You might have heard of the “Stop n Go” maneuver in poker but it’s important to remember it’s true definition and proper usefulness within your poker arsenal. It is
primarily used in tournament play but there are some circumstances that in a cash game you would use it – however in this article we will solely focus on the tournament aspect of this
play. This move is used when you are short-stacked and you have a hand that you are willing to go the distance with in an attempt to double up.
Let’s say you have a decent hand (think along the lines of a mid pocket pair, or two broadway cards) while shortstacked and you have about 15 big blinds left. You’re almost on
the threshold of just shoving because of your stack to big blind ratio warrants the move if someone raises before you act in the hand (note that this is typically done when you have only 10 big
blinds left). You want to use this move specifically against opponents that will be tight post-flop and have around the same amount or a little bit more in chips than you do. Remember
if you make an open shove preflop against someone who is deepstacked they have the odds to call with just about any holding in their hand and you simply don’t have the chips to force your
opponent to fold with your re-raise.
The goal for this move is that you want to create a situation where you survive in the tournament and win the pot by creating a situation for your opponent where it becomes easy for them to
fold. This play can be done both in and out of position so long as you know that you will just be heads up post-flop (so typically do this with position so you can guarantee yourself this
situation. If this is the situation, it’s time for the Stop n Go play.
Example:
This is a somewhat controversial example because there is a huge case for just shoving this hand preflop and getting it in. However I wanted to show a clear case of the Stop n Go theory used
when you have a decent hand so you can have confidence in what the theory is trying to prove. Our hero makes the flat call with AQ suited from the SB against a standard raise rather than just
open shove which might get called (and cracked and lose!). The K hits and our Hero open shoves the flop which looks dramatically like our hero is holding a K to the villain, who lets the hand
go.
One thing you will hear top internet and live tournament poker players constantly say is that they apply pressure to their opponents to make the big decisions. In this case we have tremendous
fold equity in the hand. Fold equity is a poker concept that it is the equity a player can expect to gain due to the villain folding. In our example above if the villain had called that
all in bet at the flop there is no doubt that the villain would have called a preflop shove to begin with, basically meaning that the hand would have played itself out the same whether you tried
calling or just shoving. In our example using the Stop n Go method, we’ve created a scenario for our hero where he creates fold equity in the hand. Basically, he’s giving the
villain a chance to fold where otherwise he would have called a preflop shove and guaranteeing himself survival in the tournament and a decent pot.
Another Example
This hand comes from the “balls of steel” category in terms of pulling off a Sit n Go when “not exactly shortstacked” but you want to steamroll a weak opponent. Now the
caveat for this hand is that our read on the villain is that he makes raises with decent cards but will only continuation bet when he hits
the flop or has an overpair pocket pair. He checks the bad flop and our hero just shoves it and takes it down. Having this solid read on our opponent, as well as putting him on a decision
for his tournament life makes this a gutsy (and successful) Stop n Go play.
Final Comments and Tips
First, if you are multiway in a pot you really cannot use this method effectively long term. It might work once but this theory is meant for heads-up situations where you are isolating your
opponent. If we go multi-way to the flop there’s a good chance that somebody made something worth calling your all in bet which would be disaster if all you have is ace
high. If that is the situation (where you have a decent holding and you see a raiser and it gets called, and then action is to you) your best move is to just shove the chips in the middle and
hope for the best.
If you are familiar with a HUD or have already read through the article, what we are going to do in this article is run a quiz for you by providing a hand up until a certain point and then
offer you the stats of the villain.
