Getting Pot Committed in NLHE Ring Games
Carl Sampson | November 5, 2011
I always think that one of the key mistakes many players make in deep stack No-Limit Hold’em games is getting pot committed too often. Let me explain with an example. It has been folded around to the cut-off at NL100 ring with $100 effective stacks, who then makes it $3.50 to go. You see Queen of Any ColorJack of Any Color on the button and decide your opponent is likely stealing, so you three-bet to $14.
Both blinds fold, but the original raiser calls, making the pot $29 before the flop. The flop comes Jack of Any Color9 of Any Color4 of Any Color rainbow. Your opponent donk bets into you for $20. You decide your hand is too strong to fold to a single bet, so you call, looking to see what your opponent does on the turn. Now, the $20 call and the $14 pre-flop three-bet have already put 34% of your total pre-flop stack into the middle with two betting rounds to go.
The turn is a brick with the Ace of Diamonds. Your opponent checks, and so do you for pot control. Both of your ranges at this stage look weak to each other. The river card is good for you; it’s the Queen of Hearts, giving you two pair. Suddenly, your opponent bets $60 into the $69 pot out of the blue. You have already invested $34 into this pot, and calling this bet would lose you 94bb if your hand isn’t good.
You decide to call based on the fact that your turn check indicated weakness, and you can beat a bluff. You call, and your opponent shows Ace of Any ColorJack of Any Color for the top two pair played in an unorthodox way. You end up losing almost an entire buy-in with two pair. What went wrong? Clearly, you could have kept the pot smaller pre-flop by calling the $3.50 raise instead of re-raising. This would make the pot $8.50 on the flop instead of $29.
A similar size bet on the flop might have been around $5.50. When they check the turn, the pot is around $19 rather than $69. So, if you call a near pot-sized bet on the river in this instance, your risk is only around $19 at most, making your total risk less than $30 in total.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Carl “The Dean” Sampson is an online poker pro, coach and poker writer with many years experience in the poker and gambling industry. Carl has three published books and has written for many leading poker magazines like the WPT and Poker Pro Europe.
- Share this:
