Keeping the pot small in $5.50 MTT's and below

GDBPoker

GDBPoker

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I feel my game has come a long way since I realised I didn't need to win a villains stack every hand I'm in. It's hard to keep a pot small with the lower buy-in MTT's, any strategies that anyone out there plays in order to keep the pot small at the micro and small stakes?
 
horizon12

horizon12

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Your game should be easy.

Only enough bet in flop around 50% of the pot, if villain call, turn/river check/fold if you have nothing..

not very many players will you exploit, if you play passive turn/river....
 
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RamdeeBen

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It's simple really.

Play big pots with big hands and small pots with marginal hands.
 
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hffjd2000

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Play a strategy where they will fear you and now can control the pot.
 
tARsh

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Pot control is one of the pre-eminent winning MTT strategies regardless of stakes. It is a two way street and ranging is the most important aspect of it.
Getting max value and protecting a hand can keep you in a tournament long enough to win.
There is no simple formula for it however it my experience it starts pre-flop. Identifying your position on the table the proclivities your hand carries to make a hand, how that hand ranges against other potentially made hands vs you the number of players in the hand and where on the table relative with stacks sizes and the players inclinations.
That's not even comprehensive.
However a few rules of thumb which are wildly interpret-able depending on blind level and antes if any.
2.20-2.5x opens at later stages - your opening raise sets the tone for the entire pot; an extra 50 chips from you in a 3 handed pot at 25.50 or even 30.60 etc makes a huge difference post.
So bigger hands I'm assuming we have already established we want to play HU ie like the AK AQsooted etc so in position an overbet - 3.5x BBs even can help control a pot more than a min raise even though you have increased your bet size you have now taken a player or 2 calling range down and depreciated the aggregate pot size as well as reduced the chance of a hand slipping by your ranging.
But with a J10 or even a 57 suited you are seeking strait, perhaps 2 pairs and need better implied odds to make such a hand profitable so an under raise to juice the pot and disguise your range pre is more valuable. With the 57 etc hands trips are generally good, however the 910-KQ hands trips can just as often help you find an early rail seat.
I could ramble on but take that for what its worth and as always circumstantially extrapolate.
GL and keep up the great questions.
 
GDBPoker

GDBPoker

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Pot control is one of the pre-eminent winning MTT strategies regardless of stakes. It is a two way street and ranging is the most important aspect of it.
Getting max value and protecting a hand can keep you in a tournament long enough to win.
There is no simple formula for it however it my experience it starts pre-flop. Identifying your position on the table the proclivities your hand carries to make a hand, how that hand ranges against other potentially made hands vs you the number of players in the hand and where on the table relative with stacks sizes and the players inclinations.
That's not even comprehensive.
However a few rules of thumb which are wildly interpret-able depending on blind level and antes if any.
2.20-2.5x opens at later stages - your opening raise sets the tone for the entire pot; an extra 50 chips from you in a 3 handed pot at 25.50 or even 30.60 etc makes a huge difference post.
So bigger hands I'm assuming we have already established we want to play HU ie like the AK AQsooted etc so in position an overbet - 3.5x BBs even can help control a pot more than a min raise even though you have increased your bet size you have now taken a player or 2 calling range down and depreciated the aggregate pot size as well as reduced the chance of a hand slipping by your ranging.
But with a J10 or even a 57 suited you are seeking strait, perhaps 2 pairs and need better implied odds to make such a hand profitable so an under raise to juice the pot and disguise your range pre is more valuable. With the 57 etc hands trips are generally good, however the 910-KQ hands trips can just as often help you find an early rail seat.
I could ramble on but take that for what its worth and as always circumstantially extrapolate.
GL and keep up the great questions.

Not even comprehensive? Well its enough for me to consider at this time. Ive been doing some of this with a little success, though Ive never considered raising over 3x, I will have to start incorporating this in to my play. I actually feel a bit dumb for not considering it already.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated
 
tARsh

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Not even comprehensive? Well its enough for me to consider at this time. Ive been doing some of this with a little success, though Ive never considered raising over 3x, I will have to start incorporating this in to my play. I actually feel a bit dumb for not considering it already.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated

Situational sir, standard opening bet should generally be 2.5x BBs approximately. (Standardized opening bet range helps mask your hand strength or relative range as well ie if you always open 2.4x BBs then it's hard to gauge your hand preflop)
It's blind and ante dependant primarily.
The over 3x is good for created an isolated hand when you don't desire a multi way pot or have a hand that only plays well HU.
Also it's especially pertinent at earlier stages. And later stages when there are early position limpers whom you dont want to give good pot and implied odds to. so if you made a standard raise with 3 limpers and the blinds in you will inevitably get more callers than you may want as they now have odds to get in and try and suckout - and it may even be the right play -
 
Daniel72

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It's simple really.

Play big pots with big hands and small pots with marginal hands.


And win more from the fish and lose less against the regulars !

Thats my slogan for 2015!

:cool:
 
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erlanditas

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Play from late positions if you want small pots...
 
IntenseHeat

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To me it's not about keeping the pots small. It's about not getting carried away. I don't mind playing a decent sized pot on my own terms. After a pre-flop raise, the size of my post-flop bets is going to depend on the size of the pot and the number of opponents I'm facing. I will usually bet 1/2 or 2/3 of the pot, but may bet more if I am facing more than one opponent in an attempt to shrink the field. If I win, I will increase my chip stack enough to satisfy me. If I lose, I will still have a decent enough stack to continue to play proper poker.

What I do mind is the guys that get carried away and think that they have to play every pot for every single chip in their stack. They open raise to 10x. The blinds are 20/40 and they're open raising to 400 pre-flop. If they catch any piece of a flop, they ship their whole stack in. Here's an example

I'm playing a tournament that I joined late. My starting stack was 3000. Blinds were 30/60 when I joined. About 3 hand after joining, I raise to 4x from middle position with Q-J, with one limper in front of me. One player calls behind me. The blinds fold. The limper goes away. The flop comes 2-J-6 (rainbow). I bet 315 into a pot of 630. My opponent goes all-in over the top of me for 2840. I take a moment to consider before making the call. My opponent turns over 8-J suited. My hand holds up on the turn and river. I double up and this guy is crippled.

Now I have one of those conflicted moments. I'm happy about the outcome of the hand. But I'm sitting there thinking to myself that that wasn't even necessary. Why risk his whole stack on one hand. If it's up to me, I'm always going to try to avoid risking my stack on one hand, even aces, unless I'm short stacked or have made something like a straight or flush or a full house. But that is the way a lot of people play poker. It doesn't necessarily make sense to me. So all I can do really do is try to play the way it makes sense to me and not get carried away and risk too much on a single hand. But there is nothing I can really do to make an idiot play right.
 
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BullWink

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I feel my game has come a long way since I realised I didn't need to win a villains stack every hand I'm in. It's hard to keep a pot small with the lower buy-in MTT's, any strategies that anyone out there plays in order to keep the pot small at the micro and small stakes?

One of your implied questions, is how to avoid the pot getting big if you only have marginal hand. The best way to keep it small (or avoid putting to much into a questionable pot) is to fold. On the other hand If you flop trips, or other hand that is likely to hold up (i.e. a monster hand), then you don't want the pot to stay small.

The other way to keep the pot small, is to be very aggressive. Check and raise a lot, so that others will not put much into the pot, as they will be afraid of getting check-raised. This seems counter-intuitive, as these pots will be big, but hopefully hands later in the game will be a smaller size.
 
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