The fishtank part 20

Gamble

I was recently playing in a live tournament when the following situation came up. With around 30 players left, I had just over 90,000 chips (average was about 70k) when the player under the gun announced ‘raise’. For a moment he seemed in doubt as to how much to raise, became flustered, and pushed all-in for 70,000 (over 10 times the big blind). I put him on a big hand that either didn’t want to face a re-raise or risk missing the flop: J-J, A-K or A-Q. I had Queens so I could pass and make the money or call for a race or better if my read was right. Winning the hand would have given me close to 10 percent of all the chips in play allowing me to boss the table. As I wanted a shot at winning the tournament, I called. He turned over Ace- King and won the race, which crippled me. Would it have been better to pass here rather than putting (nearly) all my eggs in one basket?

Rick Dacey

SF: I would never fold a premium hand to a player who has pushed all-in for just over 10 big blinds. Also, if the structure was as fast as you have implicated, being that the average stack was 70k and that was also only 10 big blinds, this was surely a tournament where you needed to gamble. You really can’t afford to fold much of anything at that point if you want to win.

Ruling

In a recent no-limit Hold’em tournament a player in front of me moved all-in with a few chips over the calling value. When the betting came round to me I was only allowed to call the under-raise, even though I also wanted to move all-in. I have trawled through the rules online but seem to get conflicting judgements. I do not see how this is different from several players going all-in at the same time for different amounts?

Charles Fyfe

SF: As far as the most common rules for no-limit games go, this is what I know to be true. Let’s say the blinds are 50/100. If a player in front of you goes all-in for 125 and you have not acted yet, you’re still allowed to raise or go all-in; however, if you have limped into the pot and then the player moves all-in for 125, you would not be allowed to go all-in or re-raise him, as his bet is not considered to be a legal raise. His bet is taken as just a call and therefore would not reopen the betting. In some places, a bet of 150 or more in that situation would reopen the betting and in other places it has to be a bet of 200 or more to reopen the betting. So make sure you know the cardroom’s rules before sitting down.