All In Poker
Playing No Limit Texas Hold’em poker means that you can bet as much as you want. If you are willing to go as far, you can place all of your chips and bet poker all in.
If you have been watching or monitoring poker games for a period, you know how much impact a poker all in.
On the one side, you can win a lot. But, on the other side, you can also lose everything.
Most players consider “all in” as their most confident play.
Aside from this, you can also use the strategy as a semi-bluff. If you can muster up the courage, then it can be a cold hard bluff that can earn you a lot.
Once you decide to go all in, your opponents only have two options: to fight your cards or fold.
The risk is going for all in against a player with better cards. If you are up against a person with more chips and better cards, then you risk losing everything.
You will be out of the tournament or out of the pocket.
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1. When to go Poker all in
There are several situations when going all in seems like a good idea for poker all in.
Free Pub Poker League All-In Entertainment
You are sure or confident enough that all other players cannot get a better hand than yours. The best way to figure this out is to monitor the cards dealt. Take note of how others players react to their hands as well.
You are confident that you are playing against someone with one card short of creating a draw or a winning hand. When you go poker all in, you prevent your opponent from winning or obtaining the card necessary.
You have a lot of chips left. Going all in will let you stay in the game. Check your odds as well. You do not have to go all in all the time. Some players think that going all in will be doing their chips a favor. Moving your chips forward can benefit you.
2. When not to go all-in
Knowing how to go all-in also requires knowing when not to.
You have to learn how to analyze the situation and decide when gambling everything should do you good.
You should not go all in if you started with a great hand but pot is low and all players have folded.
Going all in will only scare the rest of the players. You will lose or earn nothing eventually.
3. Using all-in for a good bluff
The all-in strategy can be your best bluff.
However, you should do it at the right time and if you have the right chips. For instance, following the flop, another player places a bet. If you are sure that they are not buffing, then you can also force them to step down with all-in.
Check their chips if they do not have as much stack anymore.
4. Going all-in because you can afford it
Poker is all about using information.
You also have to watch your opponents to get the right timing. You are not the only one analyzing. Your opponents will also examine you.
Going all in can throw them off. If you slid your chips forward, your opponents could back off from challenging you.
5. Decide if you want to play for fun or win
This draws the difference on how should go about poker all in.
You have to play and try the strategy a couple of times. Decide what type of player you want to be.
6. Draw lessons from your experience
Lessons learned.
The best players in poker also lose sometimes.
The only difference is that they learn from it.
Try to see what went wrong and what worked from your previous plays. This should give you a better instinct on when you can bet everything.
7. Use math
You compute your chances of winning against all other data.
You will not have all the information possible, so you have to calculate your chances.
It may not sound good at first, but you will learn the hang of it. Going all in requires calculating big bets: big wins and big loses.
Make sure you know you can arrive at an equation that gives you the earnings. Again, practicing will do the trick.
8. Do not base everything on starting hands
Your starting hand is only the tip of the iceberg.
Make sure you also understand how you can create or encourage a good starting hand.
Learn how your chances change as you move on in the game.
However, while building a solid starting hand is good, also concentrate on working your play for the following hands.
Strike a balance.
9. Work on your ending hand
You also have to develop the skills of deciding how to create a good ending hand.
Understand how you should combine position, bluffing and patterns.
It does not come easy, but when you try to get as many matches as possible, it should become clearer.
10. Avoid the tilt
This is another important skill you have to learn.
Make sure you stay away from the tilt.
Your opponents will take advantage of your emotions if they can.
Do not let them.
Do not let your emotions get the best of you. Making them run your play will lead to a poor decision and losing a lot of pot money.
Summing it up
Exposure and constant practice are crucial to becoming a good poker player.
Before you try testing going all in, you should also master as many plays as possible.
Learn your hands and how to use the opponent’s information to your advantage.
When you understand how to use opponent information and your odds, you also increase your chances of winning.
In our lesson on the three main betting variations of poker, we used an example where a player in a no-limit game could bet far more than anyone else at the table, provided the player had such an amount. Poker is always played at table stakes, and this means you can only wager the amount of money you have in front of you when the hand begins. It is quite common for a player to run out of money during a hand. If you have more money than another player, it doesn’t mean you can bet them out of the pot because they can’t afford to call your bet. Otherwise the poker player with the most money would always win if he bet all his chips, and it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable game.
All-in Bets
When a player puts all his chips into the pot he is said to be “all-in”. The important thing to know is that a player can never be bet out of a pot because he always has the option to call for all of his chips. For example, a player with $50 goes all-in, and everyone folds apart from a player who only has $30 left:
Figure 1
This player cannot match the $50 bet, but he can also go all-in for his last $30. When nobody else is involved, the first player would get back the unmatched $20 bet (i.e. his bet is $30 rather than $50). This is shown in figure 2, below:
Figure 2
In this example the shorter-stack wins the pot, but the surplus $20 is returned to player 5.
The whole point of this is that players can take back any extra money when another player is all-in for less, when nobody else has called. The same applies to an extreme no limit example, where a player might bet $10,000 in a $1/$2 game. Here’s an example where it’s folded around to the big blind, who has $10 remaining in his stack.
Figure 3
He has $12 in total and clearly can’t match the $10,000 – but he can go all-in. If he does then the player with $10,000, would take back $9,988. No more betting would take place, as there isn’t anything left to wager. After the flop, turn and river, the player with the best hand would win the $25 pot ($12 from each plus the small blinds $1).
Side Pots
It can be a little more complicated when there’s more than two players involved in a hand. This is when a side pot is created for the other players, and any further bets cannot be won by the all-in player. The all-in player is eligible for the main pot only.
Take a look at figure 4, below, which shows three players remaining in a hand. Two players have $50 each, and another has just $10 remaining. In this example the pot already contains $40 from the previous betting rounds. Player 5 makes a bet of $20:
All In Poker Chips
Figure 4
Player 6 only has $10 but he can call for his last $10 (and would therefore be “all in”) or fold. If player 6 decides to go all-in for his last $10, then the last active player (player 7), who has $50, can call, but must call for $20, which is the original bet, or he can raise. If he calls then a side pot is created, as is shown in figure 5:
Figure 5
The main pot now contains $70, which is made up of the existing $40 in the pot, plus $10 x 3. Player 6 is “all in” and can only win this main pot. A side pot containing the extra $20 is created, and can only be won by the players who contributed to this side pot (players 5 and 7). The next card will be dealt and further betting will take place. Any further bets are added to this side pot, and not the main pot. Players 5 and 7, who contributed to the side pot, can win the side pot and the main pot, if their hand beats the “all in” player. If player 6 has the winning hand after the final betting round, then he will win the $70 pot, but the side pot will be won by either player 5 or player 7.
Conclusion
There has been quite a bit of information in this lesson, which to the uninitiated could be confusing. As soon as you start playing poker you’ll quickly become familiar with these betting basics because they occur very frequently. Sometimes there can be lots of different side pots during a hand involving lots of different players – whether it’s limit, pot limit, or no limit poker. This is because not everyone has the same amount of chips – and players who have fewer chips than an opponent cannot win more from a player than they contributed themselves. The important thing to remember is that a player can never be bet out of hand because he doesn’t have enough to call.
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By Tim Ryerson
Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.