All-in Preconditioning

[Some Pig]

There is a common practice in nolimit HU SNGs where very early in the tournament (perhaps within the first three hands) that someone goes all in for 1500 even though the blinds are only 10-20 at that point.

Has anyone ever seen this? Is this a preparation for a future all-in move with the nuts? How does one make this kind of move an effective trapping weapon?

[Dromar]

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Has anyone ever seen this?

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I've seen it, but usually from people who were routinely going in every hand.

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Is this a preparation for a future all-in move with the nuts?

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I doubt it, because...

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How does one make this kind of move an effective trapping weapon?

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I don't think this can be done. There is just no hand that should be open pushed HU for 75bbs. Any good hand can make more by making a bet that'll get called, and any bad hand is risking too much.

Two things:

1. If I knew my opponent would only call me with AA if I open pushed for 75bbs, I would. Same if he only called with AA or KK. But those cases are nearly nonexistent, so the point is worthless.

2. At low buy-in HU matches (or against a poor player in general) I sometimes see this done with low pairs 22-77. The bad player reasons that since he is completely clueless with low pairs after the flop, he should end the action preflop. They obviously don't realise that IF they only ever got called by overcards, their slim cEV margin wouldn't be big enough to cover the rake of the HU matches, which requires at least a 52.5% win rate. So even if they knew I didn't have an overpair, they would be losing money or breaking even at best. Then again, bad players don't really think, so it makes sense they might do this.

[Slappy002]

If you're playing for more than $5, the allin move in the first few hands instantly identifies your opponent as a very poor player. There are many different reasons why they might do this, none of them are good or worth trying to figure out. Don't worry about it too much since someone this bad will absoloutely give you their money without much trouble.

At $5 or less heads up matches, I actually used to go allin from the SB with AJ-AK/55+ with blinds at 10/20. I made quite a bit of money doing this.
I did this since making standard raises was pointless (would ALWAYS get called down and often end up losing) and, of course, if I get them to fold enough of their marginal/good hands to my allin then later on they will get fed up and call me when I have a monster.

[Some Pig]

One thing is that they don't always go all in pre-flop. Sometimes they go all in on the flop, then show garbage if you fold. Then in the future when a flop comes A-6-6, they'll go all in again and your AK is dead against 63.

They know how to sense weakness and use that to go all in on the flop or pre-flop then show garbage. Then you're toast if you have JJ and they have KK the next time they go all in.

I think that there is merit to this kind of play when the stacks are still very deep heads up. I am open minded to having this move as part of my repertoire to be balanced with the other tactics and plays.

The question is how and when and how often and in combination what what other moves.