'Never' Giving Up Not 'Always' a Perfect Idea

"Never" and "always" are two of my least favorite words in the English language, especially when it comes to analyzing almost anything about poker.

Poker is such a situational game that employing almost any sort of absolute rule is usually a bad idea. I suppose I could live with "never cheat your opponents" or "always try to play your best game," but when it comes to strategy, even extremely sound general advice like "never call two bets cold" falls short. (If it's two bets to you, in the vast majority of situations you're better off either three-betting or folding, but "vast majority" isn't 100 percent.)

I suppose we could start a contest to see if we could find strategic advice where "always" and "never" apply, but before you send an E-mail like "never fold pocket aces in hold'em before the flop," crumple that one up and put it in your virtual wastebasket.

I'm writing this column from my hotel room at Binion's Horseshoe during the World Series of Poker, and just yesterday, a buddy of mine was in a supersatellite for the "big one." They were down to five players, he was the chip leader, and four players were going to get seats. Player No. 1 moved all in, and player No. 2 moved right in after her, with almost exactly the same number of chips. If the bigger stack won, the tournament was over, and my friend had a seat. If the shorter stack won, the other player would have exactly one chip left, facing four opponents who had more than 100 chips each.

My friend, who is an amateur here on a lark, looked down at his hand, saw A-A, and pushed all in, too. Talk about an enormous error! Folding A-A before the flop here is right by so much, it's almost scary. Fortunately for my friend, he got lucky and his aces held up. So much for "always" playing A-A, and I could come up with a dozen other examples of when it could be wrong, too.

People who approach poker in absolutist terms are usually losing players. It's certainly easier to play on autopilot, because always doing this and never doing that requires much less thought and concentration, but the easier way to play isn't usually the better way to play.

I thought I had stumbled upon a "never" I could live with at this World Series, because I have witnessed so many stunning comebacks from short chip positions that "never give up, never quit" seemed appropriate. I saw Scotty Nguyen give an inspirational performance after losing nearly all of his chips on one big hand in the pot-limit Omaha event. He came back and won against two players with an impossibly short stack. Bill Gazes looked like he was going to do the same thing for a while, earlier in the same event.

Last year, I saw a player with a single $100 chip left at the $500-$1,000, $100 ante level turn it into $80,000 in tournament chips before his stack started slipping away, and Mickey Appleman came back from being all in for an incomplete small blind with 46 players left against two players who were going to check him down to the river, and he held 7-3 offsuit. He wound up getting near the chip lead later in the event.

In tournament play, "never give up, never quit" is certainly sound advice (in a no-rebuy tournament!), because your downside is fixed. Your investment has already been made, and even if you have only one chip left, you should usually keep fighting, because you have only upside, not downside. You might come back and win or make the money, you might learn something about how to play a small stack, and you'd be practicing an approach that is pretty useful in life, too.

Nonetheless, even "never give up, never quit" has its limits. Even in tournament play, you should quit if something serious happens to your health. I saw someone last year have a heart attack in the middle of an event, and he kept playing. Fortunately, he lived, but he was taking the "never give up" concept too far.

In money play, "never give up, never quit" can be a dangerous policy, even though it can also provide big benefits by keeping you focused and in games where you rate to be a favorite, if you can control your emotions. But in money play, there are very definitely games and days where taking a "never give up" attitude can damage you, your bankroll, and/or your self-confidence. Some days, it is better to leave and regroup.

I'm a great admirer of people who hang tough in life, and who don't despair at the first sign of trouble. These people are usually winners, in life and in poker. Just don't take it too far. Try to avoid absolute thinking, and keep context and perspective in mind when analyzing what to do in poker, and "most of the time" you'll be very happy you did.

Andrew N.S. "Andy" Glazer is the author of Casino Gambling the Smart Way, and writes a weekly gambling column for the Detroit Free Press. He writes frequently for www.poker.casino.com and welcomes your questions through the "Ask Andy" feature there.