Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
So if you have played any decent amount of poker you have heard the term "coinflip" or "flip". Which refers to when 2 hands are all-in pre-flop, & the odds of either hand winnning when all five community cards are dealt out are about 50/50 or a coinflip. Now when it comes to winning a tournament you need to get a little lucky & win a few of these coinflips. One word of advice though, its a good idea to try & avoid these "coinflips" for all of your money early on in a tourney, because there is ussually a better spot to accummulate chips. with that being said I also find it to be highly important to pay attention to your fellow opponents & how aggressive they are. Some opponents have a very wide "shoving range"(how strong/weak the hands they choose to shove their whole stack with), & you could inadvertantly fold what you think is a coinflip, when you could have a very nice situation like pair over pair. In conclusion I try to avoid flips early, unless against a highly aggressive player. In which case I will ussually go ahead & take a shot, hoping that a % of the time I will be in a much better situation than a flip. All in all you can't avoid them the entire tournament, & you need to win a few to win the tourney, but beware the flip. Until next time mobsters GL on the felt.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
I think it's also important for players to observe a bit the table they are playing on, i mean it won't be a smart move to go all in or call an all in from a rock/tight player.
I think the best would be to spot for players that play over aggressive and preferable if have stacks a bit shorter than yours.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Posted by Macubaas: I think the best would be to spot for players that play over aggressive and preferable if have stacks a bit shorter than yours.
I couldn't disagree more. I would much rather be in a coin flip with a slightly bigger stack than a slightly smaller stack. Either slightly bigger or a lot smaller is best. As the op mentioned you ideally want to avoid them in tourneys since it increases the number of "swingy" hands but if you are short-stacked or need to double up quick then you may want a coin flip to double or bust. Also if players are very tight around the bubble you can shove with AK guessing that if you do get called you have a coin flip but also have serious fold equity. But in any case you don't want to be called by or be calling a slightly smaller stack since your odds of winning the hand are about 50%. Therefore you ideally want to double up in full not double up 90-95% of your stack. If you are left super-short stacked you will basically have failed the mission of the coin-flip, to get you into the safety zone or capitalize on implied odds i.e. you will be practically out of the tournament if you lose but not get the full advantage of doubling up if you win. If you call for 75% of your stack, it's normally ok unless you were already shortstack and desperate for a double up or playing a turbo but shoving for 50% or less with implied folding equity is happy days.
coin flip situations are generally best avoided unless your M is starting to get so small that you are in danger of losing your fold equity or you are a big stack pushing around a smaller stack.
Joined: Jan '13
Location: Ukraine
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 115
at the begining of the tourney is better to avoid the coinflip.but after some time you can stay with a small stack.usually it comes on bubble.If you want to get awarding place you have to go all in and try your coinflip.It is very nice when you get a high pocket pair and go all in.
