nothing scarier than the big-stack going all-in.

You will need to factor in many variables when you come up against an opponent’s all-in move. Most important is information gathered on that specific player – is he tight or aggressive, does he have history of going all-in with the nuts/nothing? So make sure you are hawk-eyed when you play and make notes on as many of your opponents as possible.