Louie Landale
02-03-2003, 01:28 PM
There are lots of adjustments to this that I will ignore; but basically you ...
[1] CALL a bet when your "Pot Odds" compare favorable with your "Losing Odds". That is, the size of the pot divided by the size of the bet is BIGGER than the ratio of the chances of you losing divided by the chances of you winning. So if there is 3 bets in the pot and it costs 1 bet to call, you should call if you chances of losing are less than 3:1 against.
[2] BET or RAISE when the number of calls you expect is larger than your "Losing Odds". So if you expect exactly 1 call you should bet if you chances of losing are less than even money; and if you expect 2 calls you should bet if your chances of losing are less than 2:1 against.
The above is fundamental poker.
Reminder: we are ignoring lots of adjustment factors such as implied odds.
When the pot is small, such as is routinely the case when its your first decision; the above thresholds are routinely very close together. That is, most of the hands you can justify a call with are also ones that you can justify a raise with. Example: if 3 players are in (pot size is 4), then you should call if you'll less than 4:1 against, but if you figure they will call your raise you should raise if you are less than 3:1 against winning. Thus, there is a reasonable rule-of-thumb that says "If its not worth betting its not worth calling". That's a VERY useful axiom to apply when the pot is small.
When the pot is large, however, your call threshold is much greater than your bet/raise threshold. That is, there should be LOTS of hands you'll be willing to call with that are definately not worth a bet or raise: if you are 4:1 against making your flush, generally call if the pot is bigger than 4, but rarely bet or raise with it. This situation comes up all the time towards the end of the hand after one or more betting rounds. The above "If its not worth betting its not worth calling" axiom falls apart completely when the pot is large.
Now I am telling you flat out that MANY aspiring players correctly adopt this axiom at the beginning of the hand (when the pot is small); yet they fail to abandon this axiom towards the end of the hand (when the pot is large). The result is that, when faced with aggressive opponents, they routinely fold hands clearly worth calls, simply because their hand is no longer worth betting or raising.
This is not such a problem at the lowest levels since there are few reasonably assertive players. But it becomes a disaster as they move up in levels since the players are more assertive, and also are more likely to notice that Hero WILL lay down good hands, and they will take shots.
Soooo.... you need to adjust your Axioms and strategies depending on the size of the pot.
- Louie
The correlary is this: if you SEE someone bet and then fold a clearly reasonable hand a couple of times, you NEED to take a shot or two at that person.
[1] CALL a bet when your "Pot Odds" compare favorable with your "Losing Odds". That is, the size of the pot divided by the size of the bet is BIGGER than the ratio of the chances of you losing divided by the chances of you winning. So if there is 3 bets in the pot and it costs 1 bet to call, you should call if you chances of losing are less than 3:1 against.
[2] BET or RAISE when the number of calls you expect is larger than your "Losing Odds". So if you expect exactly 1 call you should bet if you chances of losing are less than even money; and if you expect 2 calls you should bet if your chances of losing are less than 2:1 against.
The above is fundamental poker.
Reminder: we are ignoring lots of adjustment factors such as implied odds.
When the pot is small, such as is routinely the case when its your first decision; the above thresholds are routinely very close together. That is, most of the hands you can justify a call with are also ones that you can justify a raise with. Example: if 3 players are in (pot size is 4), then you should call if you'll less than 4:1 against, but if you figure they will call your raise you should raise if you are less than 3:1 against winning. Thus, there is a reasonable rule-of-thumb that says "If its not worth betting its not worth calling". That's a VERY useful axiom to apply when the pot is small.
When the pot is large, however, your call threshold is much greater than your bet/raise threshold. That is, there should be LOTS of hands you'll be willing to call with that are definately not worth a bet or raise: if you are 4:1 against making your flush, generally call if the pot is bigger than 4, but rarely bet or raise with it. This situation comes up all the time towards the end of the hand after one or more betting rounds. The above "If its not worth betting its not worth calling" axiom falls apart completely when the pot is large.
Now I am telling you flat out that MANY aspiring players correctly adopt this axiom at the beginning of the hand (when the pot is small); yet they fail to abandon this axiom towards the end of the hand (when the pot is large). The result is that, when faced with aggressive opponents, they routinely fold hands clearly worth calls, simply because their hand is no longer worth betting or raising.
This is not such a problem at the lowest levels since there are few reasonably assertive players. But it becomes a disaster as they move up in levels since the players are more assertive, and also are more likely to notice that Hero WILL lay down good hands, and they will take shots.
Soooo.... you need to adjust your Axioms and strategies depending on the size of the pot.
- Louie
The correlary is this: if you SEE someone bet and then fold a clearly reasonable hand a couple of times, you NEED to take a shot or two at that person.