Sklansky's all-in system

[aginamist 0]

I'm sorry; but you can't say that most people play this strategy on pokerstars.

[Guest]

I would also agree that most "good" people online will use this strategy, often, they will limp in with monster hands hoping someone will either try this strategy and go all in after having the blinds called or whatever, and the part that I don't like about it is, having to anticipate someone calling with an even better hand, for posssibly your entire chip stack... it only takes once, and somewhere it said that 13% of the time you do this, someone will most likely call you with a stronger hand, and even 13% doesn't sound convincing enough for me.

[aginamist 0]

The point with this system was simply that everyone would fold everything except AA.

[opie 0]

EXPERIMANTAL RESULTS:I tried it on a $2+0.25 tournament on The Gaming Club and came in 53rd place out of 243. They paid the top 10. I tried using Sklansky's improved system listed in the article posted previously (which is also in the book I mention in the first post of this thread).I made it to level 7 where the blinds were 150/300. Initial chip stack was 1500 and I had my stack up around 3500. I was in 43rd place out of 53 when I went out.I went all in 11 times in total (over almost an hour and a half - I think around 80 hands). I was called twice, once when I went all in with A9 during level 4 and someone called me with A2 and I doubled up. The other was the last time I went all in with 88 and found my eliminator holding AA.Weird hands: I think I was supposed to go all in with a 43s, but I was too slow to figure that out. That just didn't seem right, but it fit the formula. I guess I would have picked up the blinds had I done that. Also, the hand right after my double up I was dealt 10-10 and I folded it. Ow. That hurt. But the blinds were small, my stack was larger, and there were may players still to act, and the formula said to fold. Once they let me limp in from the big blind with J4 and the flop came J64 and I check folded to a small raise. That seemed so wrong, but I reminded myself I was playing to test the experiment, not to alter the strategy as I saw best.Overall, I was getting short stacked, but still in the tournament and I was going to have to steal some more blinds and double up a few times to cash, but I guess that is the case for most people playing tournaments. I don't think I have enough data to decide how useful the strategy is. Maybe I'll try again some time this week. Anyone else care to post results?Peace,Opie

[Catamo 0]

I saw this one guy known as "George the greek" do this on TV in final table play down to last 3... He was incredably short stacked down to around 5k.. (High stack had something like 800k, and the other guy had like 300k) He went All in with every hand... Although every time he was given a fairly decent hand.It took a few coin flips, a couple underdog wins, and something that can only be explained as a maricle. (AA vs his A7.. lol) He hit a 7 flop, and a 7 river. After each win... hed yell "Greek Never dies" several times. He won about 6 times in a row... But even all those double ups werent enough, he still had 1/3 of the high stack, until he finally lost. But it was a good show.

[Quadrupled 0]

"back in the days", I played some prima poker freerolls. I had read some "online tips" and so, and felt really great when I understood that pair vs overs the pair was favourite (today I know 22 vs JTs is a dog...).What happened was that I allmost went allin instantly with pocketpairs, normally raising allin, even at level 1. I also did this with hands like AK/AQ, not as much KQ, since I read somewhere it was bad, since u pretty much up against pair or AK/AQ all the time.This strategy brought me many cashes during my "freerolltime", and even a 2nd place in 6000+ player tourney! In that tourney I knocked out 5 chipleaders! lol

[princeof56k 0]

Well i tried my own version of this strategy tonight in a freeroll. I push all-in with any pair, AK AQ KQ suited or offsuit, and AJ KJ QJ AT suited. I fold anything else. Pretty small range of hands so I just sat there most of the time. Here's the results:I finished 638 out of 2400 people. I played 9 hands total (not counting my BB when I was allowed to check). On 5 of those I got no callers. Sometimes it amounted to just stealing the blinds, and other times it caused people betting in front of me to fold.On the 4 hands that saw action, here's how they went in order.1. I hold 44 and someone bets in front. I go all-in, a person calls behind me, and the original better calls as well. So it was 3 way action, and all of our stacks were similar since it was early. First caller has AQos and the orginal better has KTos. My 4s were ahead the whole way and set on the river. I triple up.2. I hold AQos. I go all-in and one person with a stack slightly smaller than mine calls. He has KQ suited. I pair my Ace on the flop and almost double up.3. I hold QQ. One person bets in front. I go all-in, and someone behind me calls as well as the original bettor. 3-way action again. The guy behind me had AA and the one in front had AQ. I lose to the AA, but since I had him covered, I was still in. I lost about 1/3 of my stack.4. I hold KK. I go all-in, and 2 people behind me call. First one has QQ and the second one has AKos. Again, 3-way action. The AK hit another Ace, but the pocket Qs hit a set. I was eliminated.My hands that I went all-in and no-one called were: AK suited, AK offsuit (twice), QQ, AQ suited.So was it a success? I would say no because with the hands I got I should of been able to get much further. One the other hand, if this was someone who had no idea what they were doing, getting this far might be ok. Because they might get out played postflop and been elimiated earlier. It would be very easy for a newbie to stay in too long with AK or AQ and lose alomost all their chips.

[Huskers20 0]

Tried it on a $5 at empire for shiiittss and giggles....actually mad it to final 45 paid 30 but i was short stacked....also fist hour i owly went 500 instedad of all in w/ hands i wanted some action from....Then i was ss went against rules went all in 1500 w/ aq got called by ak....ended up in 41 or 2 paid 30 not bad though and for $5 was kind of fun....Though went all in w/ ten ten on another tourney that i was multi tabling b/c of it....wasn't paying enough attention instead of qualifiying got $$$ oh well it was kind of funHuskers20

[HangukMiguk 8]

Well, I don't like the thought of this strategy being played in a WSOP/WPT/EPT event. However, this is an effective strategy to play in a Speed tournament. You pick up a hand, you're either all-in or fold. You get chips early on or you're waiting for the next tournament. And yes, early on as in, ignoring the rule about this strategy in the early stages.I've put this to test in PokerChamps freerolls, blinds raise every 6 minutes, it's hard to play poker, because while the blinds are raising, if you're just playing real poker, you've probably still got the same table you drew for the start of it, so you're all going to be on the shortstack very quickly. Plus you're going to find yourself in the middle of tournament moving all-in when everyone else is forced to make the same move. So just moving in when you catch a hand and hoping for callers is the best way to get to the money here.I've tried both ways, actually playing poker & getting nowhere, and playing this all-in strategy and cashing 5 times in 2 weeks of limited play on this site. You get called a moron, you get a lot of choice insults, and people will tell you to learn how to play real poker, but these are the people that end up not cashing because they find themselves at the later stages having to move in with meager stacks.I'm not a fan of speed tournaments because you can't play real poker, and I can't stress this enough. I wrote an article on PokerRoom.com that I'm hoping get's published about them. But, if you play them, this is the exact way to play them.

[tklefty 0]

I signed up with royal Vegas in order to play in the forum challenge next month and noticed they have these speed freerolls, so I signed up for one this morning at 8am.Decided to try this all-in strategy just to say I tried it.I think the blinds were going up every 5-6 min and in addition, you only have 10 sec to act or you're folded.starting chips 1,000I fold for the obligatory 3 levels...10-20, 15-30, 25-50so now I have 875, should be 850, but I went right from bb to button on level 3 due to an elimination.I get 33 and push in the 875, get called by JT I double up. now it gets really chilly... no playable cards for 3 more levels and the blinds are eating me alive, but since this is an experiment I simply fold my KQo and my JTo which I normally may try to see a cheap flop with.the only time I had suited connectors they were 32 and 34 and from what I recalled, these were taboo for purposes of the experiment.Finally I get 33 again with the blinds at 150-300 and my stack at 1075one limper in front , I push, bb calls, limper calls = 3 way actionboard ended up 5-6-A-7-8 bb turned over 39 and took it down with a straight, I'm out in 1162 out of 6158 All in all, not bad for only playing 2 hands, win one, lose one and beat 5,000 playersWho knows what would have happened had my cards not been so terrible, I may have pushed earlier and lost, or i may have stolen enough blinds so that in the final hand the bb would not have deemed it worthwhile to call with 39see you...TK

[Fluffyfrog 0]

I tried the sklansky-system in a freeroll at pokerroom.com and made it to the final table.

[princeof56k 0]

Well, I don't like the thought of this strategy being played in a WSOP/WPT/EPT event.

I wouldnt use it in these tournaments either, but I think some guy did make it to the final table of a WPT event using a similar strategy. I cant remember the exact WTP show, but Daniel was at the final table also. The announcers had said something about his all-in strategy, and how it might not be a bad idea since he was so over matched at the table. I think Daniel said something (in jest of course) to the All-in guy like, "Are we going to play real poker this time?" The problem for the table was the guy kept going all-in with premium hands. So he caused the pros to make some tough folds. I cant remember exactly what place the All-in guy finished.

I wrote an article on PokerRoom.com that I'm hoping get's published about them.

BTW, exactly what did you say about PokerRoom? I play there and would be interested to know what you have to say. Is there article available online somewhere?

[mikedshelton 0]

Sklansky's Add-In Points StrategyBusted - Busted - Busted and Busted Again...Busted in all four UB touneys - $1 Buy - In, turbo, fourth level of blinds, 88 in late position get creamed by AJs - AAxJx (laughable)$5 Buy - In, first and only hand played... AT in cutoff v KK bigblind (ouch)$5 Buy - In, stole a few blinds... half way thru tourney in top half of players... 55 in middle position busted by AJ smallblind$5 Buy - In, turbo, half way thru tourney in top half of players... limp in BB (45off) flop nut str8 (2h36h), busted by button (33) when fourth three hits the riverI'm not sure I would have made the money in any of these... but the no-brain strategy is quite boring...

[Ignition 0]

The Isle of Crete!It was the Euro Open or something. He was shortstacked, he couldn't do much more than try to double up to a respectable amount.Good show? Agreed...

[Uppie_ 0]

never thought of it for a speed tourament but it might be one way to play those terrible things called turbo's that i seem to hate and have basically stopped playing. I read on some online site a while back a similar strat for SNG i think it might have been a lindgren article. So i tried it a couple of times and it worked great even on full tilt where players are supposed to be smarter and well normally are. It was a little more restrictive in hand selection because the author realized you are going to get called by hands that shouldn't, i think it said bascially push in with big pairs jacks on up, and AK AQ. when i did this and was lucky enough to catch a few hands early i found my self out to massive chip leads or done to a suck out early. It was my expernence on full tilt that you had to get a couple of these hands and move in with them in order to make your oppentents upset with and get them to call otherwise they did the wise thing and fold and you won very little. I think the theory behind it is to take advantage of the weak players in your sng and get all there chips instead of letting some one else, also you get in a few pots and win you have the chips to handle the suck out.

[HangukMiguk 8]

I wrote an article on PokerRoom.com that I'm hoping get's published about them.

BTW, exactly what did you say about PokerRoom? I play there and would be interested to know what you have to say. Is there article available online somewhere?

I, for the most part, enjoy the layout of PokerRoom.com. When I'm having a bad week of play, I'll go there to play (I haven't deposited on there, so it's only for play money) and unwind. It was the first site I started out on, because it was one of the only sites that would work on my Linux computer with it's Java version. It's got a decent community, but you get some really horrible players, in attitude and in play, over there, as you do with any large poker site.The article should be approved in a few weeks I believe. It was titled "The Dangers of Playing Speed Tournaments" and the first poker article I've ever written. But this was a subject that I knew my first article would be about for the longest time. If it doesn't get published on poker room, or doesn't get put up in a few weeks. I'll send it to you and anyone else who wants a copy. I might even end up putting it on my poker blog later, but PM me your e-mail address just in case it doesn't get published and I'll send you a copy of it.

[Adaon 0]

I played two freerolls today to try out the system.167/1183 on Absolute63/2500 on UBI played the system as closely as I possibly could, in fact, nearly every deviation was to my detriment. On AP I only moved all in 5 times. The last hand was AQ v A5.On UB it was 35 hands I played. (some incorrectly to the system that I lost small on) My last hand was AK v AQ, and something nutty like 67 offsuit. AQ made two pair.So there you go for whatever that is worth.

[BluffHappy 0]

Realistically, it hasn't applied to any tournament I've ever played in. It would only work against a table of tight players who respected my early position all-in. This is not the case in tournaments of any stakes, anymore.If you push all in under the gun, anyone with AK or pocket J's and up will call you either because they have you covered by a decent amount and are willing to gamble or they're short stacked and they need to gamble. At this point, you'll have to show your 67 suited and people will lose complete respect for your early position all-ins.This strategy might have been effective in a pro tournament 5 years ago, but due to the recent poker boom and large influx of loose players, it's obsolete now.~Mike

[bane 0]

I think that it is ironic that this "system" is being discussed on this forum. As many know DN hates and I mean hates the MIS's or Move in Specialists. Why? Because its the only way that a newbie can compete with him.Example: Newbie shows up to a major tourney after having watched 100's of hours of the WPT, and WSOP and wants to take a shot at the big prize money and national fame. But as we all know he or she is at a great disavantage. I believe the term is "DEAD MONEY", well there is no way that Mr. or Mrs. Dead Money can compete with the likes of EDawg, DN, Ivey or even the brackish Phil Helmuth.These players have to much talent, poker savy, and tournement experience. But what would a tournament be if only the top pros played. While the action would be interesting the purses would be tiny. So the pros want all that dead money involved. Because they know that they have a HUGE advantage over the newbies.Except of course if the newbie has a "system" that allows him or her to negate many of the aggressive, intelligent moves that the pros spent years trying to develop.DN hates move in specialists because he like all pros have no good counter part to the moves.You've seen it recently when DN was baggering the guy at the final table in the WPT because all he did was move "all-in."Why, because DN like most pros does not want to have the out come of a major tournement come down to luck or the flip of a coin. He would prefer to use his superior aggressive play dictate the long-term out come of the match. Not some "idiot" who pushes his whole stack in the middle regardless of the two cards he/she is holding.So a "system" of all-in moves has POWER, especially if you use thought, creativity, and intuition as when to move "all-in".DN wrote a special article a few years back dedicated to the MIS and how much he dislikes it. With the attention that he has given it and the thought that his "best buddy" Slansky has given it. There must be something their.I mostly play NL Holdem, and because the blinds don't raise every 10-12 minutes I can take a good tight/aggressive approach. But when I play tournament or SNG's I use a variation of Slansky's "system".I have had great success, with it especially in the SNG's, I have not placed lower than 5th 95 of the last 100 I have played. Which means most of the time I am only competeing against 1 or 2 other players to get into the money.Like I said I play a variation of Slansky's "system" not all of what he wrote I thinks works well, like going "all-in" with suited connectors like 7-6s.But I also let the aggressive pro wannabees bust each other up until there just a few of us lefts to fight over who gets in the money.

[jtwoms 0]

In that episode I'm pretty sure he was saying "The Island of Crete." Not Greek.Edit: Sorry, I didnt see that there were two pages...

[chilenocl 0]

I tried the original Sklansky’s system in a players point $500 Party Poker free entry tournament. A field of 2198 people. I lasted almost 3 hours. Here’s the hands I played:Folded KK during the first 2 levelsDidn’t play a hand all first 3 levelsLevel 4, all in with 67s, AJ off called me and I win and double upThen I went all in with 44 and stole blinds + limpers’s moneyAll in with AKs, get called by AK off and we split potThen I went all in with A5s and stole blinds + limpers’s moneyJQs all in and someone with JJ that had limped in with lots of chips, called, I catch a Q and double up againI’m all in UTG with 89s, chip leader in BB thinks about calling but foldsLevel 7: Guy goes all-in in front of me I fold KAThird hour begins: (Level 8)Level 10: One person limps in UTG, I’m all in with KAs, one guy calls with 33, I double upI had 56s UTG, I went all in and one person with A9 called. I got 2 more diamonds on flop and an inside straight draw, but that’s it. I lost to A9. The board had 2 pair and the guy won with his Ace kicker.So I had 800 chips left after that and next hand I was all in with KA off in the big blind. Lots of people were in the pot, 4k pot. This guy bluffed and made everyone fold. He had Ace high with an 8 kicker and his 8 came on the river to win him the pot.I placed 137th out of 2198! Without playing one hand.Well that’s it. I was surprised how well that went, although I did get lucky a couple of times.Had I taken over with my normal strategy instead of going all with 56s under the gun, I think I had a good chance of making it far. I mean I had a bout 6k when I did that and the big blind was 600 so I wasn’t really shortstacked.Oh well I plan on doing it again, maybe I post results again, later.NickPartypoker name: chilenocl