Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (68 page)

This may sound a bit crazy, but with a 10BB stack I would prefer to just push with all those hands. Even though the 9
-8
doesn’t do too well against your opponent’s range, you usually have a decent amount of equity. Also, pushing these weaker hands helps balance your range when you do shove with strong hands, and if the player is loose, any of these hands could actually be ahead.

Some players stop-and-go with strong hands, like 8-8 or A-J. This is a clear mistake because you are way ahead of your opponent’s range and would be happy just getting all-in before the flop.

The one time I would consider a stop-and-go is when you are against an overly tight player who thinks everyone plays straightforwardly. These players will fold to a push on the flop unless they connect, which will be around 33 percent of the time. Even then, the stop-and-go is a questionable play.

It is important to recognize a stop-and-go when it happens, even if the bet sizes are rather odd. In a WPT event I raised 8-8 from middle position to 2.5BBs out of my 30BB stack and the small blind, with a 25BB stack, called. The flop came 10-7-4. My opponent went all-in for 23BBs into the 7BB pot. Against most players I would call here simply because I think they’ll show up with a wide range. I called off fairly quickly in this situation and beat his 6-6. The whole table told me what a great call that was, but in my mind, it was super standard because his range had to be filled with weak hands. If you ever want to destroy me in that spot, call my raise with A-A and make the huge over-push. I will look you up every time.

If someone, especially a young or aggressive player, tries the stop-and-go on you, just call. If he pushes, he will usually show up with air and if he checks, tend to check behind and try to get to a showdown. Get in your opponent’s head and figure out what he is thinking.

  Chapter 15

When You Have Less Than 5BBs

With less than 5 big blinds, all your options are gone. It is important to reiterate that you should rarely find yourself blinding down this low. Once you get down to this desperate state, you need to look for prime steal spots or to get all-in with decent equity.

When you have 1BB, you are looking to get all-in wherever you expect to have a little equity. Ideally, you want to get heads-up in a pot where you are getting 4-to-1 or better. Suppose you have 9
-4
on the button with 1BB. If everyone folds to you at 200/400-50, there are 1,100 chips in the pot, so you need to win the hand 26 percent of the time. Hopefully you have done your homework and know that any hand will beat any other hand at least 20 percent of the time, so it will rarely be a mistake to get all-in here. Of course, the small blind will call sometimes. But sometimes he will raise, isolating you and giving you great odds against one hand.

In early position with 1BB, you have even more reasons to get all-in with bad hands. Now, if you go all in, you could start a chain of limps, giving you huge odds. Someone will usually bet the flop, getting you heads-up with 8-to-1 odds. You will probably be against the best of your opponents’ hands, but still, you will have some equity and great odds. Also, if you go all-in for your 1BB, someone behind you could raise, giving you great odds as well. If someone raises in front of you, call with basically any hand besides the absolute worst, namely 9-2 to 3-2 and 7-3 to 4-3. You should rarely fold when getting great odds.

If you have a larger stack, like 3BBs, you still have a little fold equity, and the antes will not erode your stack as quickly as when you have 1BB, so you can fold your absolute worst hands. If you go all-in and only one person calls, or if someone raises and you go all-in, you will be getting 2-to-1, meaning your hand needs only 33-percent equity, which most hands will have. So, any time you can get in with more than 33-percent equity, you should.

Say you have J-7 on the button with 3BBs and the cutoff raises. Call almost always, unless the raiser is very tight. Fold if someone with a tight range raises from early position. While you probably have around 33-percent equity, you can find better spots. If you are in middle position with something like 6-5, everyone folds to you and you have 3BBs, go all-in every time. You will probably be called, but even then, you will usually have 40-percent equity. As you can see, even with 3BBs, you need to be getting all-in very often.

You can be a little more patient with a 4-or 5BB stack, as you have a tiny bit of fold equity, especially in late position. If you have 5BBs on the button, go all-in with any two cards if everyone folds to you, because you have decent fold equity. If you go all-in with all hands with a 2,000-chip stack playing 200/400-25, you think the small and big blinds will call 20 percent and 40 percent of the time, respectively, they will never both call, and you have 40-percent equity when called, you can expect a profit of

0.55(1,100) + 0.45[0.4(4,500) -2,000] = 405 chips.

So, even by pushing a tiny stack with any two cards, you will make 400 chips on average every time you go all-in on the button, assuming those calling ranges. If you have no fold equity though, you should only push hands with more equity. Clearly, if you have a good hand like J
-10
that will have something like 50-percent equity, you have a no-brainer push.

If someone raises in front of you and you have a 5BB stack, you should usually go all-in with anything that you think has around 40-percent equity. So, if a loose player raises from the cutoff, you have something like J
-10
and you know that player will raise 2-2+, A-2+, K-6+, Q-9+, J-8+, 10-7+, 9-6+, 8-6+, 7-5+, 6-5, 5-4 and a few random junk hands, go all-in for sure because you always have around 50-percent equity. A-2, 2-2 and K-9 all have around 50-percent equity as well. So, you can actually get in with slightly worse hands than these, even if someone has raised in front of you and you know you will be called.