Winning with Small Pots in Tournaments

Debi

Debi

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This is our strategy discussion for Dec Week 4 in the CardsChat Forum Challenge:

Winning with Small Pots in Tournaments


Sometimes you need to keep the pots small to extract the most value or to disguise the strength of your hand.

Have you been successful playing small pots in tournaments?

Let us know what you think of this article - everyone is welcome to join in!
 
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zam220

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The article is very good, but I still decide based on their experience and intuition.
First, it should be noted that the rates are different: a bet to protect the hand, a value bet or a bluff bet.
Always think about the size of their own bets and bet size of the opponent. This will help you better experience the game, increase Your winnings and reduce losing.
 
Ivansito26

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good question .... sometimes we have to defend our premium hands in a tournament and know what bet we will do since what we want is for players to come in and then clean the table ...
One way is to determine which players are weak post-flop, this way you have the advantage, when you play with a position in front of them and you can bluff by raising pre-flop, to possibly take the pot after the first 3 cards. Another way is to identify the size of the stacks, this works well in the middle / last stages of the tournaments when the blinds become more expensive and many people get into many large wells with marginal hands, basically what you are looking for is to play against opponents who do not have a better hand than you, this information is obtained by analyzing the stack of the other player and his game, depending on whether he is in trouble or not.
 
RidersFan

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I think the article is a good guideline. I like to keep pots small in the early stages of the tournament. I think the raise size that the article suggests is dated for tournaments and is more of a cash game strategy for per flop raising. I usually raise between 2.2x and 2.71x.
 
playinggameswithu

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I always prefer to chip up rather than all-in. All-in are a gamble.
 
mtl mile end

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Not losing chips is as important as winning chips. On pokerstars, I have my Preflop betting buttons preset with a "pot" size bet (3.5X BB in unraised pot). This is my "go to" PF bet sizing. Post flop, I use my "1/2 Pot" button a lot.

In addition to concealing hand strength by betting the same relative amount all the time, it controls pot size and allows me to make a cheap getaway when necessary.

All of this is dependent on the situation, of course.
 
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Not losing chips is as important as winning chips. On PokerStars, I have my Preflop betting buttons preset with a "pot" size bet (3.5X BB in unraised pot). This is my "go to" PF bet sizing. Post flop, I use my "1/2 Pot" button a lot.

In addition to concealing hand strength by betting the same relative amount all the time, it controls pot size and allows me to make a cheap getaway when necessary.

All of this is dependent on the situation, of course.

This is what I do more times than not. I do wish more people would read this article, it makes a lot of sense and will help their game tremendously.
I know a lot of players watch poker on TV, what they don't take into account is why and when the players are going all in. Also, they don't just do it, they have a reason for the most part, which again is explained in the article.
 
ebellari

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its always good to play smal pots in tournaments, especially if you have a good hand
i usually raise x3 after the flop when i have a good hand and it always works for me, people will call because its always a small quantity of chips

thank you guys for the thread
 
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Most of the time they are your main way of surviving. You ussualy (atleast now) when you shove and get called its something around 50/50-40/60. Ranges of push/call are wide so you are flipping most of the time. Small 4-6 bb pots on there hand let you ATM or atleast survive a bit longer. The only problem I know is palyers often try to overplay their "small pot" into "HUMUNGUS" you raise 2.2bb-call>1/2 pot cbet-call>1/2 pot cbet-call>and you have ~24bb pot... know what you dont wana give it up ... so you shove? is it a bluff-shove? is it value-shove? is your 2nd pair with dro blocker good? You see ? +)
 
Dejange

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My preflop raise buttons are set to "2.5 BBs" and "3.5 BBs". The higher one I am pushing when having a monster hand preflop. Post flop settings I have "1/2 pot" and "2/3 pot". Of course, AI button is available all the streets :D
Having involved in pot with speculative hands, I am rather intend to keep it small. But when I am holding monster hand, I rather trying to form as larger pot as it could be, knowing my chances to win it are high. Again, it is also matter of opponent's style on the table, as our main goal is to exploit them, so sometimes setting trap is also a good idea.
 
Bev

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This article is good , and to bad it is not out there for all the beginners who join the poker sites to either get in on what everyone else is doing , or to win big bucks for little or investment.
So, that said , the ones who actually try in a tourny are the ones who will last (usually ) to get through - even then the experienced ones will over raise on what they feel is a strong hand and get beat out on the river or something ...
Raising is just part of the game - note Part of being the operative line .
But to keep raising to much in the beginning of any tournament is showing how stupid/ignorant you are ... or just that you don't care . If you are raising - then you should be at least raising with a plan - or a strong hand, and for me I try to sit and watch if there is a pattern forming on the flops,river and turn before I start raising in the beginning of the tournaments .
Anyone who keeps raising to much in the beginning is just asking to be knocked out as it usually goes against them when someone else has a stronger hand or better luck on the flops.
 
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I generally prefer to keep the pots small and evaluate on each street. I did try to read Daniel's book on small ball poker, but that is above my skill set.I tend to try to keep pots small until I have a good feel of my opponents and can pick the right time.
 
lilu80

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When I`m on BB and I see stealer players I play bet no only 3x BB. IMO in this is good x7 BB! When I see immediately that the player when flop paly overbet I know that there is probably no completed your hand example tilt with flush or small his pair. For the most part, I like this call. A lot of course depends on the players and their image should be observed beforehand!
 
SPANKYSN

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Looking at it with the compounding effect makes sense...an early overbet yields a much larger overbet later. It happens often that an overbet on a marginally strong hand (AJ suited) in early position loses chips that would have been good to have the next hand or two when AA or KK comes along.
 
tihomir_kula

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I ve lost too many hands with small pots.Now I play all in if I have strong hand.Think will never learn when to fold if the pot is progressive.
 
PokerNuts01

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Winning with small pots is possible but not in online freerolls. To win in this way the other players must respect small/normal 3bet or 4bet and this is impossible if the game is free.
 
Marcos mats

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This is our strategy discussion for Dec Week 4 in the CardsChat Forum Challenge:

Winning with Small Pots in Tournaments


Sometimes you need to keep the pots small to extract the most value or to disguise the strength of your hand.

Have you been successful playing small pots in tournaments?

Let us know what you think of this article - everyone is welcome to join in!
Hi Debby.
I loved the article, I like to play small pots at the beginning of the tournament and I take control of my chips very seriously, of course everything in poker can change very fast, I believe because I started to play with more than 1000 players helped me to understand all of this in practice.
:pcguru:
We are together.
😎👊🍀💰
 
chicopaw

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Keeping pots small early n gives me a great idea of real aggressive and tight players.I like to play small pots at the beginning of the tournament and usually from 2.2-2.5-3.0 raises ,the opponents will have a hard time knowing what u are holding, On flops i will chk if i hit and hope they hit hard with a shove.Great time to catch a big one
 
demibar

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small pots on early stage of tournement are necessairy if you want to increase a bit of your stack and about multiply callers of you cant bluff in there chances to hit someone a card its so important the size of the bet !
 
BentleyBoy

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Another great strategy article from the guys and gals at CardsChat.

I always recall some good advice given to me when i first started playing poker and that was part of the advice given in this article and that is to CONTROL THE POT. If you control the pot, then you maintain an upper hand and direct proceedings for that hand. It also psychologically gives you the feeling of being in charge and therefore more able to control the game.

Pot sizing is an important aspect of poker and should be used wisely to maximise your opportunity of success and survival. All CardsChat members should read this article and give it a try....... watching out for those players who don't get this and maximise your play against them.

Best Wishes

BB
 
Ryan Laplante

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A small flop bet is around 25 to 35%.

The article says it is 50%. 50% is true for cash games.

In tourneys.

Small: 35% or less.

Medium:40% to 55%

Large: 60% to 90%

Very large: 95% to 135%
 
ScottieDuncan

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Good article I try to limit to small pots in the beginning.
 
kena3000

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I have been successful playing small pots in tournaments. Specially with a flush draw. Getting the nuts or sometimes getting the second or third nuts. I have lose a lot too. Because re-raises and 3-bet players do specially in freerolls and micros SNG. Sometimes i have called and lose 1/3 my stack.
I enjoy these strategy articles, getting knowledge. There are hands that i forget everything and just can´t find the fold button. Now what should you do if you hit in the flop top pair in a dry flop, and make a 1/2 pot bet and an aggresive player raise to pot bet?
 
U

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I tend to raise 2.2x pre and 1/2 to 3/4 on the flop turn and river. This is when I have a deep stack usually early but on ocassion late with another big stack where we both have at least 30bb.

It is rare that I will bet really small, say 1/4 to 1/3 or really big like pot size or bigger. I figure this keeps the pot reasonably sized still extracts value with my good hands, charges some amount to drawing hands, still has some fold equity, and keeps the bluffs to a reasonable size so when caught I am not crippled.

It is always better to chip up in my mind and be all in constantly. When your whole tournament is at stake every time being all in it will catch up to you quickly and you will be on the rail.
 
Q

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I like to play even smaller pots; pre-flop 2BB, post flop 1/2 pot. If I still have a caller at the turn I check to controll the pot-size.

My play is the same if I hit the flop or not and my experience is that most of the time callers are folding after the c-bet post flop.
If they are still there at the turn they must have hit the flop or have a draw. In small stakes poker it is really hard to get people of their draws and more often than not they make their draw on the river. Obviously I fold when the villain makes a reasonable size bet.


When I have hit hard on the flop or have a draw that comes through giving me the nuts or a very strong hand I like to keep as many as possible callers upto and after the river betting about half of the pot size.
If I have a full house against a flush on the board I try to get the caller all-in.
 
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