Poker: Playing Strong Hands & Going All-In

Click here to learn how to play poker. understanding winning hand combinations in poker Understanding variations of poker Understanding the importance of play position in poker. Understanding your opponents. Understanding advanced strategies for poker. Understand going All-In. Mastering your game. Understand the approriate kind of poker play for you. Understanding real world poker. Understand chipleading. Dealing with a small stack. Understand the relationship between poker and psychology. Understanding tournaments.

How to play strong hands better:

As we saw in the last section, which looked at the pre-flop game, being dealt good (private) cards before the flop is an asset. This asset can, however, quickly become a liability once the communal cards are dealt. This section explores different possibilities of play according to which cards are dealt at the different stages of the game, i.e. flop/turn/river.

The slowplay strategy in poker means to play slowly when you have a very strong hand in the hope of extracting the maximum number of chips from other players. Two diametrically opposed attitudes exist regarding the philosophy of poker; firstly, that it is most important to start the game aggressively and to be the first player to attack; and secondly, that it is most important to always make sure you maximise your hands. The right attitude is surely a combination of both strategies, and you should play your game in a way that takes into account your opponents playing techniques too. You should only use the slowplay strategy for good reason, this is usually when you are in the unique position of having a strong hand and you know that your opponents are unlikely to follow you if you raise. Because, if one of your opponents has the games "top pair", they will pay your raise, so long as it is reasonable, in all circumstances.

One of the most effective slowplay's is when a low pair becomes three-of-a-kind at the flop. This type of slow game play can bring you great rewards if you can manage to perfect it. Never forget that with poker, it is essential that you try to imagine which cards may be held by your opponents. To imagine that another player has a small pair transformed at the flop in to three-of-a-kind is one of the most difficult feats in a game of poker.

When and How to Go All-In?

An all-in is used when a player does not have enough chips left in the game to call and he wants to call. He bets what is left of his stake and says he is "all-in". he can now continue the rest of the round as if he has called the original bet, he is not allowed to win any more money from any other player above the amount that he managed to wager. If there is only one player left their bet retracted to the same amount, if multiple players are left and the person who goes all-in wins, the difference between what he wagered and what was won goes into a side pot.

To go all-in is not a very uplifting feeling, especially in a tournament situation. When you have lost all your chips you will be out of the game. Going all-in must be done with a complete understanding of the risks and facts of the game and is useful only in accordance with the different situations you may find yourself in. Here we will talk about when taking the risk is reasonable, useful and occasionally dissuasive.

Dissuasion:
In the Texas Hold'EM no limit version of poker you can go all-in at any instant. This added adrenaline rush has created a more visual, more psychologically demanding and therefore more exciting game than can be found in other versions of poker. In no limit you can be forced out of the game at any time, a hand that was good a moment ago can suddenly become unworkable. In a sense it is a game of double or quits, where you place your luck in the cards that have yet to be dealt or in the probability that your opponents have a weaker hand. The all-in method is very often used in tournaments by players wishing to dissuade there opponents from following them into an action. It is necessary to be wary of players who are having an easy game, effectively those players who do not play according to the logical schemas regarding raises; if the pot is 100, and each player has 1500 chips, and that one player raises, either they are playing very badly in order to dissuade the other players, and so steal the (small) pot, or they are bluffing in order to discourage the other players who do not wish to continue the round with their particular hand. When a player goes all-in unreasonably, what is known as an "over bet", there is always a reason and it is up to you to decide what their reasoning might be...

Stealing and Defending the Blinds:

In a tournament, as the number of players around the table reduces and the blinds become larger, then competitors tend to revert to a tighter game play. Like we have already seen, it is not always wise to tighten your game, because what counts in poker is not the size of the blind, but the relationship between the blinds and your game. What is important is the moment of stealing the blind, in other words profit from a good position at the table to recuperate the small and big blinds before the flop, so as to dissuade your opponents form following you.

Obviously, this strategy is not very interesting in the pre-tournament stages of poker (if there is nothing to steal, there is no risk), but becomes so in the advanced stages of the tournament. This method of stealing the blinds can be very lucrative and can allow you to augment your winnings or simply enable you to pay, in each round, the equivalent of the blinds that you have to pay at your turn. To steal the blind, nothing works except a very large raise. Be careful, however, not to take unmeasured risks, if there has already been a raise before your turn, the risks are higher in relation to the superiority of your cards compared to those of your opponent. In a tournament situation, in the final stage, it is very rare that large all-ins clash, they prefer waiting so as to eliminate weaker opponents (those who are easy to put out, and who are less dangerous to face). If you go all-in when another player has gone all-in for an almost equal amount to you, on a small raise, there will be a strong chance that they will not follow you. A small all-in, by contrast, will be more risky because they know that they need to double very quickly; if you are bluffing avoid giving opponents this possibility. Do not systematically practice this type of play, not more than once a round, and never twice in a row. Otherwise your strategy will be very quickly understood by your opponents and they will know to play aggressively. As always with poker, vary your techniques and the frequency with which you play them in order to remain unknowable to the opposition. An all-in that is very exciting to partake in is the "defence of the blind"; imagine you are last to speak following the big blind, and only one opponent has paid in, when it is your turn, go all-in, thus giving the impression of a very good hand. You will preserve the benefit of your own blind and at the same time garner that of the small blind and the sum that the other player followed with.

Paying an All-In:

Paying the all-in of one of your opponents is not a decision to take easily. When a player goes all-in it means either that they are necessitating dissuasion or they have a very good game in hand. Two situations are presented to you as the player:

1) The all-in is relatively small. You can sense that the opponent is motivated by the need to steal some wins and you do not engage in the round on this occasion. It is better for you to pay a small amount if you possess cards that are at least moderately good (King-10, Queen-10, etc.). Better still, medium cards such as Ace-6, Ace-7 etc., because if you are in competition with the other player, you posses at least one high value card, if nobody touches the pair, you will win the hand because you have good cards.
2) If the all-in of your opponent is at least as high as yours, you must be very careful of how you conduct your game. Do you really want to lose now, after several hours of play? In this case play only with the best possible hands (Ace-Ace, King-King, or Queen-Queen or Ace-King of assorted colours) before the flop, and still act very cautiously even if you have such good cards. To pay an all-in is not the same as being the first to go all-in; you take a lot of risk due to the fact that you are not the instigator.

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