All-in

Betting your entire stack

Definition

Going all-in means committing all of your chips on a single hand. It's the strongest action in poker: once all-in, you can no longer be pushed off your hand — you'll see every remaining card no matter what. In exchange, you can't win more than your own stack covers. When several players are involved with different stack sizes, an all-in creates side pots: the shortest stack can only win the main pot, built up to the level of their own commitment; the extra bets from the other players go into a side pot contested between them. The effective stack determines what each player actually risks. Preflop, the all-in becomes a central weapon as stacks get short: below ~15 big blinds the game simplifies into push/fold, where the only real decision is to jam or muck. The strategic point of the short shove: it maximizes fold equity (your opponent must risk a stack to see) while avoiding difficult postflop decisions with a stack that has no room left to maneuver.