We break down the benefits of leaving behind just one big blind preflop in poker. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

The preflop almost all in

At the recent European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona, I was at the same table as Jennifer Shahade in one of the evening hypers. These are fast and frenetic affairs where unless you make a very good start, you’ll find yourself short stacked pretty soon more often than not. Jen found herself short, and as you’d expect, waited patiently for a good spot, then moved all-in with an Ace, except for one big blind.

complimented her on the play, which seemed to confuse at least some of our table mates

She was called by a player in position, and they both checked the flop. She also checked the turn, at which point her opponent bet, and she flicked in her last big blind with Ace high, and lost. As she left, I complimented her on the play, which seemed to confuse at least some of our table mates.

In my last article, I talked about the advantages of leaving one big blind behind on the river. All of these advantages also apply to leaving one big blind behind preflop, but there’s even more! In this article, I’m going to talk about these additional advantages this play has over simply moving all in.

It sometimes gets checked down

Sometimes when you leave one big blind behind, you get called preflop, it gets checked down and you lose. This is a massive win for you, as you get to preserve that extra big blind, and potentially spin it as described in my last article.

This is such a big win that it barely even matters if occasionally you win when it gets checked down and your opponent had a hand that would have called: winning one extra big blind in those spots is worth only a fraction of what preserving the big blind when you lose is worth.

Of course, most of the time it makes no difference: your opponent simply puts you all in at some point and you call and whoever wins wins. But it’s such a big plus when you do preserve that final big blind that even if it only happens rarely, it’s still a big advantage overall to the play.

You can sometimes fold

You might think you can never fold, leaving yourself with one big blind if there’s even the slightest possibility you could win the pot. But you’d be wrong.

If you fold, there will almost certainly be one elimination

Consider this example. You’re the shortest by far with four players left with six big blinds. Everyone else has well over 30 big blinds. You raise to five big blinds, and everyone behind you goes all in! Can you fold now? Of course you can. If you fold, there will almost certainly be one elimination, and if you’re really lucky and the chip leader scoops, you could be headsup, with second place locked up!

That’s an extreme example, but there are others less extreme. You’re shortest on the bubble with, say, three big blinds. You min raise, get min raised, and a bunch of people call, hoping to eliminate you. Meanwhile you hear “all in and a call” on several other tables. Now, irrespective of how strong your hand is, you’re almost certainly better off folding and hoping there’s a bust out on another table (or even your own) than taking your chances multiway.

The confusion factor

When you leave a blind behind, it confuses people. At the very least it slows them down (which can be useful in itself) if you’re on a pay jump.

“Is that all in?”

“How much behind?”

“Can I raise?”

“What are you doing, old man?”

Some will spend some time trying to read something into the almost but not quite all in, and they may even read something to your advantage into it. I had a guy fold Kings face up to me once saying “your bet size gave away the fact you had Aces” (he was only half right). On another occasion I had a chip leader attempt to fold his big blind to my almost-all-in min raise, on the perfectly sound strategic grounds that it was to his advantage to prolong the bubble (one in which he was torturing everyone else on the table). He was not allowed to do so by the tournament director, who forced him to act against his own self interest and call. On another occasion, I was called by several players before the chip leader gleefully shoved 83o sure nobody else would call, and he’d either win a 15 big blind pot for an investment of 3, or the very profitable (for him) bubble would be prolonged.

The unobservant boost

Sometimes players won’t notice that you’re almost all-in. This can end up benefiting you in a couple of ways. A friend of mine once opened to four big blinds under the gun first hand of Day 2 in a UK & Ireland Poker Tour, and sat there stoically with his hands interlocked in front of his stack as almost the whole table gave the spot some thought, before deciding their hand was a fold against an under-the-gun 4x. It was only when the big blind folded that he opened his hands and smiled, impishly revealing he had only one chip behind, less than a big blind. Had he simply moved all in, I’m pretty sure he was getting called.

it feels too much like an angle if it induces someone to inadvertently expose their hand to me

It can go the other way too: players can think you’re already all in and announce call, and only then realise the truth, when informed either by the dealer or the opponent. Whether there’s any onus on the almost-all-in player to alert other players to the fact they aren’t quite all in is up to each player to decide for themselves. I generally do so if I think there’s any danger someone hasn’t spotted it, as it feels too much like an angle if it induces someone to inadvertently expose their hand to me. Others take a different view though, and argue it’s up to every player to pay attention to such fine details.

Two examples

I’ll finish with two examples from my recent trip to Barcelona. In one I found myself very short near a bubble, and moved almost all in with King Queen in early position. It folded to the small blind who announced call. The big blind then called, at which point the small blind went to table his hand. I immediately averted my eyes, and informed him nobody was all in yet, at which point he covered his exposed hand with his hands so I didn’t see it. I believe the big blind also didn’t see the hand, as they occupied the seats either side of the dealer so his view was impeded, and his eyes moved to look at me when I exclaimed “Nobody is all in yet!” I put the remaining big blind in on a raggy flop hoping at least one of my King or Queen were live, only to get the bad news I was virtually drawing dead as he had Kings. If my personal ethics allowed me to look at his hand and profit from the knowledge he had Kings, I could obviously have folded, even with one big blind (which by now I hope you realise is a much more powerful stack size than it might appear).

The second example is probably the strangest hand I’ve ever played. Again I had King Queen, and moved almost all in. The small blind called, and the big blind folded. Not wanting a repeat of the earlier hand, I immediately pointed out to my opponent that I wasn’t all in yet, and had one big blind behind.

we might check it down, and I might get to survive with that magical one big blind

The flop came Ace 10 3 rainbow. My opponent checked, and I saw no reason to put my remaining blind in. My opponent is unlikely to fold anything, but if he has, say, pocket 2s or a 3, he might not bet, we might check it down, and I might get to survive with that magical one big blind.

What actually happened was downright bizarre. The turn was a 2, and at this point my opponent for reasons best known to himself decided to expose his hand anyway, before moving all in. This time I saw his hand, 8 6 offsuit for no pair no draw 8 high, so I called knowing I was ahead. He hit a 6 on the river but that’s not the point of the story. I’ll go to my grave completely clueless as to why you’d expose your hand in that spot! Maybe it’s just the confusion factor.