All-in strategy

Going all-in in any poker game is one of the most delicate decisions you'll be faced with as a poker player. The "all-in" is generally something you want to avoid dealing with, but in today's dog-eat-dog world of internet poker, sometimes you'll have no choice but to stare it down.

As far as I'm concerned, I like to avoid having to go all-in whenever possible. The only time I recommend you go all-in is when you know you have a perfect hand. (an example of the perfect hand would be this: there's a four-card diamond flush on the board, you have the Ad in the pocket and one of your opponents has the Kd. That means he'll call whatever you throw at him, and in the same time, with that Ace in your pocket, you now you can't lose) That way, the all-in will generate value for you (a lot of it too) in a safe way.

The problem with the all-in is the following: normally, you'd have to call or even raise on 60-40 odds in your favor. If it requires an all-in though, it is simply not worth it. For an all-in to be worth considering, you'd have to act on something closer to 90-10 odds. The reason is simple: when you go all-in and you lose, you bust out. That might not seem like much at first sight, especially if it happens at some low limit game, and you end up losing 10 bucks, BUT. Whenever you bust out, (whether it's a tournament or cash game) you lose a lot more than the value of the money lost. You lose the very thing that kept you in contention, and made you a poker player: your bankroll.

If you won a million dollars and some millionaire told you he'd give you 2 millions on your 1 million, on a coin-flip, would you accept? I don't think so. With a million dollars, you'd have a myriad of possibilities to generate another million, without risking it all on a coin-flip. It would make sense to make the gamble though, if you had another 1 mil, your opponent didn't know about, because the odds would justify it.

When you lose all your money, you need to go back to washing dishes or whatever, and start all over again. You're no longer a gambler, a player. You're just a regular guy again.

The same goes for poker. Losing an all-in is the ultimate failure. It's not just a small punch you take in the nose. From this one, you don't walk away. This is a KO blow.

Of course, going all-in in order to make others fold is an option too, but it is a pretty dangerous game. There are however, situations, when you get good reads on the opposition and you know they are going to fold it when faced with an all-in. In that case, you might want to do it, if you know you won't be able to take the pot on your hand, come showdown.

If you're in a tournament, you may want to go all-in, in case you're a strong chip leader. That way, even if you lose, you won't lose all your money, only as much as your opponent managed to call with his all-in. When you're in this position, you can use your large chip-stack to bully people around, but then again, you don't really have to go all-in for that, Just take a look at the chips your opponent has and raise that exact number. That way, he'll be forced to either fold, or to move all-in, in which case the odds will be stacked against him. If you have someone on a really short bankroll, you can do this with him repeatedly, even if you lose a few times. When he makes too many do-or-die decisions, sooner or later, he's bound to lose and leave the tourney.

Avoid trying to scare people by going all-in on a short stack of chips. First of all, you won't scare them because you just possess the firepower for that, second, they'll call you because they too are well aware of the odds you're confronted with, when going all in.

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