All-in?

[playful1]

Freerolls r freerolls they so many and yah i go all in whenever i can especially when theres plenty of donks out there lol.....

[PrettyHoney]

When I play freerolls or rebuys tournaments I go more all in than usually because I have to double up fast. In a freezeout tournament, depends a lot of my position and my chips, but I rarely go all in pre flop, principally at the beginning of the tournament.

[LAPPIN]

Regarding the WSOP question, the answer is instacall.

50% shot to quadruple up - i would snap your hand off to be in that spot. You will not get a better spot in the entire tournament to rake in the chips. Some players will say "Why put your tournament life on the line on hand 1 when your only about 50% vs 3 other hands?" The answer is simple and twofold:-

Firstly, versus the types of hands that would go all-in preflop (not that there are many and I am going to give my WSOP opponents some credit) - the other AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK - my aces plays way better than they do vs. random hands (the real ace-crackers being the soootied connectors at between 23% and 26%).

Lets select some samples of these hands and play them vs. aces:

Aces vs Kings, Queens and AK(sooootied)
Kings are 10.5%, Queens are 16.5% and AK(soootied) is 7.5%
Therefore, Aces should hold up 64% of the time
or
64% of the time, 20K in chips becomes 80K
35% of the time, 20K in chips becomes 0

Aces vs. Kings and Jacks and the other Aces (statistically least likely but possible)
Kings are 20.5%, Jacks are 18.5% and the other Aces are 2%
Therefore, Aces will win 2% of the time on their own and chop 57.5% of the time
or
2% of the time, 20K becomes 80K
57.5% of the time, 20K in chips becomes 40K
41% of the time, 20K in chips becomes 0

Secondly, although an argument can be made for making a steady gradual progression through a big tournament such as the WSOP ME, thus avoiding big collisions for all your chips such as this, i would make the counterargument that a quadruple stack going into hand 2 gives you an enormous edge over the rest of the players and if you are a good player, you should be able to wield this edge, giving yourself a great chance to go deep. Not only that, but there is an hourly rate to consider. Going out in hand 1 means you wasted no time playing this tournament which could potentially take you into a 4th 12 hour day of poker for no reward. These 4 days have a value of their own in the life of a profitable player.

[LAPPIN]

I attempted to edit my own post when I realised the question called for Aces vs. 4 other hands and not 3. I wrote the maths up for those scenarios but they seem to have gotten lost in the ether. Needless to say, they made an even more compelling argument for making the big brave call.

[MitchellC]

Here is a suggestion or two or three:

Don't think about how often you should or should not move all-in a tournament.

Moving all-in is an important part of your arsenal that must be used in a no limit tournaments--sometimes even knowing when you are behind!

When you start a no limit tournament, play to win. Winning=Accumulating chips. Accumulating chips=gamble Try to set aside about 20% of your chips from the start to play those drawing hands. Let the other players think patience--heck, you'll have a good idea what they have when they finally play a hand.

Moving all-in is a good play pre-flop is you need chips like under 9 times the big blind. Moving all-in is a good play if you need chips when someone raises and you have less than eight times his chip stack and you hold a medium pair or better...just a couple of examples.

Risk is good!

[xxmommaxx]

Originally Posted by stellerteller

Momma... I hate to go all in but sometimes, I just can't help myself. Especially, if hand after hand, I get cheated. A big suck out or I was a huge favorite... You know! I go on tilt... so yes, sometimes.

I definately know what you mean..sometimes I just can't be patient or someone really flips my top..lol..then I of course will throw those chips into the pot hoping I'll actually get lucky and pay back the donks who pushed me out of hand after hand..... Of course, how often do we get that lucky...???... lol

[wrestler75]

i don't mind going all in, but i hate it when people go all in with nothing, especially pre-flop

[channing73ny]

the only way too be certain is too risk everything just click your mouse and go all in

[mundybags1]

i try to not go all in at the begging of a tournament unless i have AA or KK i will never fold these two hands. besides this i usually don't go all in pre flop till i am an extreme short stack. i hate to be all in even at the end of tournaments i have seen hands that should win die to some very sketchy calls. and that sucks

[MitchellC]

I recently read in article where moving all-in makes more sense at the start of a tournament than later in a tournament. The reason has to do with the expected value being greater at the start of the event, I think.

So maybe moving all-in with A-K makes sense at the start of a tournament.