What is the definition of a "big pot"

[Jaquen H'gar]

I see many authors and players, when giving advice, refer to changing actions for a "big pot." Now a small pot is rather obvious, but how much constitutes a big pot? Is there a general range in terms of big bets in limit HE?

This thought hit me when working some hand quizzes from ITH and the pot was referred to as big by Hilger when I was thinking it was small/medium. Ed Miller says play tight when the pot is small, aggressive when it is big. So what's big?

[Patriarch]

I'd like to know this myself. I'm not at all sure but I'll throw out 20BB as a guess.

[umdpoker]

i think i have read before that if the pot was raised preflop, it is time to start treating it as a big pot. i am guessing that 10 bb is a big pot. i would say that a flop with 8 or more sb in it would be treated like a big pot. this is about the right size where multiple bets are necessary to shut out weak draws like small pair or gutshots.

[bicyclekick]

If I remember correctly a big pot is when there are at least 6sb's in it. From either a pf raise or 6 limpers.

I could be completely wrong, though.

[thirddan]

thats sounds about right to me, i don't have my copy of SSHE in front of me, but it gives some basic guidelines as to when a pot is big, and i don't think Mason likes people just quoting chunks of his book on the site...I do remember Ed saying in a post that a pot is big when you feel it is important to try and win it now and do everything you can do to win it...

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

There is no set answer of Xbb or Ysb. The idea is to judge by the size of the pot relative to the size of the bet whether or not a certain action is justified or whether what you are thinking of doing will get the desired result..

If you want to raise to clean up outs, for example, ask yourself "is the pot small enough that most people will fold rather than pay 2 bets to chase a weak draw?"

If you want to raise to push a draw, ask yourself, "is the pot big enough (i.e. do you have sufficient pot equity) to warrant this speculative action?"

A lot of the time, the answer will be obvious (the pot will be real small or real big). Often, you'll have to make the judgment based upon your opponents' proclivities.