The poker term ‘all-in’, meaning to bet all the chips you have on the table, has become universally popular among no-limit hold’em players in the last few years thanks to shows like the World Poker Tour. It has acquired a certain level of machismo because of its aggressive nature, and the risk and excitement that ensues when two players are all-in. But what are the merits and drawbacks of moving all-in and how should you approach the move with different sized chipstacks?
Clearly moving all-in for 100 big blinds to win only the 1.5 big blinds posted in a cash game is a terrible idea, but with five to ten big blinds you might move all-in with any two cards in a Sit & Go. The power of moving all-in, most obviously, is that you have committed yourself to a hand and forced your opponent to call or fold. Even if you go all-in with a terrible hand, you will still have some chance to get lucky and win against a much stronger hand.
In a Sit & Go or tournament format with antes, fold equity (the likelihood of an opponent folding and you gaining their chips) is a huge factor, as stealing the pot preflop can add massively to your stack. Opponents in this type of structure will be especially apprehensive to call when closer to the bubble – allowing you to use this tactic even more.
Keeping your eyes open
In some cash games and tournaments where stacks are deeper, moving all-in becomes increasingly perilous. Here it’s better to make a standard raise to 2.5-3 big blinds, which gives you a more proportionate shot at picking up the blinds. Even so opportunities for moving all-in preflop will still present themselves when the stacks are deep. Once there have been one or more raises that put sufficient chips in the middle, risking your entire stack may be a valid move – and a supremely powerful one at that.
Stack depth
Let's take a look at the exact mechanics of moving all-in with different stack sizes.
With less than 15BB, moving all-in or folding is usually a good option. With this stack size you are not only getting good odds based on a combination of fold equity and all-in equity if you are called, but with this stack size raising a normal amount and folding is usually too costly. If you raise preflop and are just called it is very hard to manoeuvre post-flop and it gives other players the opportunity to pick you off on the flop or take you off a hand that is actually ahead.
Reraising all-in is the next level up from the all-in move itself. Typically players will open to 2.5-3 times the big blind when they have a playable stack, making the pot anywhere from 4-6BB depending on antes. This is quite a substantial amount of chips to win, especially as the blinds-to-stack ratio gets shallower. So when the effective stacks are 15-30BB and you have some sort of hand and suspect your opponent opens reasonably wide it is very profitable to reraise all-in, since fold equity will again compensate for the times you are called by a better hand.
Of course, if an opponent has open-raised their hand range is probably quite strong, but notice that here you are only risking a few times the pot in chips, whereas by moving all-in as first to act you are sometimes risking as much as ten times the pot. This means that when your opponent is probably opening with a broad range, such as in late position in a tournament, you can usually reraise all-in with a wide range of hands including pairs, decent Aces, and semi-bluffing hands like smaller suited Aces, face cards or suited connectors.
Stepping up the aggression
The next level of complexity occurs with deeper stacks of 30-60 big blinds, where an opponent can reraise you without having to commit himself to going all-in. This opens the door for you to re-shove all-in if you have a strong hand or suspect he is bluffing. For example, if you open to 2.5 big blinds with a 50 big blind stack your opponent is risking too much by simply going all-in, and will generally make it around three times your raise, putting the pressure back on you. At this point, it very much comes down to your read of the opponent as to how much fold equity you have. Again there is plenty of money in the pot, and at high stakes where people reraise very light you can sometimes re-shove light for the same reason.
Going deep
So far we have looked mainly at all-in situations in standard tournaments and Sit & Go’s. However, in deeper-stacked situations such as at the beginning of a higher buy-in tournament, or in a cash game where players typically have 100 big blinds or more, play gets more complicated. One of the most interesting developments within the last few years has been the four-bet bluff. For example, if a 3BB raise is three-bet to 10BB, a player with 100BB now has room to four-bet to 22-25BB without committing himself. This tactic worked a treat when it first come onto the scene with four-bettors more often than not stealing the pot, however players have now wised up and started to five-bet all-in, leaving the original four bettor in a very tight spot.
Hold’ em games used to be fairly tight-passive affairs with the cards generally dictating who would win games, this was until aggressive young players started raising lots of hands, which led to the counter-strategy of three-betting light, which in turn led to players four-betting light (which has become standard practice in the last one or two years) with a wider range of hands like 8-8 or A-Q. Now as the game evolves further and players become wise to the four-bet, the light five-bet shove has become another popular counter strategy.
Deeper stacks, greater confusion
As is plain to see, the deeper the stacks get the more levels of complexity are introduced to all-in poker. Of course, if you are playing against a rock and they move all-in, the chances that your 9-9 is good are very slim. Against more sophisticated players it becomes more of a mind game. The preflop terrain shifts radically once players understand the basic rules of either making raises that do not commit them to a pot and put their opponent to a decision, or moving all-in to clearly commit and maximise fold equity.
If you’re still fairly new to poker I’d recommend starting with the shortest stack formats like Sit & Go’s where decisions are simple and then move on from there through tournaments to cash games as your ability increases. Doing this should develop your game and give you the knowledge and experience you need to make that all-in decision; master that and chances are you’ll be on your way to becoming a very successful no-limit hold’ em player.