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Going all-in with weak hands

Going all-in with weak hands works simply because most opponents raise a lot of hands, which isn’t necessarily bad, while folding too many of them to an all-in re-raise. Consider an extreme example. Assume you are in the big blind with 10,000 chips. The button, whom you know raises 100 percent of the time when it is folded to him, raises to 1,500 chips at 250/500-50. The small blind folds and it is up to you. Assuming you have been fairly tight throughout the tournament so far, you should go all-in with any two cards, especially if you know your opponent will raise wide but call fairly tight. Here’s what happens. If your opponent calls 15 percent of the time, you will win 2,750 chips (the blinds and antes + his raise) 85 percent of the time. The remaining 15 percent of the time you will have around a 35-percent chance to win a 21,000-chip pot (your 10,000 + his 10,000 + blinds and antes), which gives you 7,350 when called for a 2,650-chip loss. So, you make 2,750(0.85) – 2,650(0.15) = 1,940 chips in expected profit every time you do this.

That is pretty huge.

That is pretty huge. It should be noted that most opponents will raise less than 100 percent of the time on the button and some of them will call with more than 15 percent of their hands. Also, you will usually have more than 35-percent equity, as you will not push 100 percent of your hands. However, situations like this come up all the time. Now that you know you should push on loose raisers often, you need some rules to find the best spots for this play. You want to be in as late a position as possible to minimize the risk of someone behind you waking up with a hand and cold-calling your all-in. When this happens, you usually have about 30-percent equity if one person calls and 15-percent equity if two players call. This situation will not happen too often if you push from late position.