Jan
25
Each play you make in hold’em poker will effect the size of the pot. It’s critical you remember this because a bulk of the confrontations that you are involved in should be small pots compared to your stack size. You are only looking to play large pots when you have monster hands, and we all know how rare that can be.
Always consider what the result of your actions might be. Whether you’re checking, calling or raising, every action has the potential to manipulate the size of the pot. Betting pre-flop, or on the flop when you have the best hand could cause you to lose more if you’re outdrawn and have the weakest hand at the showdown. So be mindful of your actions, and consider not only your own hand strength, but your opponents and the board cards when deciding on what action to take.
Reckon also if you are going to make a raise or re-raise, that the style of opponent you are playing actually has the experience to fold – when they really should be laying it down. I’ve seen many players in online tournaments look at a fair strength draw on the flop, and resolve to just let it ride. Of course, that’s going to be a large pot and even though you’re ahead, you will oftentimes get drawn out and find yourself losing a big hand, or even worse. You really want to avoid this, particularly in the early tournament levels when there is no reason to become short stacked save for a huge suck out, when the blinds are so low.
When the pots are small, your opponents also tend to become easier to read because they are also thinking about what you may have. The simple reality of your opponent wanting to be in a hand gives more credence to a certain range of hole cards he may be playing. When your opponent also shows concern about the pot getting out of control you have more opportunity to turn a losing hand into a winner by making a bluff.
This brings us to the biggest advantage of managing pot size, which is that you get to see all five cards on the board before you really resolve what to do in terms of your hand strength and your opponent’s propensity to make an error. Prospective draws or paired boards reveal themselves to critical spots but could either turn into big hand for you or help you fold and save you some tournament chips.
Managing the pot size needs emotional discipline, effective profiling, and an experienced understanding of community card texture. Conversely, it is one of the most common misplays your adversaries will be making, and presents an lucrative opportunity for you to double up.
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