When Should You Go All In?

There are times when a pocket pair is not as valuable as it may seem. As you become seasoned in playing poker you begin to understand that even pocket aces are only valuable at certain times.

Even with pocket rockets, going all in before the flop may not always prove to be the wisest move; as it all depends on variables like the total number of players at your table, the number of re buys you are allowed in the particular game you are playing, and your chip count.

Usually when there are more people at the table there are more chances of someone calling your all-in raise, more so when their chip count is significantly less than yours, which means high rewards for them if they double up, or even when they have a chip count significantly larger than yours, which spells a low risk for them in order to knock you out. Here someone has a chance to beat your power hand with a 7-9 off suit by hitting the straight.

If you go all-in before the flop with a strong hand it may also cost you more money apart from facing the danger of being beaten by a lesser hand. It remains a fact that your chances of getting a pair of kings or aces in the hole are 1 in 83 and the chances generally of getting a pair of face cards are 1 in 56.

In the event that you have “The Nuts” in your hand, i.e. the best cards under the situation in the game, the strategy changes from trying to determine what cards the other player is holding to playing for transferring as much of his chip pile to yours as you can. Knowing that you hold the best cards and the chances of getting beaten are nil, the significance of knowing what the other guy has in his hand withers.

The more adept you become at this skill the longer you want to keep holding on before the hole cards are exposed, which is done as soon as the rest of the all-in players are called. In case you lack the experience to gauge what the other player may have and also the ability to hide what you have, it would be best to move all-in as soon as possible and let your fate rest with the cards you have rather than putting your ability to test.  

In other cases the thumb rule always to be remembered when considering going all-in before the flop is that the lesser number of players at the table the more valuable your cards become and the more likely the situation becomes for making your move. 

If you prefer playing No Limit Hold’Em the best way is through sit-n-go poker tournaments where you can play the ‘all in’ game with very little risk as compared to cash tables which should best be left only to seasoned poker veterans. At a cash table you are usually required to start with a minimum of $5 - $25 whereas you can buy in to the sit-n-gos’ for as low an amount as $1 - $5. Each player at one table is given the same amount of chips to begin with.

This will let you go all-in at any point in the game risking all your chips, which will amount to a maximum of $5. Therefore, you can see that you risk very little cash as compared to the cash games.

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