Thereโs not a much more exhilarating feeling in Texas Holdem than putting all your chips in the middle, also known as โshoving all inโ, or just โshovingโ. The very name โNo-Limit Holdemโ is a nod to the fact that a player can go all-in at any time โ thatโs what the โno limitโ part of the name refers to. With the freedom to push all-in whenever you choose…how often should you be doing so?
Shoving Every Hand
Why not shove your whole stack in every hand?
Youโll see people do this sometimes โ maybe they just lost a big pot and only have a small fraction of a normal stack left. They announce โIโm all inโ, everyone usually folds, and they win the blinds and perhaps a limp or two. It works most of the time โ in fact, a player employing this strategy will win almost every pot he plays. So why not use this strategy?
Itโs very simple โ shoving all in every hand works almost every time, every time except the last one. You keep shoving and shoving, and sooner or later someone will wake up with a strong enough hand to call you. And the longer you try and employ the โshove every handโ strategy, the lower and lower the hand requirement will be until someone calls. For a few hands, everyone will fold unless they have aces, kings, or queens, but after 5 or 6 times, someone will think about calling with pocket jacks, tens, ace-king, ace-queen, and maybe even lesser hands. Pretty soon, youโll be all in and youโll most likely be an underdog, and youโll lose your stack.
So going all in every hand is out. Letโs look for some times when it might make sense to shove our stacks in.
Shove For Value
Going all in with a monster hand and getting a call from a lesser hand is a tremendous feeling โ weโve either won the absolute maximum possible (if the shove was on the river), or we got our money in as a huge favorite (on an earlier street). But we canโt simply shove all in every time we think we have the best hand โ most poker players are simply not going to pay off an all-in bet unless they feel like they also have a big hand themselves. You have to rely on your hand reading skills to determine when an all-in bet is going to be profitable. Hereโs an example hand that I played online.
A player who I knew to be fishy and overvalue his one pair hands limped from middle position, and I raised from the button with 5โฅ 6โฅ. This hand is pretty weak on its surface, but I now have position on the bad player, and I know that he will play fit-or-fold poker and give up on many flops.
The board came 4โฆ 5โ 6โฆ, giving me top two pair. The opponent checked to me and I made a healthy value bet, knowing I would get a call from lots of weaker hands. Like I predicted, he called me.
The turn was an amazing 6โฃ, giving me a full house. Once again I bet, and once again he called.
The river was nearly the perfect card for me, the 7โฆ. This card put a 4 straight on the board, so any eight or any three held a straight. It also filled a diamond flush, so if he chased a flush, he just made a second best hand. On top of all that, I knew that this poor player could NOT fold an overpair no matter how dangerous the board got, meaning that pocket nines and up were all incapable of folding (pocket eights also, but those made a straight). There were just so many second best hands that I felt like this player would call, I simply shoved my whole stack in when he checked. He insta-called me with 88 and I won his stack.
Shove As A Bluff Or Semi-bluff
Most players wonโt stick their whole stack in the middle on a cold, naked bluff with a weak hand like ace-high on the flop or turn. Although thereโs nothing preventing it, the danger is that if you felt like your opponent was going to fold, but you end up being wrong and he calls, then your stack is almost always going over to your opponent. Think about it, if he has a hand strong enough to call an all-in bet, then thereโs almost no chance for a hand like ace-high to catch up on future streets.
Often times, a player will employ whatโs called a semi-bluff on the flop or turn. A semi-bluff is a bluff (which can be an all-in bet but doesnโt have to be) where weโre on a decent draw โ we probably donโt have the best hand now, but there are enough good cards left in the deck to give us a strong hand on future streets to catch whatever the villain is holding. Hereโs a hand I played that employed a semi-bluff:
I opened the pot from middle position with Aโฅ Kโฅ A loose-aggressive player called me on the button, and we went to the flop heads up.
I got a strong flop for my hand: 5โ , 2โฅ 9โฅ. I didnโt have a pair, but I had the nut flush draw and 2 overcards to the board. I made a standard continuation bet, and my loose-aggressive villain min-raised me. I responded my going all-in over his bet.
Note that I donโt really care if this villain calls me or not. If he calls me with a hand like pocket tens or Ace-nine, Iโm actually a small favorite to win the hand, even though Iโm currently behind, holidng only Ace high! Iโm in the biggest trouble if he flopped a set of twos, fives, or nines, but even then Iโm going to catch him with my flush and hold up about 25% of the time. Usually, decent players will fold their one-pair hands here โ most good players donโt go broke with a single pair, and my bluff will win me the pot.
Shoving as a semi-bluff helps you get paid more
when you shove for value
I want to mention this last bit of advanced logic because it will help you as you move up the poker ladder, even if it doesnโt help right away. In the lower levels, many of your bad opponents arenโt paying much attention to your play and wonโt see patterns in how you play certain hands. But if you play with really good players, or maybe if you play in a home game where you have the same opponents over and over again, they may recognize how you play in certain cases. And these observant TAG poker opponents might make good decisions against you unless you are mixing up your play when theyโre at the table.
For example, I know many players who will only stick their stack in the middle on the flop when they hit a big draw like my Ace-King of hearts hand above. If they happened to flop a set on this same 9-5-2 board, they would almost always slowplay the flop and then wake up and show aggression on the turn. Because I know this about them, I can zero-in pretty well on their hand when they raise my flop bet, and I can play much better knowing what they have. If I were to have AA or KK, for example, maybe even holding a heart myself, I know that Iโm a solid favorite vs their drawing hands and I can call their semi-bluff shove.
But what if my observation is that they raise their big draws and also their sets on the flop? Now when Iโm sitting against them with an overpair, Iโm in a big pickle. Iโm either a decent favorite to their draws, or a giant underdog to their sets, and I donโt know whether to call or fold. When a villain has me in that type of situation, he has a huge advantage over me, because no matter which action I take, Iโm running the risk of making a big mistake.
Hopefully, youโve learned some examples on how and when to employ the most exciting bet in Texas Holdem โ the all-in bet. If you’d like even more info about getting it all-in, I have a complete video about getting AK and QQ all-in preflop – a skill that most players either too often or too little. It’s a bonus video in the Playing 3Bet Pots Series which gives you a complete blueprint for winning more money in 3bet pots. Check it out now!
