Casino Talks

Posted by: macman at July 22, 2005, 10:27 am

Topic: Proper Tournament and SnG "All in" Situations Forum: Bonus Whores

I think in general, if your "tourney life" hinges on the all in, you would prefer to avoid a coin flip. In other words, if your opponent has your stack covered, why would you go all in with AK vs. his 77?

Obviously, this rule is not hard and fast. Let's say your on the bubble in an SnG (or an MTT for that matter) and the blinds have reached the point where they are greater than 10% of your stack. Clearly, in most cases, you will need to find a spot to make a play.

There are so many other considerations though it is impossible to cover in this type of forum. Read some books (Sklansky, Harrington are two that quickly come to mind). What are your pocket cards? What is your position at the table? How big is your stack? How big is the stack you are calling/raising against? If you are a small stack, is there a huge stack left to play that is likely to call if he has anything? What are the blinds vs your stack size? If you have AA, KK or QQ, will going all in decrease the number of callers (you don't want to play these big pockets against 3 or more callers)? There are these and many other variables you need to consider when making this decision. One thing for sure, as has already been stated, I'd much rather be the player making the all in than calling the all in (put the pressure of making a decision on the other guy).

Clearly though, if I have AA or KK, I don't mind calling an all in. But there are even cases when this may not be appropriate. For example, let's say you are in an SnG, 4 players left and the other 3 are all in. Let's say you are the short stack at the table. I may very well fold AA or KK in this situation as there is a reasonable chance, following the hand, I may find myself instantly in 2nd place by doing nothing where as I risk finishing 4th, out of the money, by calling.

As far as the discussion of you being a lesser skilled player and therefore should be more willing to take a coin flip, of course that is the case. However, if this is consistently the case, you're doomed to lose over the long haul anyway. You need to improve your game and more carefully pick the table(s) you play at. Assuming your skill set is greater than or equal to your opponents, you wish to avoid coin flips as much as possible.

Best thing to do, if you're serious about your game, is to read the books and forums like 2 + 2 where this is discussed in excrutiating detail.

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