shoving all but 1bb
Ive seen it happen on televised poker tournaments where a player will shove all but 1bb in an ICM situation. I presume this is because you leave yourself room to fold if theres enough action after you and the other stacks collision allows you to fold and ladder up.
I was wondering if theres any science to leaving exactly 1bb back as opposed to 1.5bb or 0.5bb?
2 Replies
The science for me would be to make it 1 bb in rooms where the BB comes first and the BB ante comes second. So left with 1 bb you wouldn't have to post a BB ante. Personally I think this is wrong from a cardroom standpoint and I would force the BB ante to come first (because everyone is anteing for everyone else and the BB shouldn't be allowed to not ante for everyone else...)
If I was playing in a room that made the BB ante come first (which is getting rare now) I would leave exactly 2 bb's on my almost all in bet.
I think it usually makes more sense to shove something like 80% of your stack. That's enough that you're effectively committed unless you have multiple all-ins behind you. You're still exerting the same effective leverage, but you maximize your remaining stack if you do fold after facing multiple all-ins behind you.
Maybe even 70% of your stack might be enough to be viewed as an effective all-in? Anything less than 70-80% though and I think other players might start thinking you could raise-fold to a single all-in.
What Rick said about saving 1 BB so you maximize what you can win out of the BB without paying the ante makes sense too though. That's especially true if you're on a final table and have something like 10 BB or less, with the BB approaching soon.
