by Crissy Wilson

One particular move I see all the time is when a short stack in early position picks up a solid hand and pushes all-in.  Going “all-in” in this situation may be the right move most of the time, but there are times you might want to limp instead of push.  This works best when you are playing on a tight table. 

Recently, I was playing in a $1K No Limit Tournament at Commerce.  I had been short stacked all day and was waiting for the right hand and position to make a move with.  I was desperate for cards for I had seen J 2 way too many times for the day.  I had a bit less than $2K where the median stack was about $6K.  The blinds were $100 and $200 and I was in middle position when I looked down to find A 10 of clubs.  My adrenaline surged as I prepared to play the hand.  Now I can push all in here and hope to pick up the blinds.  All the books suggest this given my stack was less than 10 times the big blind.  But another option, when playing on a tight table is to limp or raise double the BB, and here is why.

In this circumstance, I limped in and hands were folded to the blinds who called.  The flop came 8 9 J rainbow.  Now this was the time to push.  I went all in for $1700 and the blinds folded.  But, if I had completely missed the flop I could have checked.  Or if I hit the flop hard I can bet out half the pot and pray for a caller to double thru.  I love options.  If I move all-in pre-flop, I have no options.  I must wait for the poker Gods to determine my fate.  I dislike giving up that kind of control in a hand, no matter what my chip stack. 

Another scenario is to look down to see pocket Jacks in middle position.  The action is folded to you and you raise two times the BB.  You get one caller and go to the flop.  If the flop comes small, something like 9 2 3, you can check, wait for a bet and then go all in.  If the board comes K Q 2, then you can check to see what your opponent does.  If they bet, you can get away from your hand and wait for another hand.  If you hit the board hard, you can check and trap.  If you don’t hit the board at all, and watching your opponent you believe he hasn’t hit either, you can push all-in here and still have a pretty good chance of picking up the pot.

After the flop players have seen 70% of the cards in the hand.  Where a player might be interested in racing with you pre flop, the same player may not be as interested after missing the flop and seeing 70% of the hand.  If your opponent has AK against your A 10 pre flop, and you move all in after the flop with nothing, even a better hand than yours pre flop may come off their hand to an All In move if they miss the flop completely.   Of course this only works if you are first to act.

It is something to think about next time you are short stacked.