Going All-In and All-out in Tournament Poker
In tournament poker, strong hands are often wagered all-in to get the most out of them. Yet, we must have the good sense and timing to avoid having other players go all-out and leave us with meager winnings.
Tournament poker has different table atmosphere. There are times when we can go all-in with high hands like AA and KK, but in some situations, we should hold our horses and keep to a slow-play. In low-stakes tournament poker, we may consider betting all-in. This type of tournament poker often has a fledgling player looking for some hard action and calls and raises very early in the game.
If the strong hand is our first cards dealt us in a just-started tournament poker, we should go all-in all the more. Good action is bound to follow later and others would bite on the bait. They think that some novice, weak player who doesn't know aces from kings want to impress and is going all-in when the game has barely warmed up. They'll call.
At other times in tournament poker, we merely bet aggressively instead of going all-in. We do this when the table is tight or lousy. We don't want to just take the blind bets. Go with average bet amounts, just to stimulate hot action at the table. Also, we don't go all-in with tournament poker when it seems players are apt to fold with the slightest provocation. We should go easy, even with the aggressive play. It's an effective way of bluffing and taking a big pot by slow-playing our strong hand.
So take it easy, lest opponents opt to leave all-out. Let them enjoy the stay by letting them think they have better hands. Then gradually, steal some pots as we work our way to the main win. Anyway, tournament poker is fast and action packed, so it would be hard to get bored with it. If we act cool and avoid getting desperate---and showing it---we would gain more than we would with impatient bets.
So how do we balance going all-in against going all-out? Again, the remedy is playing our position well. There's not need to hurry because tournament poker has a built-in mechanism to hurry things over. Early almost always means aggressive bets, middle position means a more careful weighing, and late means going all-in when the conditions are right.
Tournament poker has all-in and all-out occasions that we should watch out for with sharpness and wit.