Almost All In: Controversial Poker Strategy Pays Off For Kristina HolstDaniel Negreanu Hates The Move, But It Earned Her An Extra $17,100 |
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Last month, Daniel Negreanu called for changes to "improve player/viewer experience and protect the game” after a series of frustrating events at WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas. Of the four changes he proposed, one stirred up the poker community far more than the others.
The seven-time bracelet winner said that poker players should not be able to bet at least 90% of their stack without being considered all-in. Negreanu argues that the move slows the game down too much, and takes advantage of amateur players who might not realize their opponent isn’t completely all-in.
On Tuesday, however, we saw exactly why players leave a chip behind as Kristina Holst possibly earned an extra $17,100 for doing so.
During the $10,000 buy-in PokerGO Tour Last Chance event no. 4 final table, Holst put 800,000 of her 825,000-chip stack in from the button, leaving a single 25,000 chip behind. Sam Laskowitz then moved all in from the small blind for 2,050,000, which prompted chip leader Byron Kaverman to snap call from the big blind.
Holst tanked for a while, but could she really find a fold after putting in 97% of her stack? After using her time extension chip she ultimately threw her cards away.
Kaverman turned over pocket aces, which held against Laskowitz’s pocket jacks to send him to the rail in sixth place for $57,000.
Holst managed to spin up her one chip all the way back to 600,000, at one point moving into fourth place ahead of Dylan Linde. Unfortunately, for her, Linde would double through Brandon Wilson a short time later, and she would bust in fifth place after her A-10 was outdrawn by Kaverman’s K-7.
Still, the fold did allow her to ladder up a pay jump, pocketing $74,100, or an extra $17,100 over sixth-place money. The tournament was ultimately won by Brandon Wilson, who went back-to-back at the series with two wins.
Watch the hand below. (starting at 1:25:06)
Why Do Poker Players Leave One Chip Behind Preflop?
Players perform these “virtual all ins” for a few poker strategy reasons.
The first is that it allows you to fold a non-premium “all in hand” if multiple players show aggression behind you. This can keep you in the game and potentially allow you to secure future pay jumps, much like Holst did in Las Vegas.
For example, if you have 10 big blinds and have K-9 suited under the gun, it’s a hand you usually want to be all in with.
You can, instead, raise to 5.5 big blinds or so. If two players shove in front of you, you can be pretty certain that you’re way behind and save your tournament life and still have a reasonable amount of chips to work with.
The second reason is to secure a pay jump by taking more time.
If you’re set to receive $3,600 for 36th place and 35th place pays $4,200, you can buy yourself a little more time waiting for someone to bust at another table and make an extra $600. Just leave one chip behind, and even if your opponent moves in, you’ll get to restart your time bank all over again before having to put in that chip.
At live events, you’ll often see players do this, burning through their time banks until they’re either out or the pay jump has been secured. (In events without time banks, this can be a major issue, as the floor will almost certainly be called after some time and the player will wait until the last possible moment to make the call.)
The existence of the big blind ante causes a single extra chip to be worth so much more. It doesn’t matter if you have 100 big blinds or 1/100th of a big blind, once you’re all in you are eligible to win that big blind ante in the middle. So, in theory, if you’re in the small blind, leave 1/10th of a big blind behind, and your opponent calls and then decides to check it down and you lose, you’re still alive in the tournament.
Not only that, you’ll then be on the button the next hand and get to see up to eight hands if you’re at a full-ring table (though worst case scenario, you should always go all in under-the-gun with any two cards so you can win that big blind ante). You will have a lot more choice in which hand you shove with, and you’ll be able to win at least the big blind ante and perhaps secure pay jumps while you wait.
Poker rule changes I would vote for:
1. No face covering of any sort.
2. No Sunglasses.
3. If a player bets 90% or more of their stack, it is an all in.
4. No card protectors allowed on the table.
-Improve player/viewer experience
-Protect the game— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) December 21, 2024
You can also use the play to “steal fold equity” and have a better chance of winning the hand.
Dara O’Kearney coined this phrase in his book Poker Satellite Strategy, which I personally consider the bible when it comes to satellites. In short, it allows you to have a better chance to end up heads-up in a pot instead of multi-way when you are short, giving you a much better chance to win the hand.
If you put in 490,000 of your 500,000-chip stack and someone wants to knock you out and/or isolate you, they have to put in a raise. While multiple players would have been willing to call a 500,000-chip bet, especially if you have a bounty on your head, they could be less likely to call a bigger bet.
Post-Flop Reasons For Leaving One Chip Behind
Online players may also do this for a myriad of non-poker reasons, such as not having to listen to all-in music or still having the ability to use the chat function, which gets disabled on most poker sites when a player is all in.
If there’s action on the river, players who are bluffing, especially in a progressive knockout tournament, may leave some small amount of their stack behind in order to save it if their opponent goes all in. You get to experience some extra fold equity, as your opponent cannot purely bluff-catch for the bounty. Some players may just personally not like their opponent and want to deny them their bounty.
In live cash game poker, in poor taste, someone may leave also a single chip behind on the river so if their opponent goes all in, their opponent is required to show their cards first. This may allow the player who originally left the chip behind to muck their cards, if they are the losing player, and withhold information from the rest of the table.
Short of a rule change, players will always find ways to adapt.
Blaise Bourgeois a WSOP Circuit ring winner and also the lead poker editor for PokerScout. Find him on Twitter/X @BlaiseBourgeois.
*Photos by PokerGO
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