The Suicide All-In Bet
The Suicide All-In Bet
The Suicide All-In Bet
I was playing in a three-table sit and go the other day and found myself at one of the loosest tables I had been at in quite some time as the tournament began. In the first ten hands a player two seats to my right bet All-In on every hand. He won the blinds on each occasion, not making much of a gain in his chip stack. He didn't show his cards but it is hard to believe he had a hand in every instance. On the eleventh hand I woke up with kings. Right on cue this maniac went all-in and I called. Everyone else folded and I turned over my kings while he turned over a 6h3d. I couldn't believe my eyes. The flop was good to me bringing another king and blanks for the maniac. I doubled up on this hand and the maniac was crippled. He went all-out two hands later.
Being the Bully is a sure Path to Defeat
Nobody, absolutely nobody, likes a bully. Most are afraid to stand up to them for fear of being crushed. But at the poker table the bully is fair game. I sit back and wait for a monster hand, in this case KK qualified as a monster especially since I discounted any hand that my opponent might have. He was so accommodating, never thinking that anyone would stand up to him. Well, he was wrong. The thing about the all-in bet is that it works every time but once and that is enough to end your tournament life. The bet is designed to create fear and confusion in the minds of opponents, so much fear that they are rarely called. But when they are it will generally be by a hand they cannot beat. Too bad, so sad as my kids used to say.
Against loose opponents I like to sit back and wait for an opportunity to strike with a strong hand. It helps to hit the nuts on the flop but even a strong draw will often be a winner against a random hand. When the only bet one knows is to shove then there is no reason not to get involved with a strong hand. Marginal hands, on the other hand, are to be avoided against such a player. Let him win the small pots while you punish him by taking the big ones.
There are some who argue that the loose all-in bet is a way to accumulate chips at the beginning of a tournament. The loose raiser is looking for a loose call or two that he can beat and therefore win some really big pots and, as a bonus, eliminate one or two players in the process. It is important not to fall into his trap. If all the maniac can win are small pots then fast play against him is not a solution.
Beating the Maniac at his own Game
The only bet one can make against the maniac's all-in bet is to shove as well. If the maniac shoves pre-flop and you hold what Phil Hellmuth describes as a top ten hand then it is a good bet if you call all-in yourself. If you have more chips than the maniac then I raise all-in to isolate. On the other hand, if I can, I will wait until the flop to shove, if that option is open to me. The main reason I wait is to see if I can improve, not that improvement is an absolute necessity if I have a monster pair like AA, KK, QQ, JJ and even TT in any position and 99 through 77 in the cutoff or the button. If, however, I have an AK, AQ, AJ, QK or QJ then improvement may be required for me to want to go on. I will often throw these hands in the muck if raised by our maniac friend.
By calling the all-in bet from the maniac either pre-flop or on the flop with hands that have a positive equity of 60% or greater I will win the pot 6 to 9 times out of ten times. Against a random hand, which my opponent most likely has, my odds get even better. With a made pair I am likely to hold the best hand and with a monster drawing hand I am likely to have the nuts if I hit. The risk is worth the reward in order to slow down or eliminate the maniac, suicide all-in bettor.
The key is to only make your move with a premium hand. To do otherwise is unlikely to produce the results you want to achieve. The most important virtue you can possess in cases like this is patience, the self-discipline to wait for a huge hand and then strike back with aggression, with determination and courage. Let the chips fall where they may and they are likely to fall toward you if you bide your time.
Enjoy a real solid fuel fire safely How a Kettlebell can Really Help People get in Shape Things To Be Considered Before Leaflet Distribution Web Based FTP Vs Client Based FTP Ionithermie Cellulitis Decrease Method Total Traffic Annihilation corbett resorts Unearthing Unbelievable Ways To Know If A Guy Is Mad About You Mississauga Florist Introducing Total Traffic Annihilation Air Abrasion What is Green Demolition? Why Joomla!