The Poker Quiz

You are playing in an online heads-up sit and go. Your opponent has been playing aggressive and through some well-timed moves he has you out chipped T2,500 to T500. With the blinds at 15/30 he raises from the button to T150. You are dealt 4c4h.

The Solution

Call, with intentions of pushing your remaining T350 on any flop.

Greg Raymer is credited with this patented move known as the stop-and-go. When you are short stacked and first to act, you call with a middle to low pair before the flop and commit yourself to pushing all-in no matter what comes on the flop. This forces an aggressive opponent to fold unless he hits the flop hard. You have just enough chips to call the pre-flop bet to leave yourself with enough to get an opponent to fold. With a short stack you are willing to take the risk by simply calling pre-flop, only to push all your chips in on any flop. Flops with high cards are not necessarily bad, as if he has a small pair he would fold.