All In Bet

Bet Type	Objective	Bet Range
All In	Put maximum pressure on your opponent to make a mistake	All Your Chips

Among good players, risking all of your chips on a single poker hand is rare until they get short stacked.

The reason is simple. When you gamble all your chips you are risking your tournament life and leaving no room for other options. Honestly good players don't like doing this.

The Maniac over uses this strategy since it is seen as a game of action, big bluffs and big moves.

Betting all your chips can be very valuable if used, as it should be. Before you do though, several things need to be in play before using this strategic move:

If you are short stacked this can be good move.
If you have been re-raised and you have the absolute best hand.
Not usually looking for more action, just want to win the pot.
You have the best hand at the flop and one of your opponents is on a draw of some kind, the move can be a deterrent to a probable call.

Look at a real life tournament situation. You will face it as you continue to play Texas Holdem.

It's late in a Sit N Go tournament...

The blinds are 150/300 and you have a stack of 2500 chips.
There are three players left and you are the big blind.
The button, who is a Rock, has put you in the position to risk your remaining 2500 chips.

Looking down at your hand you see 6 6.

Since the all in bet comes up many times; we need to try to break this down into pieces and look at each part in detail.

If you need a refresher course in pot odds, visit the poker odds page first.

Because the big blind (you) and small blind have contributed to the pot, this is dead money and helps your pot odds (if not by much) should you decide to call.

In order to call the the all in bet your hand must be better than a 43.5% favorite to win the pot, as it needs to win at that amount each time to break even.

So, we should look closer into calculating pre flop all-in odds before we make the call.

What kind of hand would the Rock be holding to force you to make the call pre-flop?

Player Types Starting Hands
Pro	Rock		Maniac		Fish
AA	AA	AK	AA	AK	AA	KQ
KK	KK	AQ	KK	AK	KK	KJ
QQ	QQ	AJ	QQ	AJ	AA	KT
JJ	JJ	AT	JJ	AT	JJ	K9
TT	TT	A9	TT	A9	TT	K8
AK	99	A8	99	A8	99	K7
AQ	88	A7	88	A7	88	K6
AJ	77	A6	77	A6	77	K5
AT	66	A5	66	A5	66	K4
	55	A4	55	A4	55	K3
	44	A3	44	A3	44	K2
	33	A2	33	A2	33	QJ
	22	KQ	22	KQ	22	QT
				KJ		Q9
				KT		Q8
				K9		Q7
				K8		Q6
				K7		Q5
				K6		Q4
				K5		Q3
				K4		Q2
				K3		JT
				K2		J9
						J8
						J7
						J6
						J5
						J4
						J3
						J2
						T9

Now we have an idea of the possible hands your opponent may be holding,

Let us categorize your opponent.

In the scenario, your opponent is a Rock, which means he is tight, but not too aggressive.
In this case, compare your hand of pocket Sixes vs. each possible hand the "Rock" can be holding.

Percentages of Sixes Vs Other Hands
66 vs AA: 20%	66 vs AK: 55%
66 vs KK: 20%	66 VS AQ: 55%
66 vs QQ: 20%	66 vs AJ: 54%
66 vs JJ: 20%	66 vs AT: 55%
66 vs TT: 20%	66 vs A9: 56%
66 vs 99: 20%	66 vs A8: 56%
66 vs 88: 19%	66 vs A7: 57%
66 vs 77: 18%	66 vs A6: 68%
66 vs 66: 50%	66 vs A5: 69%
66 vs 55: 80%	66 vs A4: 69%
66 vs 44: 80%	66 vs A3: 69%
66 vs 33: 80%	66 vs A2: 70%
66 vs 22: 80%	66 vs KQ: 54%
66 vs 88: 19%
Summary of percentages:
vs higher pockets: 20% (4:1 underdog)	vs lower pockets: 80% (4:1 advantage)
vs higher overcards: 55% (1:0.8 advantage)	vs one overcard: 70% (1:0.4 advantage)

Since your opponent the Rock is a tight-passive player, you can assume he is playing one of the hands from the Rock player category.

While you cannot accurately predict which hand the Rock is holding when putting you all in, you can figure on average, 66 will be a 48% favorite to win vs. any random hand from the Rock group.

Since the pot odds only require you to win 44% of the time, the all in bet would be the correct call.

The above illustration is simply a guideline designed to help you through the tough decision making of making an all in bet.

Texas Holdem Betting Strategies
Feeler Bet	Continuation Bet	Stealing the Blinds
Check Raise	~~All In Bet~~	Bluffing at Texas Hold'em Poker

Exit All In Bet Home Page.