Checkink down an all-in player.

[TomCollins]

I just saw an indcident of someone getting extremely angry over betting a pot with an all in player. There was a fairly sizeable pot with one player all in. The first player made top pair with a gutshot, and bet out at it, the other player folds. The top pair was good, but the player who busted (who had an Autographed Fossilman hat saying something about being friends) berates the player for his terrible decision to bet at the flop. I'm sorry, but if he kept an ace from winning the pot instead of him, more power to him.

On the other hand, I was involved in a similar pot with three players remaining. I was in the big blind, and UTG pushes all in for barely more than what my BB was. The SB calls and is about even with me. I call the small bet. We both check it down, and I win the pot with king high. There was no point in bluffing him out of the pot with my king high, since there was no side pot, so I had nothing to fight over. I pretty much had to have the best hand to win anything. In this case, the other player was smart in not betting at me, because his 8 high was not even close to beating the all in player, and he could not have won a side pot. It also helped him make an additional $5000.

So what people are not understanding is that the idea of a hand in poker is to win chips. If you have a play that helps you win chips, you usually should make it. Of course if the number of chips is insignficant, thats a special case. But if you have no chance to win chips, your secondary concern, knocking a player out and moving up in the money, takes priority. I think Fossilman needs to give his buddy a lesson. He must have taught him something since he made it to 5th place.