SPR question

[DoofusBazaar]

Hi guys,

I'm relatively new to poker and recently have started studying more seriously. I understand what SPR is and how it can be used however is it always the smallest stack to pot ratio or can it also be done for your stack even if it's not the smallest?

I've seen some people discussing what their individual SPR was and also what the smallest stack size to pot ratio was...

Also is SPR something you guys consider in pretty much every hand? How influential is it in your decision making compared to things like pot odds and player reads.

thanks

 

[Collin Moshman]

Nice questions on stack-to-pot ratio!

It's always calculated with the effective stack. For example, if the pot going into the flop is 500; you have 10k and your opponent in a heads-up spot has 1k; the SPR is 2.

If the spot above was multiway and there was another opponent with a stack of 2k, then it would make sense to talk about having an SPR of 4 with this player and an SPR of 2 effective with the initial player.

The concept is a very useful one but you definitely don't need it in every hand. The idea is just to let it guide you generally in making decisions like to stack off with a weak top pair because the SPR is low.

 

[DoofusBazaar]

Nice questions on stack-to-pot ratio!

It's always calculated with the effective stack. For example, if the pot going into the flop is 500; you have 10k and your opponent in a heads-up spot has 1k; the SPR is 2.

If the spot above was multiway and there was another opponent with a stack of 2k, then it would make sense to talk about having an SPR of 4 with this player and an SPR of 2 effective with the initial player.

The concept is a very useful one but you definitely don't need it in every hand. The idea is just to let it guide you generally in making decisions like to stack off with a weak top pair because the SPR is low.

thanks so much that makes perfect sense now so would you say it's more useful and common to guide your decisions when it's a low SPR as opposed to a high one? I'm guessing the majority of hands have medium/high SPRs.

 

[Collin Moshman]

No problem!

And while low or high SPR are both useful info, I would agree that a low SPR is slightly more actionable -- particularly in terms of making it easier to get it in with marginal made hands.