Quote Originally Posted by klinkman View Post
What this article fails to address though is what situations you should avoid coin flips. I'd like to point out a couple of them right now.

When you have a big stack and your opponent has a medium one-In a spot where you have a big lead and are dominating the table, something like 60-70bbs, you want to be raising and picking on the short stacks. It's okay to flip for 10-15 bbs in that spot, as if you lose you will still be in that position, and if you win you'll be even better off. But if you were to lose say 30 bbs, you would not be in that position anymore. With that smaller stack, you have to be much more careful when playing with the short stacks, and against the big stack that you just created. Because of this you have to be more careful about 3-betting and 4-betting likely coin flip hands like AQ, 99, 1010. When you make those reraises where your opponent is likely to call you really want to be on dominating hands, like AK or KK.

Another spot to be weary of coin flips is medium stack vs medium stack. The logic is similar to big stack vs medium stack, but the costs of a mistake are far more devistating. If you 3-bet all in you will likely have no fold equity, so you want to be on hands that dominate. You might need to let a hand like AJ go if you can't win enough to justify calling and need to raise all in, without any chance of getting your opponent to fold. Be very careful, I've lied to myself and said "he might fold" when there is really no chance since your shove offers 5-2 or even 3-1. So be very weary of shoving hands like AQ and 99 in those spots when your opponent is likely committed to calling.

Now all I need to do is take my own advice.
I think you have a good point but what I don't agree on is willing to lose 15bb. That still brings you down to almost the other persons point depending on short stacks and such. I wouldn't want to give up that advantage personally.