know-poker Pot Control

Pot control

A pot control strategy that avoids the pot getting too large when you have a good, but not a great hand is necessary. Good betting practices and bankroll preservation include pot control.

Pot control

Pot control in No-Limit, Pot Limit and Fixed Limit poker will often require different applications and 'control' will have different meanings. Pot control may also require you to alter your thinking for tournament and cash table play.

At lower buy-in levels, pot control can sometimes go out the window, because many players just see pennies that they can afford to gamble. Medium and higher buy-in level players will have more regard for dollar value.

Pot control is part of a pro-active betting strategy.

Pot control - Fixed Limit

Pot control in Fixed Limit betting may be exercised against an aggressive opponent who has demonstrated a propensity to always raise and rarely fold. The hostile play style may encourage some players to re-raise ‘just to keep them honest.’ They know that the overly aggressive player cannot always hold a top hand. This is not often the best way to deal with such an opponent.

If you know that that player is highly likely to call the re-raise or raise again and you have a made hand that is vulnerable, check calling will often be the correct option. This allows you to control the value of the pot up to the point where your confidence in the hand is such that you bet out, or fold.

Pot control - Pot Limit

Pot control in Pot Limit poker will at times be similar to Fixed Limit pot control, except that the pot size will be higher and your stack should be too. Pot Limit pot control will also have elements of No Limit pot control.

Pot control - No Limit

No Limit pot control may mean smooth calling from an early seat, if you consider players acting later are either short stacked and/or are likely to move all-in. If you make a large raise, you give a later acting player a pot worth attacking with an uncompromising re-raise. This may seem like passive or weak play, but there will be times where it is necessary.

Another sense of No Limit pot control is taking control of the pot by setting the price for players who wish to continue in the hand, rather than allowing them cheap cards. This will often be an aggressive play for example, making a pot sized (or pot sized plus) bet when holding a vulnerable made hand, necessitating players acting later to call without the odds if they want to make their hand.

No single move is correct for every occasion; pot control as part of your betting process should always be thought through. Without a pot control strategy, you may find yourself deep into a relatively large pot with cards that do not justify the investment.

Block betting

A block bet can be a type of pot control useful in No Limit and Pot Limit poker. At the end of some complex hands usually involving just two players, if the player acting first is unsure of their hand strength and they feel a check will invite the player acting after to make a large bet, it can be worthwhile making a small bet similar to a value bet.* If the player acting second also lacks confidence in their hand, that player will often call rather than make the invited large bet.

*A value bet may be made at the end of a hand where the bettor has a high degree of confidence in winning. If called, the bet simply adds value to that pot. The size of the bet will reflect the players’ consideration of the amount that their opponent is likely to call.

Tournament pot control

Pot control in a tournament for the big stacks may include an effort to keep pots low and so less enticing for smaller stacks to make a premature, rash move upon before the big stack realizes the potential strength of their own hand.

Tournament pot control may also mean two or more dominant stacks may avoid making pots too large when they get involved in one together, thus averting themselves from relinquishing their safer positions. As long as those big stacked players are not discussing this as a joint tactic, it is not collusion; it is simply good stack control/pot control practice.

Cash table pot control

Cash table and tournament pot control will share play commonalities, however there may be a marked difference in reasoning.

The obvious distinction is if you have lost your chip stack in a hand when playing a cash game, you can always reload - but busting a large stack in a tournament usually leaves you out in the cold. Players may choose to take a longer term view based on their positive expectation of a certain hand or situation when on a cash table, than they would in a tournament.