Courtesy Double Up

1. When a player with a big stack holding a weak hand doubles up a player with small stack in a poker tournament.

Example

Courtesy double ups usually occur when a big stack makes an opening raise with a weak holding, and then is forced to call a short stack's all-in because of the pot odds. Let's say you sit with a 65 big blind stack and open the cut-off with JsTs, only to have the short-stack on the button move in for seven big blinds. At this point, you are pot committed and have to make the call, and when he flips bullets and holds, you will have successfully completed a 'courtesy double up'.

A More Complex Example

Let's reverse roles and say that you're nursing a short-stack of 11 big blinds, and you notice that the big stack is opening almost every pot and has no regard for stack sizes - basically, he's a giant monkey. This is a situation where you want to seek out a 'courtesy double up', even if it means shoving on him with a marginal holding yourself. For example, if you're in the big blind with QJ, and he opens the hijack and it folds to you, shoving is often a good play because QJ is probably ahead of his range. Alternatively, and despite what some people might tell you, a stop and go play might work in this situation, since our spewtard of an opponent will never fold to an all-in preflop, but might be dumb enough to muck the flop if he absolutely bricks it.