Poker Strategy

Managing the size of the pot
This will be a short discussion of why, and how to control the size of the pot having raised pre–flop.

In the last two articles we discussed how to play preflop, and after the flop. In this one we will focus on the turn and river, and how best to play those streets. If you follow the advice given in those articles, you will find that you are often in a situation where you have raised pre–flop, continuation bet the flop and then get to the turn, in position. Playing in spots like this out of position is very difficult, and is one of the main reasons you try to avoid raising out of position.

First Ill explain what pot–control is. Pot Control is about playing the size of the pot that suits you. There are two big mistakes that many experienced no limit players often make in this area. One, they bet too much and too often with vulnerable one pair hands. Two, they bet too little, and not often enough, with big made hands that will nearly always be winning.

To look at two extreme examples, let’s take a player getting black aces on the button.

A few people limp and he raises, they all call. The flop is 456 all hearts. Here, the unsophisticated player will normally bet close to the full pot. And if called he will bet again on the turn, often pushing all in. The problem here is that most hands that people will call or raise with, are at least a coin flip against aces, and many have them crushed. Against any hand containing a pair and single heart, aces will win only half the time. Certain hand that your opponents may hold have aces crushed, such as KJ of hearts, 44, 55, 66 or 77 (with the 7 of hearts). (77 with the 7 of hearts is a 60% favourite over AA on this flop as it includes a flush draw and an up and down straight draw to its outs) Simply put, if you get a lot of action you are often beaten. In fact, the more money that goes into the pot the more likely you are to be beaten.

In example two, the same player gets aces on the button. In this case though, the flop comes up AKK with two hearts. It’s checked to him and he checks. The turn is a Q, and it’s checked to him again. Here he makes a tiny bet, about 1/6 of the pot size. The problem with this is that there are plenty of hands that may call a bigger bet, and may in fact call a bet on the flop. He has lost money against these hands, because he has failed to build the pot. The aim should always be in these spots to build the pot big enough to get all in on the river. A guy with a weak ace may call three streets, and you will often find that draws will call. This is a fantastic situation to be in, as they are drawing dead. A big mistake that beginners make is that they think they need to keep draws in hands like this and check (where they have a house or quads), but in fact you should bet, as often the draw will just check fold if it misses. So betting is the only way to get money out of them! In fact when you have a very strong hand, you should be looking to get as much in as possible before the river. This will allow you to river bet all in. The only time you should consider slow–playing is where the pot is already so big that it’s only going to take one or two bets to get all in. Otherwise you run the risk of winning a small pot where you could have won a much larger one!

When playing against normal opposition without any history, it’s unlikely that your opponents will be happy to put most of their stack on the line after the flop with one pair. If you raise preflop, bet the flop and then bet the turn most players will fold any marginal hands. The turn bet, which most unsophisticated players do consistently, is the big mistake. When you check behind the turn from time to time with good one pair hands, you will find your opponents call bets on the river with very marginal holdings. There are two main reasons for this. First of all, your hand looks like a bluff. Why would you check the turn if you had a real hand? Second both from a game theory perspective, and a psychological one, the river bet is much easier to call, because they know it’s the only bet they will have to call. A turn bet however brings with it the probability of another, bigger bet on the river. A good example of this is calling a raise preflop with 99. The flop is 27Jo. Not a bad flop for your hand, so you call a bet. On the turn your opponent bets again. Now your hand doesn’t look so good. However if your opponent checks it’s quite easy to call a bet on the river.

As mentioned above, playing in spots like this out of position is very difficult and is one of the main reasons you try to avoid raising out of position. It is much harder to control the pot out of position because you can’t check behind. Often times when you check an opponent will automatically fire a bet. Occasionally, however, this can be better than betting yourself, because when you bet you make it much harder for your opponent to bluff you. However when you check, he doesn't know you are intending to call a bet and will often bet with a bad hand sensing weakness on your part.