How big do you want the pot to get?

Carl Sampson : December 27th, 2008

It has been folded around to you in middle position and you hold the Ac-Kd and raise to $7 in a full-ring $1-$2 NLHE game. Now you hold a strong hand here and a hand that is made even stronger by the fact that everyone has folded to you. There has been no strength shown so far and the likelihood is that you will be up against an inferior hand if called but you will end up winning the blinds a fair proportion of the time anyway.

However, one very important question that you must ask yourself when you make this raise is “how big do I want this pot to get”. In an ideal world you would like to have a huge pot with your AK and the board be something like A-A-K-9-10 and have someone lose their entire stack to you with something like a smaller boat, a flush or a straight.

But don’t hold your breathe waiting for huge hand over huge hand. You may wait ages and ages for a situation like this and then end up being the one on the receiving end. When you raise with big slick then the chances are that you will flop either nothing or one pair a very high percentage of the time. These are not hands in which you would like to play a big pot.

So in that case then why build one? I was playing in a NL100 game on Cake Poker the other day when the following hand came up (I was not active in this hand).

It was folded around to a player in middle position who open raised to $3.50 and it was called by the big blind. With $7.50 in the pot we saw a flop of Ac-9d-8c. Both players had over one hundred dollars in their stacks with the original raiser having $164 and the big blind having $189. The big blind checked and the raiser bet $5.50 into the pot and was called.

The pot stood at $18.50 and the turn card was the Qh and the big blind checked again. Our hero fired out a pot sized bet of $19 and was thus min raised to $38 and our hero called. The pot stood at $94.50 (almost an entire buy-in at this level). The river card was the 3d which made a final board of Ac-9d-8c-Qh-3d. The big blind thought for quite some time and eventually made a bet of $80. Our hero went into the tank but called and with a $254.50 pot we saw a showdown but it was obvious who the winner was.

The big blind showed the Jc-10c for a straight and our hero did not show. I checked the last hand history and found that he had the Ah-Kh for top pair and top kicker. Our hero ended up losing 127 big blinds in this pot with one lousy pair. He ended up committing one of the biggest sins in NLHE ring-games, allowing the pot to escalate with a hand that is too vulnerable and simply does not merit it.

Now let us go back to the start of the hand and look at an alternate way to play the A-K. So it has been folded to you and you hold the Ah-Kh in late middle position in a $0.50-$1.00 NLHE game. You have to remember here why you are raising. You are simply raising for value and that’s all, this is not a hand that you can take to the bank. In fact no hand is unless you have a hand that is so strong that the likelihood of it being beaten or behind at that stage is slim.

Your hand is likely best at this stage but notice that I said “at this stage”. You raise to get a weaker hand to call you and to hopefully extract a little money from what will be a small pot or to eliminate the field. Most of the time you will have no more than top pair and top kicker with this hand and if one measly pair is the boss hand then any pot that you win will be small anyway!

You have raised to get money into the pot from a weaker hand or to win the blinds uncontested. But the big blind calls you and we have a $7.50 pot and the flop comes Ac-9d-8c giving you a strong hand heads up. However we have now seen a flop and you hand is still only one pair. You are likely ahead but there are several draws out there, the big blind checks and you bet $5 and get called and the pot is now $17.50.

The turn card is the Qh and your opponent checks to you again. You eliminate the turn betting round by checking it back and the pot remains at $17.50. The river card is the 3d and the big blind bets out $8 and you call and they win with a straight. The pot is $33.50 and it has cost you a mere $16.50 instead of the $127 that you lost before.

Some people may argue against checking it back on the turn saying that you are increasing the chances of your opponent hitting their draw and that you are also losing value. Well this is true but you are also increasing the chances of your opponent bluffing into you as well as your turn check showed weakness. Another line of play would be to bet the turn as before and when you got min-raised to call and see the river. When they fire $80 on the end then you fold the hand.

Whichever line you choose, what you cannot do is let this pot escalate to a stage where you are risking 127BB with one pair. Remember the next time you are looking to become active in a poker hand to ask yourself a question….. “do I want the pot to be large or small?”

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.cakepoker.com/thedean and at www.pokersharkpool.com

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