Called many things from the “go for broke” method to the “bank it all” method, it’s designed for people who want to take a huge chance at exponentially increasing the size of their bankroll in a small period of time. This entails betting huge, and if you happen to catch a huge positive wave of cards, you end up with the huge chip stack. If you get to that point, however, you make a complete U-turn and reduce your wagers to meager, calculated amounts over the long hall.

In the event that you lose your “go for broke” wager, you still follow the same principle of reducing your bet, then playing smart and conservatively until you slowly but steadily build up your bankroll back to that “go for broke” level, and then do it all over again. Of course, you have to be confident enough in your skill to even entertain the idea of implementing this strategy, if for no other reason than to be prepared (and be honest with yourself) that your “go for broke” play isn’t going to hit most of the time. So you’ll be knocked down and climbing back to the starting point more often that leaping far ahead of the pack.

I’ll offer one benefit and one negative to this strategy. The benefit is that you’re not playing against the clock – in fact, you can’t if you want this to work for you in the end. Understanding that this is an up-and-down strategy that will rely on you to factor in how long you plan to play before you sit down, allowing yourself that time to regenerate your bankroll if you fall behind is crucial to your success here. I like the ability to utilize patience, something that doesn’t necessarily enter the picture in blackjack as much as it does in poker.

The negative in my opinion is risk/return. As I alluded to earlier, you can play the basic principles of this strategy in almost every casino game. It’s not necessarily exclusive to blackjack – at least the initial major bet. So if you’re determined to “go for broke” no matter what, why not put your money up on something that’s likely to yield a higher return than a 1:1 or 3:2 blackjack hand? Sure the odds are more in your favor than most roulette bets. But I’d just as soon make a major bet in poker where I have the opportunity to claim an equal bet from three to four people than just fight the dealer for a single return on my money in blackjack.

Pocket aces is the best possible hand to play on pokerstars and the chances of getting pocket aces dealt to you is statistically 210:1. Of course the stats aren’t going to be perfect, but you could see that getting this hand is very difficult. When you get the best starting hand in Texas Holdem it’s hard to know what exactly to do in the situation. Most player’s will want to throw there chips in the pot right away, but that isn’t always the best move to make. Since pocket aces don’t come often you should make sure that you make some money on them and not just scare everyone out of the hand. This can be a double-edged sword though because sometimes when you slow-play pocket aces you get outdrawn.

One thing that is going to help you out is to find out what position you are on the table for the hand. If you’re in an early position then you should either flat-call or throw in a small minimum raise. This way you shouldn’t scare everyone out, but if you make a small raise you’ll at least get the junk out of the hand which is important so that they don’t outdraw you. If you have a late position on the table then you’ll obviously have to see what happens before your turn. If someone has already raised and every else has folded then I would recommend that you re-raise the pot. If the pot has a couple callers only and no one has raised then you’ll need to make the choice between flat-calling and making a small raise.

The benefits of raising with this hand on PokerStars.com is that you’ll be able to get the junk out of the hand and only someone will high suited cards or pocket pair will call you. If you flat-call then you will have no idea about what cards your opponents might have and this could lead to problems after the flop. For instance, if the flop came off with a 10-9-8 of clubs you’d be in trouble. Now there would be straight and flush options out there and if your opponent has the straight or flush it could cost you a lot of money. The benefit of flat-calling is that your opponents will have no idea that you have such a good hand. You’ll just need to wait out the flop and hope that it comes up a rainbow.

If the hand goes past the flop and there is another round of betting you have some choices. If you’re first to act you might want to check depending on the flop to see if you can trap your opponents. If the flop has straight or flush options opening up then you should make a bet without checking to make sure that your opponents have to pay for there draw.

Pocket aces is a hand that you don’t always want to get cute with in poker as it could burn you. I forget how many times I’ve seen pocket aces broken and I don’t want it to happen to you. Make sure you take the pot down early if you need to, allow some time for some chips to go in the pot, but at the first sign of flush or straight options make sure you make a big enough bet to get draws out of the hand.