Free Online Poker Guide to the Art of Moving All in
Whether you play free online poker or for big stakes going All-In is just about the most heavy duty poker move of all. Generally you should only consider moving all in if you have a hand that stands a good chance against powerful hands such as A-K and A-Q which are the most common hands played all-in.
It is because these are the hands also most willing to call. Which hands, then, are we willing to put our tournament life on? Pocket pairs spring to mind. So does A-K (or A-Q or even K-Q suited or K-J suited if you are running out of chips) malaysia slot game.
But someone does it differently. I would like to add that here; player B is an impatient, rowdy player who is familiar to us TV poker fans.
BLINDS 12k / 24k
Ad-Kd raises 75k
A’s raise is just standard for A-K suited, although it is slightly stronger (the average preflop raise is about 2.5x the big blind, but this raise is a little more than thrice). But look at B’s move, which might be less standard:
B has 10c-5c moves all-in 544k
How about that: a 10-5? With about 22 big blinds left, which is relatively a short-stack (but not so short), B moves all-in. But with a 10-5? B can wait for slightly better hands than this.
Now let us try to justify the 10-5 in this situation. If B did it with a small pair, he is a slight favorite (about 55-45). If with A-x (with x smaller than a King), he is a significant underdog (about 75-25).
By comparison with any 2 except Ace or King he is only about 66-34, much less of a disadvantage. So the win-rate of 10-5 against AK (here B deciding that A’s hand was AK or similar was quite a gamble; if he’s up against AA he is a big underdog, about 85-15) is just the average of the win rate of a pocket pair against AK and the win rate of Ax against AK, and therefore not so bad.
Moreover, with 10c-5c B has two live cards, in contrast to A-x, where x is the only live card. Moreover, B may dislike having 22 big blinds dwindle to, say, 15 or 14 later, so he decides to put his heart and soul into this hand. Who is this player, anyway? “I’ve got a 10-5, girls and boys.” Yes it’s true, the garrulous Mike Matusow! “The Mouth!”
A calls 469k (Pot 1,124m)
Now let us see how “The Mouth” will fare against all odds.
FLOP: Js-7c-5s
“That’s a Flop!” A Five fell, pairing Matusow!
TURN: Js-7c-5s-8d
RIVER: Js-7c-5s-8d-6d
Moving all-in can prove to be the most dangerous moments in poker. Even in free online poker it can also be the most thrilling, anyway. The all-in recharged Matusow’s stack to 45 big blinds.
This isn’t the sort of eccentric play that can be exploited forever though. When Matusow figured player A had an AK or the like he is basically gambling. While most will run a strategy where they will call with pocket pairs I doubt in this case that A will call with anything less than 10-10. Against AA or KK or a higher pair, 10-5 will win only about 15% of the time, and with 10-10 to 5-5, about 25%, and with 4-4 to 2-2, nearly a coin flip .
Most poker players, especially free online poker players use the all-in way too much, in fact some of them use it more often than not due to the low or no risk of loss in the free poker games. This is crazy though and we advise that you never do this or try to emulate pros like Matusow who know when a calculated gamble might (might!) Work out.
Learn to play with a free online poker guide first and then you can pick and choose the right time to move all in based on sure and certain knowledge and skill rather than gambling. Oh, and you will absolutely wipe the floor with the “all in all the time” gang to and part them from their chips.