An "all-in" strategy ?

[jat850]

I play live 2/4 and I see a lot of people going "all-in" and then reaching in their wallets for more cash to keep playing. I am still pretty new, but I admit I do not see any advantage to this style of play. If you catch a good hand and go all in, the main pot is small and pays the rake. Am I missing something? Or is this style of "all-in" play a sign of fresh fish being self served at my poker table and I should keep a skillet warm? Enlighten me please.

[hellite]

Many players do this in live games. I think that their reasoning is "protection". That is, they can make it to a showdown without having to pay the later street bets. It is a self defeatist attitude though. A winning player would obviously be thinking they want the money on the table because they want to be paid off on the later streets.

[hellite]

i'll tell you before some of the "owners" of this forum do -you might want to post this in the b&m forum

[jat850]

Thank you. I wasn't sure where to post this one, but since I felt the answer would be specific to small stakes live games, I felt I could get an answer here too. I would hope this "strategy" is not seen in the bigger games. I do not play 10/20 (yet, maybe someday after earning my way up), but I would hate to think this all-in play would be prevalent at all levels or online. Is it?

[The Goober]

When you think about it, this strategy (getting all in as often as possible) is the ideal way to win as many pots as possible - you'll never fold a hand that would have won on the river. Of course, its a lousy way to try and win *money*, but lots of players are more interested in pots than money.

I love it when a player at my table keeps buying in for the minimum and then going all-in. They generally are just padding the pot with dead money, but even if they get lucky and catch a hand, you can't lose very much!

[crunchy1]

There are many, many reasons why people sit at a table short stacked, get all-in, lose and then rebuy. What should be important for you is what range of hands they are willing to go all-in with when they're getting short. This is information that you can use to exploit their improper play.

Best advice - don't ever let yourself get in this situation. Make sure you always have enough chips to win the maximum when you have or flop a premium hand!

[callmedonnie]

This is bad strategy. Not only bad players do this though. Players on tilt who aren't willing to rebuy will. Either way, it is terrible play in my opinion. Either leave the table when your stack dwindles or pony up and grab your wallet.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
i'll tell you before some of the "owners" of this forum do -you might want to post this in the b&m forum

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, while the OP obviously intended for answers to be B&M-specific, I see this behavior fairly often on internet tables, too (particularly 6max). So I think it applies to this forum as well as the B&M one (come to think of it, it would probably fit on the psychology forum, too).

Anyway, it's a terrible strategy for the simple reason that they are cheating themselves out of bets when they really do have a big hand (and making it more likely that someone will draw out on them, because it's a lot easier to call a flop bet with a weak draw like a gutshot if you know your opponent can only charge you 1 more BB, or less, to see the river). This is why you always want to have at least 12 BBs in front of you when you're sitting at the table--once in a blue moon you will flop quads vs. someone else's nut boat, and if you run out of chips you're just cheating yourself out of money.

I think that many inexperienced players make this mistake because, A) they don't understand just how big a mistkae it is, and B) the psychological impact of actually buying in for $200 or so at once is much greater than buying in for $40 at a time, five times. In a live game, I'd put a big ol' "fish" stamp on any player who does this. In an online game, I tend to think that players who buy in ridiculously short-stacked are just out to bluff their way to a few pots and then move on.

[jat850]

a favorable table selection factor live or online. This confirms my thinking. Thanks all.

[slavic]

There are ways to make this strategy quite profitable, though no B&M casino would let you do it. Mason gives an extreme axample in a full rin 7 stud game, if you could go all in for just the ante each round versus players with full stacks, you would beat the game.

Forgive me though because I don't remember exactly the Poker essays book it was in.