Controlling the Pot

Pot Control is a concept that is very popular in No Limit Hold Em. It is a relatively new concept, not that it has never been around, but that many players recently started to use it. Pot Control means that the player “manipulates” the size of the pot based on the strength of his hand. The stronger the player’s hand is, the larger he wants the pot. If his hand is weak, then he obviously does not want to play for a big pot. But doing so can often be difficult since the opponent’s actions cannot be totally controlled. Since pot control is one of the most important skills a No Limit player must possess, learning the proper ways to control the pot is crucial to success.

Small Pot

The way a player on a site like Full Tilt Poker controls the size of the pot depends on his opponent. For example, if the opponent is aggressive, a player’s line would look something like – Call – Check – Bet – with a hand like top pair, which most likely is good, but a hand, which does not play well in a huge pot. That is, on the flop, the player would call the aggressive player’s bet, check behind on the turn and bet out on the river.

Medium Pot

A medium pot should be the goal with a hand such as bottom two pair or a very strong draw with many outs. Such draws include a flush and straight draw combined (not a straight-flush draw). The way to do this is to take a similar line to creating a small pot, but instead of calling the flop, raising the flop. This will not only get in more money on the flop, but on the river as well, since the bet will be the same percentage of a bigger pot.

Large Pot

Large pots are generally the easiest to “try” to build, but not so easy to keep the opponent in the hand. Obviously, a large pot is desired when holding the nuts, or at least second nuts. Raising the flop is generally a must as well as betting out on the turn. The only tricky part comes on the river. Depending on the type of opponent, betting out might be best (against a tight opponent) or another sneaky check-raise, which would be best against a very aggressive player. 2-raises in one hand can really get the pot huge.

Win big Texas Holdem pots on line