Push or fold
also called shove or fold
Push or fold is the way a very short stack is played, where the only two actions worth taking before the flop are moving all in and folding.
It becomes correct because raising smaller leaves nothing behind. Below roughly 12 big blinds any raise commits most of the stack anyway, so the raise that keeps the option of folding later is buying an option it can never use.
It is also the part of poker that is closest to solved. The correct ranges depend only on the stack, the seat and the number of players left, which is why they can be memorized in a way that no postflop decision can.
an example
your cards
You have 9 big blinds on the button and everyone folds to you. Raising to 2 and folding to a shove would waste a fifth of your stack, so the hand is either all in or in the muck, and ace eight is comfortably all in.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find push or fold in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
Shove
To shove is to move all in, putting your entire stack in the pot in one action.
Short stack
A stack is short when it is small relative to the blinds, usually under about 30 big blinds, which removes most of the r ...
ICM
The Independent Chip Model, or ICM, estimates what a tournament stack is worth in prize money by treating each player's ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
The full order of play, from the blinds to the showdown.