Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Isolating Versus Calling
Isolating Versus Calling If a player goes all-in, you have him covered and you have a hand you want to play, you must decide whether to call or re-raise. This decision generally depends on your stack size, the size of the push, your hand and your position. The purpose of re-raising the pusher is to get heads-up and maximize your chances of winning the hand.
When the pusher is very short-stacked,
When the pusher is very short-stacked, around 6BBs or less, you should almost always re-raise because if you just call, more opponents behind you may do the same. Even if the button pushes for 5BBs and you are in the small blind with less than 35BBs, push with any hand you want to play. If you have more 35BBs, you can min-re-raise to around 11BBs and fold if the big blind pushes. In fact, if you decide to isolate a 5BB push from any position, you should usually min-re-raise because few players will push without a very premium hand. Notice that if you have less than 35BBs and re-raise to 11BBs, you’ll be getting around 2-to-1 if a player behind shoves, forcing you to call, so shoving is almost always the best play.