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As the title of this post suggests, I have been focusing on the aspect of controlling pot size, be it trying to play small ball or trying to maximize winning hands. I noticed that I tended to always make a continuation bet post flop after raising preflop and on the occasions that I missed the flop entirely, that is, almost all the time, I was getting myself into situations where the size of the pot was making decisions for me about my play, rather than my holding or my read of the situation and opponent. Basically speaking, I was forcing myself to play hands by creating bigger pots, whether or not I was ahead or behind, and in doing so, was systematically whittling my stack in the event of a no-draw/bluff only type of situation. Now, I am not saying that I am not a believer in making continuation bets, only that I realized that I was doing it systematically, as if by rote and as with any mechanical, repetitive type of play, it becomes obvious to opponents what is happening and they adjust and react. So in talking with a friend about my play, he suggested trying to control pots with check/calls and check/raises to mix things up, to make the 3-bet or 4-bet preflop to weed out speculative hands when playing from ahead and go back to playing a more fundamental game from position. He also suggested that in the rebuy tournaments that I play often, in trying to trap a lot more with the big pairs early on, as the structure is such that the starting stack size can get committed to a pot awfully quickly early on. In essence, using that to my advantage, as opposed to seeing it as a hindrance. The same with trying to play small ball and keeping pots reasonable when flopping something like middle pair or a decent draw.
In any event, I am playing one of these tourneys tonight and will report back on how it goes.
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6 comments:
cc - i really like your blog. please post more.
c-bets and pot control are all about relative stack size, and stack-pot ratio.
when you're deep, c-bet almost always and give up when you encounter resistance.
when you're <30bbs deeps, c-bet less and only do so against certain opponents you feel will fold will a higher frequency. pot-control more often. your decisions will be much easier, more natural, and much more profitable.
You had me truly engaged in reading your blog today. I am looking forward to your examples. I am one who also traps themselves with continuation bets...very nice topic.
One thing i don't agree with is 'check raising' to control pot size. That play does the exact opposite. Once you check raise it forces you to play a big pot. If you get called on the CR then almost HAVE to bet the turn unless you're giving up on the hand, thus creating a bigger pot. Betting into the raiser could be more benificial. If he raises it gives you a better idea if you're behind and if he calls then he's prolly not that strong. I would avoid the check raise unless you're trying to end the hand RIGHT there.
I agree w/ honest guy(still have a hard time calling him that). I really do not understand how you and your friend think that check raising and 3 and 4 betting are gonna help you to control the size of the pot. I would like to hear you explain this a bit more. And if you are check rasing and 3 and 4 betting doesn't that pretty much kick small ball to the curb? I am confused.
Sorry, perhaps it was a little jumbled in the middle as I omitted a key point, I meant that we had talked about check-raising and 3 and 4-betting in those pots where I felt like I was ahead in order to create the pots that I want when I want them, as opposed to having them dictated to me. And in doing so, hopefully making the c-bets that I do make read more powerful to my opponents. Then, the times when I am in situations that I'm less sure of, trying to keep things in control a bit.
Yea, it is always a good idea to keep things as small as possible when you aren't sure what is going on.
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