Is Playing When the Pot Is Large Less Skillful? (LHE)

[PokrLikeItsProse]

In another thread discussing the idea of never raising preflop, one player asserted:

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In limit poker a smaller pot makes skillful play more rewarded. On the flop much tighter/selective play is required due to the small pot. If you raise preflop and have say 4 callers, it is almost impossible for them to make a mistake from there on because the large pot dictates calling a lot-which social players love to do.

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further stating

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The larger the pot, the less skill comes into play, the less position matters, you should just call. When the pot is small, that is when position matters the most in limit holdem. . . Making a big pot in limit holdem with position does not make your position worth more, it makes it worth less. A smaller pot means that every decision is more valuable and hence position is at its most valuable in small pots.

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and that

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If you keep the pot small preflop, then you are taking away peoples odds to call you on the flop, and then decisions on the flop become much more meaningful.

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My contention is that my edge over this player is my ability to build a larger pot when it is +EV to bet or raise instead of trying to play for small pots when I clearly have the best hand and that part of the skill in poker is creating a large pot that forces your opponent to call you down with the second-best hand.

Does anyone want to support this poster's claim that decision-making is significantly less important when the pot is large? That this makes position umimportant if the pot is large in a limit hold em game?

[DarkForceRising]

I find pot size often used as an excuse to play poorly (by me, especially [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]). The "new wave" poker thinking seems to have forgotten that there is a thing called "folding". With the pots as big as they are these calls may not be as magnified as they would be in tighter games but they degrade the bottom line, nonetheless. Then again, maybe they are just as bad. Small mistakes are still mistakes. And small mistakes can turn into big "compounding errors".

Saying to ourselves, "Well, I only have to be right 5% of the time to make this call profitable" when we know GODDAMN WELL that we are beat is akin to multi-level marketing schemes that say, "If only 1% of the people you contact get involved..." It is all too often used as a rationalization to gratify our inner-donkishness.

Anyway, I would think that it takes just as much skill- but different skill. Look at what a bitch it is to properly apply Ed Millers "finding hidden outs" teachings.

[jtr]

Great reply. Not currently a limit player myself but I completely agree with the thoughts you've expressed here.