The All In bet has become the most famous and exciting move in poker but that is not the whole story or all you need to know about the All In.

Let’s start with limit games. What if you get short stacked and do not have enough chips remaining to call a bet? When a player is faced with a bet that he has insufficient chips to call, he may bet the remainder of his stack and declare himself all in. The player keeps his cards for the remainder of the hand, but he may not win any more money from any player above the amount of his bet. You cannot be shut out of a hand because you cannot call a bet, not by modern betting standards, nevermind what happened in those old movies.

In no-limit games, the all in bet is completely different. A player may bet by going all in at any time. But the same rule applies regarding short bets, if your all in bet does not cover a previous bet or if someone betting after you has a shorter stack, they can move all in. Basically, you can always play for your full stack and so can anyone else in the hand but you play for a pot that includes only your chips and those of anyone who calls your bet.

With the rise in popularity of No Limit Hold’em there has been a lot of discussion about the use of the all in bet. Traditional old time players say that the all in is used as an excuse for not understanding poker fundamentals. After all, they say, once you push all in, you don’t have to make any more decisions, you don’t have to play your hand. On the other side of this argument is the fact that the all in bet has become a powerful way for intermediate players to overcome the skill level of more seasoned players. Make them play for all their chips and the game changes is the reasoning behind frequent all in moves.

It really doesn’t matter which side of this debate you fall on; the All In bet has become both a more used and a more skillful play in the hands of the better players and a lifeline at the tables for the less talented. It also has spawned one of the most famous lines in poker lore. From Scotty Nguyen we all know his All In mantra: “All You Can Eat, Baby!”

-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #84

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 3:06 am and is filed under Poker Basics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.