Keeping a Full Stack
Often at mid to higher stakes poker games, you will see players who buy in for the maximum at the table and then continually refill their stack each time they go down even a dollar. The reasoning behind this kind of a move is that you can only make what you risk. These players want to have full value on their hands when they make them, and so for every dollar they don’t have in their coffers when the hand starts, that’s a dollar they don’t get paid when they make their big hands and double up.
It may seem trifling or obsessive to poker players with a less systematic approach to the game, but for players who employ a tight, aggressive style, waiting for big hands and getting paid on them, this kind of dollars and sense behavior can make the difference in hundreds and even thousands of dollars over a year. It adds up!
This kind of a concept is less important if you are the sort of player who prefers to gamble, but if you are reading online poker articles I must imagine that you are looking to improve your game and maximize profit. So think about it like this: when you double up once, you are doubling every dollar you have. If you are shy one blind, or a couple of bucks from a whole bet made and lost, if you don’t replenish it in front of you, you can’t double it when your hand is made.
Typically then, when you see players employing this kind of method, you should note that they are probably playing big hands for big pots, and be more willing to give them credit for a hand when they put it all on the line.
