Pot Control - Keeping the pot manageable
Introduction
In this article
- With marginal hands you want to get to the showdown cheaply
- The pot can be better controlled in position
- Pot Control is about bet sequence and bet size
A very simple and basic game concept is: The stronger the hand, the bigger the pot you want to play for. Your desire to extract as much value as possible with monsters is clear.
On the other hand, you'll often have hands which have showdown value, but would be severely overplayed if you get pulled into a huge pot. With these hands, you want to get to the showdown cheaply – on the one side, to still get value from worse hands, on the other side, to not pay off better hands too much.
To adapt the pot size in accordance with the strength of your hand is called pot control. When pot control makes sense and in which way you implement this game concept properly will be taught in this article.
When should you use pot control?
There is only one situation where you don’t consider the aspect of pot control, and that is if you’re bluff betting. With a bluff bet, you’re overplaying your hand on purpose, since you believe this will produce enough fold equity to turn this bet into +EV. Your aim here is to win the pot without a showdown.
If you’re actually holding a strong hand, though, you’d want the pot to become as big as possible, because you know there is very little chance that an opponent’s hand can beat yours. Here, pot control becomes more important through your bet size. You should choose your bet size in such a way, that you can push the entire stack in the middle by the showdown, without over-betting.
Pot control is especially useful if you hold a relatively weak or middle-strength hand. It has showdown value but it is unlikely that any further bets or raises by you would be called by a weaker hand.
This leads to a simple basic rule: If there are few weaker opponents’ hands, that would go to showdown if you bet or raised further, then these bets or raises don’t really make sense, since you’re converting your hand a bit too much into a bluff.
You might be able to bluff better hands out of the pot by making further bets, but, as mentioned before, this is a different story because the aspect of pot control loses relevance when you are actively overplaying your hand. Pot control means to ensure that the size of the pot at the showdown matches the strength of your hand as much as possible.
How to use pot control
There are different ways to control the pot. For one, you can steer the size of the pot with the bet sequence. Or, you might control it with the bet size.
On the following pages, you'll be shown how to use pot control in your game with examples of both cases when "you are in position" and "you are out of position". Let's point out in advance that you have vastly better possibilities to dictate the pot size when you are in position. Therefore, the basic rule is once again confirmed: Always try to have position on your opponent.
In the third part, you find out how you can manipulate the pot size to your advantage with very strong hands. Finally the theoretical basics of pot control will be discussed.
You are in position
There are a lot of possibilities for influencing the size of the pot if you are IP. You always act at the end of the betting round, so you can act as you like.
Different bet sequences will permit different pot sizes. For example, if you have TPTK against a poor opponent, the sequence "bet flop, bet turn, bet river" is often appropriate. Our weak opponent will often call down with a pair.
What about opponents who don't give up their money with such a weak hand? The following example should make the situation clearer:
Hero (Button) ($100)
Villain (SB) ($100)
Preflop: Hero is Button with A
, Q
.
3 folds, Hero raises to $4, SB calls $3,50, 1 fold.
Flop: ($9) 7, 3
, Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $8, SB calls $8.
Turn: ($25) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero ?
We've played normally up to this point. We raise first-in from the button with AQo and make a bet on the flop with our TPTK that is just under pot size. We go through 4 following scenarios:
In this case we bet and SB folds. We didn't get any more money from our opponent.
After the call by the SB there are 2 possibilities on the river. First we could hit our flush. If this happens, the decision on the river is easy; we bet or raise.
If you don’t hit the flush, the SB can either donk-bet or check. If he checks, you should take the free showdown as you would against a normal opponent. If he donks, though, you’ll be faced with a tough decision. You'll often be beat with such a bet sequence (check/call flop, check/call turn, bet river), if possible draws, that he could have held at the flop, have now arrived.
This is probably the worst case. We now have a tough decision. On the one hand, we have TPTK and the nut flush draw, on the other you are very often beaten here. If you make the simplified assumption that the opponent, in that case that he isn’t bluffing, must definitely be well ahead (which would reflect reality quite well), and in the case that he is bluffing, won’t really be able to beat us, we get the following calculation:
Calculation:
Pot = Money in the pot (here $143)
PB = probability that villain is bluffing
PF = probability that we make the flush (in our case 0,195)
Call = amount hero must call (in our case $58)
Your call is profitable if:
Gain > loss
<=> (1-PB) * PF * Pot + PB * Pot > (1 - PB) * (1 - PF) * Call
<=> PB > (Call - PF * Call - PF * Pot) / (-PF * Pot + Pot + Call - PF * Call)
<=> PB > 0,116
Villain had to be bluffing in 11.6% so that you could profitably call. Of course there are opponents to whom this applies. But to recognise these, you need to either be a Master of Reads, or have a history with villain. Mostly this situation will end for you in a standard fold.
Advantages of checking behind on the turn:
- The pot stayed small so we aren't playing for too much of our stack with our mediocre hand.
- We showed weakness on the turn. Worse hands will often make value bets against us on the river.
- We will draw a bluff more often here.
Since we played check behind on the turn, the pot is still $25. If SB bets on the river, it will usually be between $10 and $25, which are callable amounts.
Second advantage: the bet from SB here doesn't have to mean anything. We played check behind on the turn, showing weakness. He might have a monster, a weak hand (which we would beat), betting for value or just be bluffing.
With that you very often maximise your expected-value through this check behind on the turn.
Since we played check behind on the turn, we have to call. We will be ahead very often. Furthermore, we have reached our goal of getting to the showdown cheaply with a mediocre hand. The check behind on the turn prevented our opponent from making the pot large if he has a good hand.
Also a good situation. There is no indication that the SB is beating us. We can make a value bet without problems.
Advantages of check behind on the turn:
- The pot stayed small so we aren't playing for too much of our stack with our mediocre hand.
- We showed weakness on the turn so our value bet will be called more often because our opponent thinks he's ahead or puts us on a bluff.
Against a very tricky opponent, you should still consider, before placing a value bet on the river, how to react to a possible check-raise. If you know that the opponent check-raises the river very often, but you don't want to call him at the moment due to your current hand strength, you can avoid a value betting here.
Generally very few players play check raise on the river as a bluff or as a valueline after such a betting sequence. That's why your own valuebet is generally an easy decision to make.
The check behind on the turn has a few advantages here. We get more value from hands that would have folded to a normal bet and we lose less money should we be behind against a flush or other strong hand.
Furthermore, by keeping the pot small we prevent villain from making it large with a raise. We reach our goal of keeping the pot small with a mediocre hand. If we are ahead, we win the maximum. If we are behind, we lose the minimum.
You are out of position
Pot control OOP is somewhat more difficult than IP. We have to act before out opponent, so we can't wait to see what he does and act accordingly. A free card on the turn, therefore, becomes much less likely. First, an example of how you can keep the pot small with TPTK.
Hero (CO) ($100)
Villain (Button) ($100)
Preflop: Hero is CO with A, Q
2 folds, Hero raises to $4, BU calls $4, 2 folds.
Flop: ($9.5) 7, 3, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $8, Button calls $8.
Turn: ($25.5) 6 (2 players)
Hero ...
We've played a standard game up to this point. We raised first-in from CO and make a near pot size bet on the flop. The following situation arises on the turn: we have TPTK on a 3-suited board. There is hardly a worse hand that would call another bet.
Not a pretty situation. We have TPTK with the nut flush draw. We are often behind in this situation. Deciding whether to call or fold is difficult and we will often decide incorrectly. The necessary probability of bluffing can be calculated in the same way as in the first example hand.
This is better than scenario 1A. Villain "only" calls us and we can see the river card for an acceptable price. We are first to act and have a decision to make.
If you hit your flush, the next step is simple. You just have to decide if it is better for you to donk-bet or to check-raise, which depends on your opponent.
It only becomes difficult when you don’t hit the flush. Usually, you’d simply check and wait to see what your opponent does. Due to the larger pot size you won’t always find a easy call, as was the case before when you played it after a check behind on the river in-position. In addition to that, you’d call little suckbets mostly with a mixed feeling.
We get a free card on the turn as we often would IP. We can surely make a value bet on the river. Since we showed weakness on the turn with our check, our river bet can be called by a clearly worse hand.
The opponent bets and the standard move here would be to call in order to see the river card. With a raise you wouldn’t get a better hand to fold or a weaker hand to call. That’s why, you’d convert your own hand into a bluff with a check-raise, something you don’t need in this situation.
Also, your opponent’s bet doesn’t tell you much about the strength of his hand. Your check will indicate weakness and many players will automatically try to take the pot with a bet.
On the river, you’d once again be faced with a decision similar to the one in Scenario 1B. Nevertheless it’ll be hard in this spot to call yet another bet, since your opponent already signalled strength on the turn and on the river.
We'll often get a bluff bet from our opponent by checking on the turn. We hold the pot small by preventing villain from increasing the pot size with a raise.
Until now you've seen how you can try and keep the pot small on the turn. All the same, this concept of pot control is already valid at the flop. If you, for example, play in position against one opponent who likes to check-raise the flop, you can just go for a check-behind, and then on the turn call your opponent's bet with your middle-strength hand. It's especially important here that you gauge the aspect of protection correctly in relation to pot control, in order to avoid giving away too many free cards on the flop and showing your opponent that you only hold middle-strength cards.
Pot Control with Monsters
Up to this point, you've always had a medium-strength hand, with which you were wanted to get to the Showdown at a relatively low cost. But even with a monster hand, pot control is important. It is important here to make sure that the pot grows in the right proportions so that by the time you reach the showdown you have been able to put your entire stack in the middle.
Hero (CO) 100$
Villain (BU) 100$
0.50$/1.00$ No-Limit Hold’em (6 handed)
Pre-flop: Hero is CO with 33
2 folds, Hero raises to 4$, BU calls 4$, 2 folds.
Flop: (9,50$) A, 3, 7 (2players)
Hero bets 8$, BU calls 8$.
Turn: (25,50$) 7
(2 players)
Hero ???
You placed a continuation bet on the flop, because you will be securely ahead with your bottom set. The turn brings the 2nd best card in the deck (the 3 would have been perfect, of course).
Why is the 7 even considered one of the best cards though? Because it doesn't fit your hand range, your hand is still very strong. Similarly, a 7 doesn't fit in the opponent's hand range either. If the opponent calls here with an Ace, he would often be tempted to see a bluff behind your bets and call them.
If the opponent holds a pocket pair, he will notice that the turn card hasn't really changed the board significantly. Therefore he might assume that you wouldn't bet on an Ace here, because you don't want to scare off all the other weaker hands with that action. So he has to ask himself the question of how often we would bluff, (and if we would do this often enough for him to still make a profitable call).
You hold a monster and of course you want to play your whole stack. How can you best achieve that? You don't want to completely scare the opponent away with an overbet either.
The pot has $55,50 and the rest of your stack has $73. An all-in/push on the river would be an overbet, which you basically want to avoid, because that would give your opponent really bad odds for a call.
Now the pot size on the river is $65,50 and your remaining stack is $68. You have almost managed to give the opponent the exact 2:1 odds for a call with a river bet.
The pot size on the river is $75,50 and your stack is $63. You can go right ahead and push all-in on the river and it wouldn't be an overbet.
With your bet size selected on the turn, you can manipulate the pot size on the river and you leave yourself a door open to go all-in without having to make an overbet. The 3 scenarios above show that you should bet more than $20 in order to leave this option open, and to prepare for your move on the river.
There's a little formula you can use in these cases while playing:
B: bet size on the turn
S: effective stack on the turn
P: pot size on the turn
B > (S-P) / 3
In the above example, this would be:
B > (88$ - 25.50$) / 3
B > 62.50$ / 3
B > 20.83$
With a bet size of $20,83 on the turn, your stack on the river at that stage will be smaller than the pot size.
With this kind of pot control, you can now try to play your monster for your whole stack, without feeling forced to make an overbet or hoping that your opponent will raise.
You can apply this aspect of pot control in all possible hand scenarios and even recognise, that you can also vary your raise size substantially. In special cases, even a minimum raise or a raise only slightly larger than a minimum raise can do the job and prepare the pot size for a later street.
Theoretical Foundations
The decisive question is always how to best keep the pot small in a given situation. Just as a large bet doesn't always produce a large pot, a small bet doesn't always make a small one.
This problem solves itself In Position. You can just wait to see what your opponent does and act accordingly to keep the pot small, either calling or checking.
Special case: in some situations, with a small bet you can hinder opponents from betting on the next street. We would get a free card. On the turn you can also see that as a sort of bet for free showdown.
Out of Position things are more difficult. Here you must act first. We have two options, bet or check. Now we must decide which option will keep the pot smaller
Let us first consider a bet:
- Ideal Case: Our opponent never raises a bet. We can choose the smallest possible bet to keep the pot at its smallest.
- Real Case: Small bets are raised more often than large ones.
If a raise occurs, we must often fold, even if our opponent is bluffing (small bets are often interpreted as weakness).
If we decide to bet (for whatever reason), we must choose a bet size that we can be sure to fold against a re-raise but that still keeps the pot small. There are no general guidelines for how to do this for different opponents.
Rule of thumb: Anything clearly less than ½ pot size is often seen as weakness and will be raised more often.
That is a purely empirical experience. If you want to keep the pot small, bet that are half the pot size are useful in that they don’t provoke a raise on the one hand, and on the other, keep the pot size small due to the small bet size.
But now you must consider whether or not a check would be better. I'll only consider pot control here, neglecting other (often important) points, such as protection, bluff induction, etc.
We must ask ourselves the following questions:
- If we check, would our opponent bet?
- How much would he bet?
- If we bet less than that amount, would he raise?
If we are sure that our opponent would bet if we were to check, but would not raise if we bet beneath his possible bet amount, then it would be better to bet ourselves. Otherwise, we should check and call his bet.
Different bet sequences can keep the pot small in different situations. Unfortunately, picking the optimal sequence is extremely dependent on your opponent. I'll address a few common situations in the following.
You are in Position
Hero plays against the Pre-Flop Aggressor
(the opponent will almost always make a continuation bet):
Call Flop - Call (Check behind) Turn
Absolutely standard. We have position and can call or check depending on our opponent's behaviour. From the turn card onwards, your hand strength starts changing to some extent in relation to the board structure, and if you're still bent upon getting to the showdown, a call or a check-behind would be advisable here.
Hero is Pre-Flop Aggressor:
i) Bet Flop - Check behind Turn
Again the standard bet sequence. We make a continuation bet on the flop to try and take the pot directly and not give away free cards. On the turn, however, we are often confronted by a better hand. Therefore, we check to keep the pot as small as possible and save ourselves some difficult decisions on the river.As explained earlier, you could also think about if you want a free showdown against your opponents through a 2nd barrel on the turn.
ii) Check behind Flop - Call Turn
On the flop, you avoid a continuation bet this time. Does your opponent check raise on the flop and play agressive, you can, with a check behind, play very well for a bluff induce and pot control, without being pushed into the situation of having to play a very big pot yourself. This bet sequence is, however, very opponent and image depended and should not be seen as a standard line.
You are out of position
Hero plays against the Pre-Flop Aggressor
(the opponent will almost always make a continuation bet):The check to the pre-flop aggressor is standard. We don't give him the chance to make the pot large with a raise (whether with a good hand or a bluff).
i) Check / Call Flop - Bet Turn
This bet sequence is for playing those opponents who often make a continuation bet on the flop, but then get more passive on the turn (fits a lot of ABC-opponents). Good players often see this bet sequence as a weakness and try to collect the pot through a bluff raise on the turn. A good read on your opponent is essential here.
ii) Check / Call Flop - Check Turn
This bet sequence works against opponents who continue to play aggressively on the turn as well (raising draws, made hands, bluffs). How you then react to a 2nd barrel depends very much onthe board texture and the precise reading of your opponent.
Hero is Pre-Flop Aggressor:
i) Bet Flop - Check (Bet) / Call (Fold) Turn
A standard bet sequence for all moderately good hands and draws on harmless boards. Action on the turn should be considered in the same manner as in previous chapters. Here you must decide between check and bet.
ii) Check / Call Flop - Check (Bet) Turn
This bet sequence is somewhat unusual and not to be recommended in all situations. The check/call on the flop as pre-flop aggressor has a weak effect on many opponents, since you’re really continuation-betting both your good hands as well as your bluffs.
That is why your opponents can estimate the strength of your hand very well, if you do this only with medium-strength hands. If, however, you’re playing against an overly aggressive opponent, you can, through this sudden passive-play induce a bluff very nicely for your hand, and with that, hold the pot real small.
Summary
This article was solely about pot control. This concept is the exact opposite of the protection, the defending of your hand from hands which could still improve over yours.
When to exactly use pot control cannot be learned overnight. It requires a lot of experience. Both concepts are equally important and should be internalised in order to become a successful No-Limit career.
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