A Common Misconception - Poker Hendon Mob

A Common Misconception

Imagine the following scenario. You are three tables out in a poker tournament and have a good chip stack. The blinds are 1000/2000 and player UTG moves all in for 6,000. A player in late position calls and the button calls as well. You find King, Queen off-suit on the big blind.

The biggest mistake that you can make is to fold and calling isn't a bad thing to do. You know that the player UTG was forced to make this play as he was so low on chips and doesn't have to have much. The two late position callers also know this and don't have to have too much either. You know that if they had a strong hand they would have raised.

Some players seem to think that because the UTG player is all in that it is everyone else's responsibility to try and knock him out - it's a tournament right? And many will be upset with you for making the play that you are about to.

You are gong to make a large re-raise to isolate yourself with the all-in player. What you do here is create dead money in the pot. The UTG player may have a small pair where you are about even money. If he has something like A,5 you are as much as 42% and you may well have him dominated if he has a King or a Queen. You already have 2,000 in the pot and as you'll get the raise back you are getting odds of 21 to 4 for a coin toss.

You may have seen players do this and get berated by others at the table '…he was all-in, are you mad?' but this is a very profitable play to make.