Here’s the scenario: You’re sitting at a $5/$10 no-limit game of Texas Hold-em at your local casino. You walked in with $500 and bought several stacks of chips. Now, you’re up to $1000 because you’ve been playing well. You want to leave with at least as much as you came in with. The cards have been dealt, and you have pocket aces—the best possible starting hand. The blinds are relatively low, but the guy sitting to your right bets $200—a huge amount considering the situation. Chances are you have a better hand than him. You should call. No, you should raise. You don’t hesitate. Then, when you flop a third ace, the guy to your right goes all-in for a total of $1000. The odds are in your favor—he’s been playing aggressively the entire game, and at this point, there are maybe two hands that can beat yours depending on what’s on the board. You don’t hesitate to go all-in.
Why not? Why would you not stop to think about such a huge move?
Good players would say that if the odds were right, you should call no matter what. But average players shouldn’t be able to just throw such a huge amount of money away.