Pot Control - Pot Control Poker Strategy

In this article we will be discussing the concept of pot control, in which situations it is applied and what you need to watch out for. Where applicable, some example hands will be used to clarify the situation. In these examples we are assuming that Hero and villain are both standard TAG players.

Pot control is a concept used in all poker variations, but in this article we are going to focus on No limit Hold'em cash games. In these games you will often sit deeper than in tournaments, and therefore you will often have to make decisions on all three streets. Furthermore, in No Limit Hold'em you can quickly end up in a situation where your entire stack is at risk and where it can be very important to protect your stack.

Pot control can be defined as the art of manipulating the size of the pot, based on the "relative strength" of your hand. The relative strength of your hand means as much as how strong your hand is compared to your opponents range of hands. This means that the tighter your opponent plays, the stronger your hand needs to be to play a big pot with.

As a result you will often find yourself in situations where you are playing marginal hands and don't want the pot to get too big. You can control the size of the pot by checking and calling instead of betting and raising.

Always watch the size of the effective stacks. You always want to be aware of how much you can win or lose. When paying with a 200bb stack, your hand will usually have to be a lot better when playing for stacks compared to when you're playing with a 50bb stack. In the first case you would at least need a hand like a set to play for stacks, while for 50bb a top-pair style hand might be enough. Therefore you will use pot control more often when playing for deep stacks than when the effective stacks are smaller.

The most important thing you need to know is what value your hand has and compare this to your opponents range. Hereby you constantly evaluate how much value you want and can get out of your hand. There are hands that you check down the whole way and hands where you try to get value on the flop, turn and river.

The concept of pot control is especially applicable with marginal hands, or even weak hands with some showdown value. One of the most important tasks is to get as much value as possible out of your hand. This also counts for your marginal hands. Let me also make it clear that checking to provoke a bluff and then raising the player is not pot control.

The eventual size of the pot needs to be in relation to the strength of your hand and the situation in which this hand is being played. You wouldn't want to play for stacks with a hand like top-pair/medium-kicker. There are, of course, situations in which this does occur because your opponent's range might be very wide. There will always be exceptions, but the general rule indicates that medium hands should result in small or medium sized pots.

Weak/marginal hands
Whenever you are playing a hand, you should always ask yourself how much that hand is worth. On how many streets do you want money to go into the pot? If your hand is weak, you want to play small pots. Therefore you need to make sure that as little money as possible goes into the pot. This does not automatically mean that you will see a showdown, but can also mean that you pick up the pot on the flop or have to give up the pot after an opponent bets or raises. Also, the betting doesn't always have to take place on the flop, but can also be moved to the turn and even the river.

Example 1
Hero posts the small blind [$0.5].
BB posts the big blind [$1].

Dealt to Hero
** Dealing down cards **
UTG folds
MP folds
CO folds
Hero raises [$3.5] Pot = [$5]
SB calls [$3] Pot = [$8]
BB folds

** Dealing Flop **
SB checks
Hero checks

** Dealing turn **
SB checks
Hero bets [$6] Pot = [$14]
SB calls [$6] Pot = [$20]

** Dealing river **
SB checks
Hero ....

There is a standard opening from Hero sitting on the button, and the player in the small blind calls. The range from this player is very wide, from suited connectors to small pairs, Aces with marginal kickers and suited Aces. The flop is very dry and Ace-high. This means you hit a pair. You can decide to c-bet here or wait until the turn. You can do this with a wide range of hands. The flatcall range from your opponent is not very big. This range will include hands like Ax, maybe Qx or a draw with TJ, so you are now getting value from weaker hands, which is the most important reason to bet in the first place. If your opponent now checks to you on the river, you can limit his call range even further to merely Ax, in which case you only beat A3 and A4, hands that players won' t often call a raise with preflop and out of position. Therefore, there isn't much value in a bet here. There are too few hands that will call here and are worse than your hand. This is an example of a hand with which you want and can get value on one street. If you would be holding AK in this example, you would obviously want to get value on all three streets.

Example 2
Hero posts the small blind [$2].
BB posts the big blind [$4].

Dealt to Hero
** Dealing down cards **
UTG folds
MP folds
Hero raises [$12] Pot = [$18]
BTN calls [$12] Pot = [$30]
SB folds
BB folds

** Dealing Flop **
Hero checks
BTN checks

** Dealing turn **
Hero checks
BTN checks

** Dealing River **
Hero bets [$22] Pot = [$52]
BTN calls [$22] Pot = [$74]

BTN shows

Here we have Hero sitting out of position and again he flops top pair on a dry board. It isn't too bad to give away the initiative here by checking into him. Villain will check here with a big part of his range, but also regularly make a bet in an attempt to pick up the pot with a bluff. Hero is ahead here against most of his opponent's betting range. There aren't many turn cards that can worsen or improve Hero's hand. The one thing you don't want to happen here is be bluff-raised or to try and get value over three streets on a drawless board. In other words, if you get called here on three streets by a good opponent, you will almost always be behind. This is a hand with which you want to try and get value on one, maybe two streets. When in position you would be more likely to go for the value on two streets. By checking again on the turn Hero is representing a weak hand. Of course any bet made here by the button will be called. On the river we then bet 2/3 of the pot and the player on the button calls with a medium pair. In this example you go maximum value out of the hand by applying pot control. If you bet the flop or turn here, villain will almost always fold his hand. However, by checking both streets you might induce a bluff on the turn or a light call on the river, which is the maximum result for this hand. You therefore don't lose value by checking here. By checking the flop and the turn here you are creating a situation in which villain is willing to pay you off with a weak hand.

Hands you want to get value with on one street are hands like top pair with a medium kicker, or a medium pair whenever your opponents only acts on one street. Don't blow up the pot with these weak or marginal hands, it will only cost you money in the long run.

Marginal hands
With a good hand you want to get paid of on several streets. You want to get value on one or two streets. When playing against a loose opponent, you will often be able to bet on several streets, because your relative hand strength is bigger against a weak opponent as your opponent's range is bigger.

At the end of the day, you can only get as much value out of your hand as your opponent allows. If your opponent has a weak hand and you have a strong hand, you will never get value on two streets. Your hand might be worth two or even three streets of value, but that of your opponent isn't, and therefore he won't put money into the pot. Always think about your opponent's hand range and with what hands he will pay you off.

Once you have decided that your hand is worth two streets of value, you will have to decide on which streets to get this value. The same counts for the "one-street" hands from before. With the two-street hands you can get value on the flop and the turn, the turn and the river or the flop and the river. That's all the possibilities you have. Plan your hands in advance. You want to always maximise your value against weaker hands.

How to plan a hand depends mainly on the board and of course the strength of your own hand. Below you see an example of getting value on earlier streets.


Example 3
Hero posts the small blind [$2].
BB posts the big blind [$4].

Dealt to Hero
** Dealing down cards **
UTG folds
MP folds
Hero raises [$12] Pot = [$18]
BTN calls [$12] Pot = [$30]
SB folds
BB folds

** Dealing Flop **
Hero bets [$24] Pot = [$54]
BTN calls [$24] Pot = [$78]

** Dealing turn **
Hero bets [$60] Pot = [$138]
BTN calls [$60] Pot = [$198]

** Dealing River **
Hero ….

In this case the flop is very draw-heavy and your opponent could have you dominated by, for example, flopping a straight. Going for pot control early in the hand on drawy boards like that is usually a mistake. You want to bet on early streets here and get value out of your hand, but your hand isn't worth three streets of bets. On the river you will rarely get called by a weaker hand. Many draws and weaker pairs won't call anymore. Hands like 9T, 77 and JT will never call another bet. By checking the river you accomplish two things. First of all, you control the pot to not make the pot explode and keep you from having to make difficult decisions for your entire stack. The second thing is that you give your opponent the chance to bluff on a scarecard and possibly get extra value out of the hand. Your opponent might want to try and pick up the pot with a missed draw. If you bet here, there aren't many hands in villain's call-range that you beat. Another good reason to get value early is when your hand is good but has the possibility to improve to an even better hand, for example a flush draw combined with a top-pair. A top-pair is good for one or two streets, but in combination with a hit flush draw your hand is worth three streets of value.

Of course there are also disadvantages from getting value early in a hand. Your opponent will be faster with folding his weak hands. On draw-heavy boards aggressive opponents will check-raise you more often or bet aggressively, and then the question is whether or not you want to play for stacks here. In that case you could choose to get your value later on in the hand, even on a draw-heavy board. If your opponent tends to only call his draws for one street, you might as well check the flop and see if the turn helped your opponent's hand and then get your value on the turn. By doing this you avoid being pushed out of the pot on the flop by an opponent who plays his draws aggressively.

Example 4
Hero posts the small blind [$2].
BB posts the big blind [$4].

Dealt to Hero
** Dealing down cards **
UTG calls [$4] Pot = [$10]
MP checks
CO folds
Hero raises [$14] Pot = [$24]
SB folds
BB folds
UTG calls [$10] Pot = [$34]

** Dealing Flop **
UTG checks
Hero bets [$24] Pot = [$58]
UTG calls [$24] Pot = [$82]

** Dealing turn **
UTG checks
Hero checks

** Dealing River **
UTG …

The most common way of playing for pot control is by checking the turn. In this case you have a top-pair on a relatively dry board. You can bet the flop here and still get value from all sorts of hands such as weaker top-pairs, straight draws and smaller pairs. By checking the turn you avoid getting caught up in a big pot. You might be giving away a free card, but there are hardly any draws out there and only an Ace would be a bad card for you as it might help your opponent or kill any further action. By checking the turn you might still be getting value out of worse hands. This could happen because your opponent decides to bluff on the river, or valuebet with a weaker hand. These are often hands that won't pay off three streets of betting.

When playing against weak calling station you will of course let them pay you off on all three streets, while against aggressive opponents you would rather choose a pot control line. In this example this could also mean that you check the flop and get your value on the turn and the river. You need to balance out your game here by sometimes going for value early on in the hand and sometimes waiting until the later streets.


By getting value later on in the hand you avoid the pot getting too big. Furthermore, by the time you reach the river you will often have a better idea about your opponents hand range, which will be a lot wider on the flop. This can be a reason to go for value later.

Aggressive players will often interpret a check on an early street as weakness and attack this weakness by bluffing. On the other hand, you will also get called down by marginal hands more often because your check will often look very weak. A disadvantage of getting value late is that scarecards could appear. The greater the chance of scarecards appearing, the better it is to get your value early. If the range of your opponent includes many draws, you will want to get value early because there are a lot of cards that can improve your opponent's hand. However, if your opponent is a very aggressive player, you will have to expect check-raises or aggressive betting with draws. Then you have to make the decision whether or not you want to take the risk and check one street in order to control the pot.

Strong Hands
With strong hands there is no reason to go for pot control. If you start checking here or adopt a passive line in some other way, the reason for this is to induce bluffs. Hands like top-pair/top-kicker with a nut flush draw, or maybe a set, are hands that can often go for three streets of value. Pot control is not applicable in this situation. You want to get as much value as possible from your opponent's range.

Example 5
Hero posts the small blind [$2].
BB posts the big blind [$4].

Dealt to Hero
** Dealing down cards **
UTG checks
MP checks
CO folds
Hero raises [$12] Pot = [$18]
SB folds
BB calls [$8] Pot = [$26]

** Dealing Flop **
BB checks
Hero bets [$20] Pot = [$46]
BB raises [$60] Pot = [$106]
Hero ….

This is an example where you could check to induce more action. You will often find that when you re-raise, the range your opponent will still give you action with is very limited. Namely 55 or Qx. By adopting a more passive line here you are hoping to get some action from bluffs and smaller pairs. This, therefore, has nothing to do with pot control.

Conclusion
Always evaluate what your hand is worth. On how many streets do you want to and can you get value from your hand against your opponent's range? If there are reasons to apply pot control, then check out how and on which street you can best influence the size of the pot. Checking one or more streets does not always have to mean that you are missing out on value. You only start missing value once check too many streets in relation to the strength of your hand. By checking too much on drawy boards against opponents with draws in their range, you are just making life difficult for yourself. By checking you keep the pot small and you are giving your opponent the chance to put money into the pot while you are ahead.

Also make sure not to become too predictable. Make sure to mix up your game every now and then and take different lines with the same hand in order to get as much value as possible out of your hands.

Success at the tables!!!

Edmé

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