When Do You Call an All-In?
With roughly one hand in ten — and tighter the shorter your own stack is. Facing an all-in the solver continues with 12.9 to 17.0 of 169 hands, depending on stack size. That surprises most people: short does not mean desperate.
The number
| Your stack | Hands that continue | Spots |
|---|---|---|
| up to 10 big blinds | 12.9 | 96 |
| 11–15 big blinds | 15.4 | 140 |
| 16–25 big blinds | 16.2 | 427 |
| over 25 big blinds | 17.0 | 557 |
All 1220 spots where somebody has moved all in in front of you. Counted per spot is how many hands mostly do not fold, then averaged within each stack band.
Why the short stack is the tighter one
A short stack that calls and loses is out. A big stack that calls and loses plays on. That is why the big stack is the one allowed to call wider — not the other way round.
If you think at 8 big blinds you have “nothing left to lose”, that is exactly what you have to lose: the rest. And in a tournament the rest is cash, because every place pays.
The gap is still small — four hands between short and big. That is the second half of the answer: the calling range against an all-in is always tight. Play it much wider and you lose money whatever your stack.
Where this answer stops
These are averages across very different spots. Against an all-in from an early seat the range is tighter than against one from the button; against a short opponent wider than against a big one. The table says how tight it is on average — it does not replace a decision at the table.