Counting the pot

[KJL]

Whenever I play live NLHE, I run into trouble counting the pot. I usually am fine from the flop on, but preflop, I keep getting confused with raise or re-raise situations with the blinds. Does anyone have any tips, like just waiting till the betting is done and adding up the remaing players and the dead money, or is this ability just gained through expereience. Any advice is appreciated.
TIA

[nothumb]

Just follow the preflop action closely. 1-2 NL, two players limp, that's $7, raise to $10 makes it $17, two callers to you makes it $37, etc. This will help you put people on hands and recall details later in the action as well.

NT

[mgsimpleton]

i think that's not the best advice, gets confusing for ok who has added 10 to the pot and who has added 7, etc. just wait til all the preflop action is done, then count yes the callers times the raise plus the dead money, usually pretty easy like that... and the dead money is generally pretty unimportant unless there was complicated preflop action anyway, so usually just multiply the raise times the callers works fine.

[Wada]

I use nothumbs way first because like he said it helps with recalling the details of the action later in the hand. You can replay the hand back in your head to help determine with hand reading..etc.

But then I use your way as a back up plan if for some reason I brain fart or I wasnt paying attention during the betting.

[RollaJ]

Just guess, you dont have to be exact...... if you bet 7/8 pot or 1 1/8 the ground will not open up and swallow you [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]