Automatic All-In Protection

Practically ever on line poker site has a feature called “automatic all-in”. The name is a little miss leading as far as poker terminology goes. Skip the automatic part for a second and let’s discuss the usage of all-in. It does not mean that all of your chips are in play. In this instance, and this one only, it means that you can not bet nor fold. That you are locked into the pot just as it is. Now, back to automatic. No misunderstanding here, it is that the feature automatically treats the rest of the hand like you are all-in. You don’t have to activate this feature, the site software does it for you.

Why? Good question. This feature is used when you have placed a bet in a hand and for some reason, lose your connection to the internet, the site, or the room. The software times you out and assumes that the connection has been lost and that you are attempting to get it reestablished. A scary thought about playing on line for real money is to be $50 into a pot with a great hand and get kicked off because the your server crashed or for those of you with dial up, an incoming call kicked you off the net. Your money is safe and so is your part of the pot. If you win, the part of the pot that you have bet on is yours and the next best hand would win side pots that occurred after your connection lose. It doesn’t matter whether you actually lost the connection, got distracted and timed out, fell asleep, or what ever. As long as you have placed chips in the pot and not folded, you are still in the hand for that pot.

There has been a growing concern of abuse of this feature and some sites have responded with not allowing it at certain tables or events. This will be stated in the table or event description by saying “No All-Ins or All-Ins Not Allowed” or something to that effect. Also most sites have a limited number of all-ins that you are allowed to have in a certain period of time, about 2 or 3 within 24 hours. Now you are wondering how this feature can be abused. Simple, some people have a middle hand they are unsure of and are afraid to bet or call but at the same time they can’t bring themselves to fold the cards away. They sit and get timed out so that they can play for the pot they have bet on and make every other bet or raise go into a side pot. In poker this is dirty pool. No matter how you try to justify it, if you allow yourself to be timed out so you can straddle the fence on a hand without risking anymore chips, it is cheating. Cheating is not to be tolerated in poker. Not ever. If you are playing at a table with someone that repeatedly does this, contact support and inform them of what is going on. This type of play can and will get an account suspended and closed. If you’re in a hand you play or fold. Another point this brings up is, not only know the poker terminology but the context in which it is used.