There are times in cash games, multi-table tournaments and Sit & Go’s where isolating a player who has pushed all-in is the obvious move. For instance, a short stack shoves all-in for 12 big blinds from the cutoff and the button thinks for a short time before calling for around 20% of his stack. You’ve got Jacks in the small blind and around 40 big blinds. This should be quite an easy decision to move all-in and isolate the action to just one other player. If we give the short stack a relatively tight shoving range of the top 10% of hands (7-7+, A-9s+, K-Ts+, Q-Ts+, A-Jo+, K-Qo) you have a 58% winning equity in the hand, which is great even if you were just getting a straight one-to-one price on the pot. Considering that you’re effectively putting in 12 big blinds to win 25 big blinds (the all-in, the call and the big blind) you’re getting over 2-to-1 AND you’re favourite to win against their range!
Slow-playing snakes
There is of course the chance you might run into a genuine monster or that a tricky opponent may slow-play Aces or Kings hoping that someone comes along for the ride. It does happen but if you fear every call for someone trapping you’ll not get far in no-limit hold’em! When there are antes in play or someone you suspect will shove even lighter than premium/near premium hands (such as any suited Ace, any suited King as well as a multitude of connected cards) you should also open your isolating range further. Yes, you will be gambling more but getting your money in with great pot odds is the name of the game when isolating players that have already shoved all-in. And if you pick up another caller? Well there’s even more to win then.
If someone has already called be sure to check whether you think you have fold equity or not, unless you want actually want action from them. Remember that if you shove over a player who has already called there’ll be quite a lot in the pot and they may be getting great odds on their call.
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