Poker Articles

You’ve heard this said in a lot of posts at pocketfives. What does that mean and how does it affect my decision making? Taking control of the pot has to do with position, table image, bet amount, number of players in the hand and strength of the table.  These elements determine if you are able to take control of a certain pot or not. The biggest reason it is important is that it often determines the winner of a hand and not the cards that each person has. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to deal with pre flop positions.

How many times have you seen a person raise 4X the blind, no one calls, and that person wins the pot without showing their cards? Then 3 hands later, they do it again and 5 hands after that they do the same thing.  Do you really think they had that many premium hands? Not very likely. The first thing to notice is that most of the time that this happens it’s the first person in who wins it. The next tourney that you’re in try to count how many times the first person to raise, wins the pot. After the first hour of the tourney, you’ll find that it is a high percentage. Why is that the case? A big raise forces the people behind it to have to answer several questions; Do I think he has a good hand? Do I think I have a better hand? Am I willing to risk the chips to see the flop? Do I think anyone else will call or reraise?  You see, the person raising has taken control of the pot and forced everyone else to react to him. The only other option left is you reraising and taking control of the pot.
 
Now let’s look at some of the aforementioned factors, such as position.  A raise from under the gun must contend with 9 other players (at a 10 person table).  A raise from the cut off with everyone else having folded has to contend with 3 players.  The later the raise, the higher the chance of winning the hand, because you’ve limited the number of players who can beat you. 

Then there's also table image.  If you’ve been caught bluffing, your raises aren’t going to get a lot of respect.  This can be both a good and a bad thing.  If you’ve done this on purpose to make sure you get calls later, it can be a good strategy.  However, it can also hurt you because the amount of hands you can raise with has been severely limited.

You also must consider the bet amount. There is no factor that determines control of the pot more than this.  If you happen to be on a loose table, you’ll have to bet very big to get rid of the fish.  Should your table be tight, you can pick up quite a few extra pots with medium size raises.

Think about the number of players in the hand.  Let’s assume you’re on the button and player A under the gun bets the blind.  Player B in the middle calls and Player C in the cut off calls.  You have 3 players already involved in the hand.  If you think a 2X the blind raise is going to push anyone out, you’re smoking something.  Now if only 1 player were in the hand, a 2X blind raise might win the hand. 

Lastly, think about the strength of the table.  The larger the number of  strong players at your table, the harder it is going to be to take control of a lot of pots.  They have experience and can read players more effectively.  The longer they are at your table, the better read they will have on you.
 
One last thing to remember is that the longer the tourney goes, the greater the effect of big pre flop raises will be.  The reason is that play tends to tighten up as you get closer to the money or the final table.  Always be aware of what stage the tourney is in.
 
As always, closely examine how these principles apply to your game and add those parts that will make you a better player.