Ship it! (Part 1): What is a value shove?

In poker we define the size of bets in two main ways: by the number of big blinds (preflop) and as a percentage of the pot (postflop). In tournaments a ‘normal’ bet after the flop can be anything from a quarter of the pot to a pot-sized bet, while anything over the pot is deemed to be an overbet. Preflop, a normal raise is anywhere from 2.5x the big blind to 3.5x the big blind. And a three-bet of an opening raise is generally around three times the opening bet; for example at 50/100 with a raise to 300, a ‘standard’ three-bet would be somewhere between 750 and 1,050.

One move that has become more common in tournaments in 2009 is the over-shove – a large bet in relation to the pot and usually an all-in bet. This bet is primarily for value and therefore has been called the ‘value shove’.

When to value shove

Value shoves can be used on any street in no-limit hold’em and are effective for different reasons at different stages of a tournament. In the early stages of a tourney, when stacks are deep and there are still many bad players with chips, you can use it to help someone stack off light. If you hold A-A or K-K a big over-shove preflop after a raise can look a lot like A-K or A-Q, and you may well get called by pairs like 8-8 and better and A-Q+, putting you in a very favourable spot. This is a great move if there’s a raise and a call in front of you because it looks so much like a squeeze play. You can also do this with big hands if someone opens for an unusually large raise – say 4x or 5x instead of their usual 3x – because this type of raise is almost always A-K, A-Q or 8-8 to J-J, and if you hold A-A, K-K or even Q-Q you have that range absolutely crushed.

Another reason to use the value shove, particularly on the flop, is if there’s a high number of turn cards that could kill your action and make either your opponent (or you) slow down. For instance, imagine you hold 5s-5c on a 9h-5h-3s board and you suspect your opponent may hold a hand like Tens or Jacks (no heart). If a heart, Queen, King or Ace comes on the turn (roughly a 40% chance) he’s going to be very reluctant to get a lot of chips in the pot, whereas on this flop he may well suspect you’re shoving with some sort of draw.

Read part II