Mad Man Poker

The all-in. The most powerful weapon in the arsenal of the poker player.

Pushing all your chips to the middle of the table is the ultimate move in any ring-game. Typical for a No Limit style of poker is that the threat of the all-in is always lurking over your shoulder.

Our topic of today: If you’re not willing to risk it all, don’t play “No Limit”!

This is the biggest difference between a good limit player and a tight no limit player. One does not exclude the other, but not every successful limit specialist is capable of holding his own with the swings of no limit play.

I would like to put a friend of mine on the block here to prove my point.

Thomas “Survivor” Vanbrabant is a pretty balanced player leaning towards tight strategies. He rarely executes the all-in move, but when he does he hardly ever is being caught on a bluff.

Me myself: I tend to push whenever I damn well please.

Both our approaches have big benefits and big downsides.

First of all: Thomas’ strategy almost never puts him at risk. If he does push, you probably need a monster to even be able to call him. This makes for some interesting situations against new players. Very strangely, inexperienced players read an all-in from Thomas as weakness. I’m not saying he always has the goods, I’m only saying that the times I caught him bluffing an all-in move can still be counted with all my 10 fingers.

Against this type of players expect not to see a lot of all-ins, but if you are up against one, make sure you have your story straight. Don’t go calling off with Ace high, you’ll loose 99% of the time.

On the other hand, when Thomas does push, that last push rarely sees a caller amongst stronger players. Any sub-standard hand quickly meets the muck and play continues. A petty, because our Survivor has to make his money on standard bets more than he can pick up the last chips of his opponent when shoving all-in himself.

And then there’s me. I live on the edge. I like to put my fellow players on a decision for their entire stack or at least a considerable chunk of their holdings. Players will be less willing to bet larger amounts on weaker hands against me, always fearing the ultimate push and will have to know that at any given time they can be confronted with the very frustrating fact that once again they have to take that huge decision. Tighter players tend to avoid the “idiot all-in specialist” because he is the one taking away their pot odds. Players who like to steal dislike this style because they can’t make a standard pick up without being confronted with an opponent “who can never leave now”.

Of course, biggest downside, when someone is holding the stone cold nuts, you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, pants down, cheeks red and a bit ashamed about your hand.

In order to play like this you have to train your read. It has to be pretty good to very good in order not to run into the nuts over and over again.

Off course, holding a monster, people will call me a whole lot easier than they do Thomas. If this happens, don’t slowroll, don’t stay behind with your hand, show it, pick up the pot and let your opponent muck his middle pair, Ace high or underpair. Having to see your top hand is probably scary enough without having to admit he didn’t believe you.

Then again, I would like to mention a third player. I have to admit, some of my antics are not mine at all, but mere copies of characteristics I pick up from other players. One of those things is a sneaky play from Jessica De Roeck, I like to call the delayed all-in. In order to avoid scaring your opponent away on flop or turn, you bet pre-determined amounts of chips making the other guy awfully pot committed. There are of course a few risks entangled with this action.

First of all, never ever try this on a skilled player that could outsmart you. If someone knows a thing or two about pot and stack odds, they generally will leave on flop or turn in which case your tactic failed, or let you chase down to the river, and that usually means your stack on top of your pride. Jessica herself doesn’t play this strategy very often, lately. Mostly, I guess, because of the problem I stated above, but against weak players this is still a very strong strategy. The general idea is trying to make sure that you can make pot correct bets on flop and turn and still be all in when the river hits.

Keep in mind: never against a drawing board, never against an opponent showing a lot of strength, and believe me: never against multiple players.

This is a strategy to make sure your monsters are paid off, not to go gambling and not to drag more people in the pot.

Heads-up play, stone cold nuts in hand and preferably “baby blues” in your eye sockets to convince the other guy that you really have “nothing evil on your mind”.

In a tournament, when facing a small stack, you should always keep in mind that the all-in is about the last weapon the short stacks have left, and you will have to face more shoves from the little dudes than the big players. After all, when would you push with pocket 6’s if not on a small amount of chips? It’s only when your tournament life is on the line that you can risk trying to double up on these otherwise pretty dangerous hands.

When facing the small stack pushing, you should never call unless you’re willing to back it up with an all-in of your own. You don’t want 3-way races, simply because there are no 3-way races, and when you give the opportunity to someone else to push all his savings to the middle, you generally need to lay down.

Last but not least, when you don’t need a race, don’t start one. Nowadays you see a lot of middle or even big stacks battling it out with a pre-flop all-in. The only time that could happen is AA vs. KK, and even then, it’s a rather too straightforward play, to say the least.

When facing an all in from a tight medium stacked player, look down. If you don’t see AA, KK of QQ, throw it away. If you, for example, hold pocket 6’s, sure you could be racing with a slight advantage against AK or AQ, but you could just as well be up against TT, JJ or even worse. You could be way behind and are, let’s be honest, at best racing. You don’t need this double up or monstrous bust that much that you would need to risk half to even three quarters of your stack. Get away from it. Opposite to pushing all-in, calling them is work for big stacks with big hands vs. small stacks in urgent need of momentum.

Until next time, get a bit crazy and try to give these ramblings a place in your arsenal. If you can’t, come see me. I’ll show you at a the low cost of 1 bankroll.

The Mad Man