All in all the time!

Have you ever met an all in all the time donkey? They come in various varieties and sometimes wear disguises.

If you’ve played free tournaments or even low buy-in games online you have undoubtedly met the all in all the time donkey. Heck, you might even be one of them. If you are, stop doing it or stop playing poker, really you should stick with slot machines. What all in all the time says is that you believe poker is a game of pure chance so slots are more your speed.

I ran into the all in all the time donkey at a tournament once at my local casino where you see way less of that kind of thing, I think mainly because the tournaments cost real money, require effort to get to and can be intimidating for beginners. Come to think of it, it was the only time I have seen this type of donkey at a live tournament. At any rate, I heard a great quote about the all in donkey at that tournament. Keep in mind that I play quite a few tournaments at that casino ranging from 20 to 100 players where the buy-in ranges from freeroll to $400. This particular tournament was a freeroll with about 60 players so you can imagine the mix of players.

As we drew seats I recognized 3 guys who I had played with on a number of occasions, two of them I would describe as very good and one I would describe as loose but competent, I also recognized a woman I ended up heads up against in a pretty big tournament a few months prior (she’s very good) and the rest were clearly new to the game. Early in the tournament one of the poker newbies kept chucking all his chips in the pot and would stare down every player as they folded. After several all ins one of the better players (seated to my left and in the big blind) held his cards and said “I really like these cards” the all in donkey said “then why don’t you call” to which he replied “the ONLY time I can’t outplay you is when all of our chips are in the pot”. That summarized it and clarified the all in donkey in a way that made perfect sense to me.

The question I suppose is how do you play against this person? If you know my style you’ll not be surprised to hear me say that we need more information before we can assess the situation.

There is no clear answer to this question but I will share some thoughts through a couple of different scenarios. Remember that these are guidelines and many other factors come into play such as chip stack relative to the table, number pf players remaining, position etc. The fact that I am even outlining a scenario on how to play the all in donkey reminds me that it is easy to focus on him when he’s at your table, but don’t lose sight of everyone else at the table. Ultimately, the sooner he’s gone the better. Although ideally you would like to be the one to separate him from his chips, do keep in mind that the main thing you want ... him gone.

Scenario 1
Early in a tournament and donkey and I have a similar amount of chips.
If he acts before me and goes all in I look him up with JJ QQ KK and AA only. If I act before him I raise with all of those hands plus AK and maybe 10 10 depending on my position and the other players at the table. As a general rule I have found that the poker player who pushes doesn’t like to be pushed back.

Scenario 2
Heaven forbid you end up heads up against this donkey. Actually, I mention heads up because I think you will agree or find (if you end up heads up in a lot of tournaments) sometimes the player who is not an all in donkey decides to become that guy when heads up. When you’re heads up you typically can’t sit and wait on too many hands. If you’re the short stack pick a “decent” hand and hope to hit. If I’m short stacked and playing the all in guy the number of hands I won’t call with is a shorter list than the hands I will call with. If you’re the big stack one strategy is to simply call from small blind when you pick up a premium hand and wait for him to toss the rest of his chips in the pot and quick call him. Alternatively, you can mix it up when you’re first to act by putting all of your chips in the pot … remember that usually this type of player likes to push but not be pushed.

Ultimately, if you are playing heads up against someone who insists on making it a coin toss, pick a hand that you are comfortable with and flip the coin and let the chips fall where they may.

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