This post was really tl;dr so I decided to pick and choose relevant content to me. Worth a read through at least once.
Pot Control
1) What is pot control by definition?
Applying pot control means that we are trying to manipulate (aka control, aka keep small) the size of the pot to achieve different goals (for example going to showdown).
We have several ways to apply pot control, the best known being checking behind (most often on the turn) to basically eliminate one round of betting. We will get back to this later of course.
2) What are the consequences of pot control?
This is in my opinion the question that is not posed nearly often enough: what are the consequences that my play is going to have? It is of overriding importance though. So let’s see what the consequences of pot control are:
a) Positive consequences:
Keeping the pot size under control:
I think this does not need much explanation, we risk a smaller percentage of our stack and we minimize our losses when behind.
More likely to see a showdown:
What does that actually mean? Well, seeing a showdown in itself is not automatically a good thing. However, in this situation it is because by applying pot control correctly we minimize the risk of making a mistake by folding the best hand.
(Sometimes) Widening villains calling/betting range:
This is especially true when we apply pot control early in the hand, either by just calling a raise PF with a hand that we could 3b as well, more often though if we check behind on the flop with a made hand.
b) Negative consequences
Giving away free cards
Might induce villain to play back at us / play correctly vs us because we polarize our range
This is actually a rather theoretical problem at the micro stakes but it’s for sure one to think about. It will also arise more often at higher stakes against thinking players that are not shy to make aggressive moves on all streets and that have no problem with deviating from standard lines if they think it will turn out to be +EV. It also illustrates a general problem that comes up when applying pot control in a too standardized way.
Let’s say we are in a NL50 game but there is one player who plays quite aggressively and tricky and is not shy of making moves and putting money in light in some spots. He is by no means a weak player and mixes up bluffs and plays for value nicely.
We are in the CO with QsQc. A weak player limps, tricky player limps behind. It’s folded to us and we make a standard raise to 6BBs. Both players call and we go the flop with a pot of 19.5BBs. All players have 94BBs left.
Flop comes 2h7d9c, it’s checked to us and we (correctly) make a CB of 14BBs. The initial limper folds and the tricky player calls after some hesitation, pot is 47.5BBs now and we have 80BBs left.
Turn comes 3h which can and should be considered as a blank. Tricky player checks to us and we check it back for pot control.
River brings 5h. Tricky player thinks for a few seconds and then checks to us again. We have an overpair on a rather unscary looking 2h7d9c3h5h board and our villain has not shown any strenght so far so we should go for a VB on this river hoping to get paid off by 88, 98, A9, J9 maybe even 87 or smaller PP like 66, so we make it 25BBs on the river with having left 55BBs after that bet. Villain instashoves over our bet….
Now what? Well, most likely this looks like a fold given that a straight draw came in, a (unlikely) BD flush draw came in and villain could easily have a ton of sets or 2 pair combos that have us beat (97s, 75s and so on).
But there is one problem: by checking this turn back, we heavily polarized our range.
Let’s look at this hand from villains perspective: we raised PF, made a standard CB, checked the turn back and then finally bet the river again. So, from our villains perspective, what does our hand range look like? Well, we won’t ever show up with 777 or 999 here because we’d never check those back on the turn. We most likely never show up with 86 or 64 here because it’s unlikely that those are in our PF raising range and a BD flush isn’t too likely either if we don’t have exactly Ahxh (plus we might have even fired a 2nd barrel with those on the turn if we decided to CB in the first place).
As you see it’s fairly easy for villain to put us on exactly the kind of hand that we have namely an overpair that we’re not really happy to play for stacks with (we might have bet the turn with AA,KK even though AA,KK and QQ are basically the same hand in this spot). So, if villain puts us on basically TT+ (and maybe AK/AQ that tries to steal the pot with a river bet) then this is a great spot for a river bluffraise by villain knowing that we’re very unlikely to be calling here (esp as he’ll also show up with a big hand here often enough).
Risk of losing value from 2nd best hands
3) How to apply pot control
Pot control out of position:
As mentionend we can try to apply pot control but if our opponent decides that he wants to play a bigger pot then there is not really much we can do about it. We can try to keep the pot small though by:
a) Checking to our opponent
If we check the flop to our opponent we basically do hope that he does not want to play a big pot either and/or is happy to see a free turn. If the flop goes check/check we can reevaluate the situation and decide if we want to bet the turn (for value or as a bluff) or if we want to check again (intending to c/f or hoping villain might bluff or value bet worse hands so that can we c/c one or two streets). Obviously this is not a great situation to be in, especially against tough opponents that put a lot of pressure on us if we show weakness on boards that we have most likely missed.
As a sidenote: utilizing a well timed c/r frequency on the flop when being the PFR and when being out of position is very helpful to balance your range in these situations.
b) Block betting
This is a play that can be used on later streets with medium strength hands. Its advantage lies in the fact that it combines the value that we gain if we get called by a weaker hand with the advantage of setting a favourable price for a showdown. Note though that it can only be employed in smallish pots and when the stacks are still rather deep (it makes no sense to make a blocking bet of say 15BBs into a 90BBs pot when villain only has 35BBs left, I hope you guys see why).
On a downside this play might again induce river bluffs by good, thinking villains if they analyze correctly why we employ the strategy of block betting the river (or maybe the turn).
Pot contol in position:
Being in position makes applying pot control incredibly much more easy and valuable, simply due to the fact that we see what our opponent/opponents do first. We do also have some more options and are in the position to chose (often, not always) how big a pot we want to play for.
a) Checking behind
That’s the standard pot control play: we check behind on flop, turn or river (I’ll get back to WHEN to apply pot control later) to manipulate the size of the pot.
b) Calling as opposed to raising
c) Betting/raising an earlier street to be able to check behind on a later street
This is a typical Limit Hold’em play where it is mostly used when we have a draw on the flop. We then raise the flop bet (in LHE the betting size doubles after the flop) to achieve that villain checks to us on the turn and we can check behind if we did not improve and by that save 1 small bet.
This idea can also be transferred to NLHE. If you think that making a small bet (or raise) on flop or turn can stop villain from making a bigger bet on a later street (that you would have to call though) then you might want to go for this.
4) When to apply pot control
For a lot of players, applying pot control means checking behind a medium strength hand on the turn. Well as we have seen, checking behind is not the only (though the most used) way to apply pot control and as we will see, the turn is not the only street where we can use pot control.
Personally, I very rarely go for pot control on the turn. If I think that a hand is only good for two streets of value then I’d most likely either bet flop and turn and check the river behind, or I’ll check the flop (behind or to villain) and go for value on turn and river.
The reasons therefore are already stated in the part: “consequences of pot control” and you might want to reread those if you don’t understand why I think that applying pot control on the turn is often misused. Here I’d like to take a look at a couple of examples:
Example 2:
100BBs effective stacks. We are on the BTN with AsJs. A rather loose, aggressive player raises in MP2 to 3BBs. He is pretty active preflop and rather aggressive and sometimes tricky postflop but does not go overboard with medium holdings. We call, the blinds fold and the pot is 7.5BBs.
Flop comes Ah9d5c giving us top pair with a good kicker. Rather surprisingly villain checks to us, so what should we do here? Let’s take a look at villains range at this point:
He is raising in MP2 with a wide range of hands, let’s say 22+, ATs+, AJo+, any 2 broadway cards and some suited connectors so obviously we are way ahead of his range at this point. Does this mean we should bet here? Well, I don’t think so, checking behind looks like the better play here to me.
This might seem counterintuitive on the first glance but let’s think about it: in case we are ahead we are very unlikely to get 3 streets of value here and if we decide to go for 2 streets of value then we can easily go for them on turn and river. Furthermore, against big parts of his raise PF, check flop range we won’t even get 2 streets of value if we bet the A high flop, for example against TT-QQ so checking this flop back also helps us opening up his calling range.
Opposed to that, in the rare case that we are behind to something like AK,AQ or a set, checking behind on the flop helps us to control the pot size.
Ok so back to the hand:
Villain checks the flop to us and we check behind. Turn is 5d and villain again checks to us, we now bet 5BBs and villain calls pretty quickly, pot is 17.5BBs. Think about what villains most likely holdings are at that point.
River is 6d, completing a back door flush draw and an unlikely gut shot with 87. Again villain checks to us (do you have established a hand range for him?) and we decide to bet rather big to make our hand look like a 2 street bluff so we bet 15.5BBs. Villain snap calls with QdQh.
In this example, we checked the flop back for multiple reasons, one of them being pot control. This was the best way to play it (imo) because:
- There were no draws that we had to charge.
- It was a basically a way ahead / way behind situation
- There was “some” value to be had from weaker hands but no real 2nd best hands that could give us “a lot” of value (of course these terms are not very precise but I hope you understand what I mean with them).
Example 3:
100BBs effective stacks. A tight, aggressive, straightforward player raises from UTG+1 to 4BBs and we have QsQc in the HJ. We know that villains PF raising range from UTG+1 is really tight, maybe something like TT+,AK and sometimes AQs. It’s folded to us and there are pretty tight players left to act behind us. We decide to not 3bet here (knowing that we give players behind us a good price to overcall) because we think that 3betting would fold out all the hands in villains range that we want him to continue with (TT,JJ) and give him the opportunity to 4bet the top of his range (KK,AA, sometimes AKs). Luckily CO and BTN fold as do the blinds and we end up in a HU pot with position on the preflop raiser, pot is 9.5BBs.
The flop comes 6h6c2s and we expect villain to CB on this board with 100 % of his range, sure enough he fires 7BBs. For the same reasons as preflop we don’t see too much sense in raising here, we never fold out AA,KK here and we don’t want TT,JJ to fold. If he has AK he has only 6 outs to improve or around 26 % equity so we don’t mind giving him a rather cheap turn card. We decide to call, pot is 23.5BBs, effective stacks are 89BBs.
Turn comes 7d which can be considered as a complete brick and villain checks to us which is a very good sign as we would expect him to fire again here with AA,KK so even though he might decide to check to us here for pot control with AA,KK (which would be bad btw) hands like TT,JJ, the other QQ combo and AKs have now become much more likely. There is also an outside chance that villain is going for a c/r on the turn with AA,KK but given that he is rather straightforward this seems pretty unlikely. We decide to bet rather smallish and make it 14BBs hoping to get called by JJ,TT, villain calls and the pot is 51.5BBs with 75BBs effective stacks left.
River is the Th, not a great card for us, and villain makes a strange bet of 16BBs. We assume that he would make a bigger bet here with TT or go for a c/r, a small bet to induce seems strange given the way the hand played out so far. However, a raise is unlikely to get called by JJ but if he played AA,KK weirdly he could very well call a raise with those. Therefore we decide to call here and villain shows us JJ, his blocking bet on the river has worked as he saved some BBs. In this example we actually applied pot control preflop trying to set up a favourable situation for our holding.
5) Examples for when applying pot control is reasonable:
a) WA/WB situations
b) Medium strength holdings on dry boards
c) Medium strength hands vs aggressive opponents
6) Examples for when applying pot control is NOT reasonable:
a) when pot and stack sizes rule out pot control
b) when villain can easily stack off / commit a lot of his chips with worse hands
c) when villain is likely drawing (and willing to pay too much)
7) Plan your hands in advance!
This is most likely the most important thing to learn when you want to improve as a poker player: plan your hands. If you raise with JJ in position you should have at least an idea how you are going to continue on an A high board.
The same is obviously true for pot control. Have a plan AT THE START OFF THE HAND on which kind of boards or villains actions you are going to apply pot control. Think about how you are going to react to a c/r by villain, think about on what kind of boards checking back your TPGK might make sense, PLAN YOUR HAND IN ADVANCE!
Additional posts: #77
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