The stop-and-go

Advanced Tournament Stategy: The stop-and-go

The stop-and-go was invented by Greg Raymer (winner of the WSOP in 2004).
It`s a strategic move which has been invented for a specific situation that you
will regularly encounter in SNGs and tournaments.

Example:

You are in the big blind. You`re stack is about 9 Big Blinds and you are dealt
a small or medium pocket pair. a player open raises to 3 Big Blinds from a late position. You call his raise planning to push any flop. This is called a stop-and-go.

There are three reasons why the stop-and-go is a profitable move:

1. If you would reraise preflop, you will probably get called as your opponent
will get pretty good odds. Against his range you will probably have a coin flip or
about 20% if he has a higher pocket pair.

2. If your opponent has a higher pocket pair and the flop contains overcards to his pocket pair, he might fold to your push.

3. If your opponent has overcards to your pair and he misses the flop, he will
probably fold to your push. He might even fold a middle pair higher than your pocket pair!

By not pushing preflop, which would give your opponent an easy decision, but waiting for the flop you create a difficult decision for your opponent. He might make an expensive mistake, which benefits you!

The key is to really push every flop, regardless of what comes. If you check you will give your opponent the opportunity
to steal the pot from you.