Making Moves: The Stop-and-Go in Tournament Poker

When you're short-stacked in a no-limit hold’em tournament — say, all the way down to lower than 10 big blinds — your options are necessarily limited. In numerous cases, you actually only have one “move” left that may be available to use, and that’s an all-in raise or reraise before the flop.

Say the blinds are 300/600 with a 75 ante and also you only have 4,000 chips. You don’t have enough to make an ordinary raise before the flop after which make a continuation bet afterwards. It will take greater than half your stack to play a hand that way, and so that you aren’t deep enough to play in any such “straightforward” manner.

Thus you’ll typically either be waiting to be dealt a good hand with which to shove all in, or maybe will search for the primary opportunity to open-raise all in, say, when the table folds to you in middle or late position.

The stop-and-go play, however, represents a second possible move that may be employed by the quick stack hoping to outlive further in a tournament. Let’s take a look at an example.

The “stop-and-go” defined

In truth, the stop-and-go play includes two moves, however it is healthier regarded as a single “move” that just like the all-in preflop push is dictated by the player’s willingness to get all of his or her short stack within the middle.

Here is how the “stop-and-go” works. Say again that the blinds are 300/600 with a 75 ante and a player within the big blind with a stack of 4,000 looks all the way down to see . It folds around to the button who raises to 1,200 and the small blind folds. In place of shove all in, the short-stacked player just calls the raise, and after the flop comes then pushes all in together with his remaining chips.

Think of it as an all-in shove but with that pause in between — the “stop” (or call of the raise), then the “go” (the frenzy after the flop).

So what’s the purpose of playing a hand this manner? Why not only reraise all in when you’re all the way down to about seven big blinds (like this player) and you’ve finally been dealt a tight hand like ?

Increasing the risk of winning the hand

The primary reason behind the short-stacked player to play his hand this fashion is to extend the possibility that his opponent will fold once he’s committed his stack, even by just a bit. By employing the stop-and-go, the short-stacked player can increase his “fold equity” within the hand.

One of the obvious problems short-stacked players have in tournaments is having the ability to get their opponents to fold once they push their short stacks all in. In other words, they've little “fold equity” or chance to win a hand by getting an opponent to fold, and thus usually must show down a hand to win.

That’s one this is why you generally shouldn't ever let yourself get all the way down to five big blinds or less in a tournament, because whilst you do finally push all in, calling your raise becomes somewhat trivial to others and you will well end up having to outdraw multiple opponents as a way to survive.

The stop-and-go play can, however, earn a short-stacked player a bit of extra chance to get a fold from an opponent by delaying the all-in shove until after the primary three community cards arrive.

The same pot odds, a unique decision

Let’s take a look at that above example again to turn how the stop-and-go can provide the short-stacked player an additional chance to win a hand by getting an opponent to fold.

The button raises to 1,200 and the short-stacked player within the big blind calls. Let’s say it’s a nine-handed table, so counting the antes (675), the small blind (300), and the contributions of the button and the massive blind (2,400), the pot is now 3,375. Meanwhile, the short-stacked player within the big blind now has 2,800 left behind, which he then shoves all in after the flop.

The button is now taking a look at having to name 2,800 to win a pot of 6,175 — that’s pot odds of slightly better than 2-to-1, which means that he’d need to believe he has around a 1 in 3 chance (or best of) winning the hand to justify calling.

What if the large blind had just decided to push all in with a reraise-shove of 4,000 total before the flop? It’s exactly the same situation with regards to pot odds for the button — there can be 6,175 within the middle, and he’d must call 2,800 to stick within the hand.

So what’s the adaptation? The 3 community cards.

By the way, you’ve noticed we haven’t even mentioned what three cards came at the flop in our example. That’s as it doesn’t matter. Once you’ve committed to playing a hand within the stop-and-go manner, you’re essentially prepared to shove the flop irrespective of what cards come. The short-stacked player may miss the flop along with his — however the button probably will miss it, too.

The chance of flopping a couple or better when holding two unpaired cards is solely 32.4%. That suggests two out of 3 times, the flop isn’t going to bring improvement to the button’s hand should he have two unpaired cards.

And if he has a pocket pair — that is itself relatively rare (only coming 1 in 17 hands) — he still won't just like the looks of flop containing cards higher than his pair. Say he has . Just about all flops are going to bring higher cards. If the flop comes and the short-stacked player pushes all in, the button may be somewhat more inclined to fold despite the fact that the pot odds are similar to what he faced before the flop. Meanwhile with a pocket pair (and a made hand) before the flop, he in all probability would’ve called a reraise-shove.

So the button folds after the short-stacked player’s stop-and-go shove, and the short-stacked player picks up a healthy boost to his stack. Not just that — he had the worst hand!

You’re probably thinking “What if the flop does hit the button’s hand and he calls?” Say that flop comes and also you push all in along with your and he’s sitting there with . He’ll call o.k.. But he would’ve called your shove before the flop, too, and so the result is the same.

Use caution with the stop-and-go

Use caution when employing the "stop-and-go"

For the stop-and-go to be a viable option, you wish to have a brief stack that continues to be large enough to earn a fold after that flop shove — i.e., around 7-10 big blinds. Also, pay attention to other aspects of the table dynamics that may affect even if the play is warranted. You’ll especially need to be cognizant of your opponent’s tendencies and even if a postflop shove is definitely going to get that fold.

There could be some situations when it is going to still simply be better to reraise all in before the flop. But know that once short-stacked in a tourney you aren’t necessarily right down to a single move.

Photos: “Traffic Light,” Kate Ter Haar (top); “Traffic Light,” Adnan Yahha (bottom). Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

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