The thrill of playing poker online can sometimes do you in before you’ve really had a chance to shine. What do we mean by that? Well, it’s simple — there’s going to be a time and a place to go all in, but when, you’re in the heat of the table, you might not realize it. You might not realize that you really do need to step back and think about your cards and the possible cards that everyone else has. You might be tempted to just go all in with someone else. When people can sense that you’re being emotional, they’re going to take advantage of you. That’s just one of the many facts that you’ll learn as your poker skills grow. You will get to a point where you have to be aware of the game play around you. This might take some time, but it’s well worth it.

 

You really only have three reasons to go all in:

 

 

You are convinced without a doubt that you have the best hand.

 

You have your image controlled to a point where you know that if you go all in, you’ll scare players out of the pot.

 

You know that you have a good hand and you need to quickly raise your chip count to avoid being devoured by blinds (forced bets).

 

Going all in is something that definitely can make your game play soar. However, if you don’t get the flop that you want, or the turn/river that you want, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening.

 

Consider this — if you’re unsure about the possibilities of winning the pot and you just want to intimidate the other players, you might want to think about actually doing a big raise rather than an all in proposition. Your opponent(s) reaction is going to determine what you do next.

 

 

Your opponent might raise you back, but if you truly have a good hand then you can call and let the flop do the rest. It’s important that if you still have a good hand that you raise on the flop as well. Otherwise the other players will simply assume that you don’t really have anything good.

 

Are there times where you might want to limp in? Sure there are — when you really do have a great hand with great potential, and you want to pull as many players into the pot as you can.

 

Over time, you’ll get better and better at determining when to go all in. As long as you think about it logically, you’ll cut down a lot of your risk. Start getting emotional and you won’t play poker very long, that’s for sure!