All-in

Going all-in means betting every chip you have in front of you. Slang for it: shoving, jamming or pushing.

How all-in works

• In No-Limit, you can go all-in any time it’s your turn. In Pot-Limit and Limit, you’re all-in when a bet or call takes your last chips.
• You can’t be forced out. Once you’re all-in, you stay in the hand until the showdown, even if others keep betting. You can’t bet more, but you can’t lose more either.
• Table stakes. You can only bet the chips in front of you when the hand starts. You can’t add money mid-hand.
• Calling all-in for less. If someone bets more than you have, you can call with everything you’ve got. You don’t need to match the full bet.
• Cards face up in tournaments. Once a player is all-in and all betting is over, every hand still in is turned face up.

Side pots

You can only win from each opponent as much as you put in yourself. Any extra betting between other players goes into a side pot.

Example: Player A goes all-in for 50. Players B and C have more chips, and each puts in 150 in total.

• Main pot: 150 (50 from each player). A, B or C can win it.
• Side pot: 200 (the extra 100 each from B and C). Only B or C can win it.

More: how side pots work.

Does a short all-in reopen the betting?

Usually not. Under most No-Limit rules, if a player goes all-in for less than a full raise, players who have already acted can only call or fold, not re-raise. House rules vary.

When to go all-in

In tournaments, once your stack drops to around 10 to 15 big blinds, going all-in or folding is often the best play; see the push-fold charts. In deep-stacked cash games, all-ins before the flop are rare and usually mean a very strong hand.