Playing Small Pots Correctly

Sometimes poker gets mighty exciting. Players are ramming and jamming, the pots are huge, and emotions and tempers are flying. It's the stuff of which poker stories and memories are made. At other times things are not quite so fired up, few pots are raised, the pots are small, and the players are stoic and calm. Those moments are not the most exciting in poker.



In a perfect world, all of the games in which you play would have huge pots and make for exciting times. In reality, sorry to bum you out, it's just not gonna be so! So, it is important to get value in small-pot situations, to add as much as possible to your winnings for the year. In my 35 years at the table, winning small pots has been a big part of my success. I have gotten a lot of money in with highly positive edge, and gotten my opponents to commit a lot of money to the pot with highly negative edge in small-pot situations. For most poker players, playing small pots correctly or incorrectly is very often the difference between being a winning or losing player for life!



Like everything else in the game, playing small pots correctly depends particularly on the types of opponents you're playing. While there are of course varying degrees of difference, there are two basic kinds of players in small-pot situations. One type just isn't all that interested in small pots. He can be fairly easy to move; just fire a bet and you will win the pot when nobody has made a hand. The other type wants to win every pot. He can be almost impossible to move off a hand, and is also going to take stabs at small pots with little or nothing in his hand. Both types can be manipulated with good strategy and tactics.



The key element of small-pot play is to trap players for extra bets when they have much the worst of it, and conversely, to avoid being trapped for those extra bets yourself.



When I play small pots in limit poker, I keep two important concepts in mind. (The same concepts apply in no-limit, but stack size, both yours and your opponents', is of such great importance in no-limit that it can be an overriding variable.) First, giving a free card or cheap draw to my opponents is less costly than if the pot is large. If my opponent utilizes the free card to draw out on me, thereby costing me the pot, the edge/expected value I lost is much less than if the pot were large. Oftentimes in poker, you are faced with the option of trying to trap your opponent(s) in order to make extra bets, or shutting him out so as not to allow him to draw out on you. In small-pot situations, I can take more risks as far as giving a free/cheap card in order to gain extra bets.



The second concept is that an opponent calling you with a second-best hand or a weak drawing hand is committing a much more grievous error by calling you in a pot that is small. When he does draw out on you, his reward is greatly reduced (particularly if you can correctly fold against him) versus when he draws out on you in a large pot. Therefore, in small-pot situations, you want to manipulate your opponents into calling you, since their calls are so often highly erroneous, thereby giving your hand greater edge/expectation. So, structuring your play to encourage opponents to chase gives your hand greater value.



Let's say that in a $20-$40 limit hold'em game, you limp in to open from third position with K-Q offsuit. One player calls from late position, the small blind folds, the big blind checks, and you are in second position in a threehanded pot. The flop comes K-8-3 rainbow, giving you top pair, good kicker. The player in the big blind, an aggressor who likes to both bluff and bet marginal hands, leads into the pot. If you flat-call, he is highly likely to bet the turn and the river, with or without a hand. The best play is to flat-call, even though you are risking the player behind you calling and possibly beating you. (How you play the turn and the river will depend on the styles of your opponents.) The player behind you will not fold any better hands, and is not correct to call with any worse hands than yours; therefore, you will do better in the long run if he calls with his inferior hands. The value of the edge of the bets you are likely to gain more than make up for the times that you end up losing the small pot due to how you played your hand.



Another way to utilize these concepts is to check what figures to be the best hand post-flop in order to get turn and river action on your hand. For example, let's say that you are in the same $20-$40 limit hold'em game. One player limps in from up front, everyone else folds to you on the button, holding the K 9, and you limp along. The small blind folds and the big blind checks. Once again, the flop comes K-8-3 rainbow. Everyone checks around to you. Both of your opponents are weak-tight, but are capable of bluffing the turn. In spite of the fact that giving a free card may cripple your hand, the best play is to check, hoping that you will get action on the turn from a weaker hand. Many players in early position will automatically bet this situation against you regardless of what turn card comes. (If you and the third opponent missed on the flop, they wouldn't necessarily be wrong in doing so. Another advantage of making the check-the-flop play is that if your opponents have seen you make that play and know you are capable of it, it strengthens the play of moving on the turn when they automatically bet into you. They are more likely to put you on a strong hand. The styles of your opponents and the turn card make the difference in such situations.) Once again, the extra edge from the bets post-flop make up for any edge lost when you give a free card that beats you.



The key to utilizing plays like this is using them in situationally correct circumstances. Doing so requires an understanding of the styles of your opponents. There is no need to slow-play for future action if your opponents will call you anyway. There is no reason to make plays to induce bluffs if your opponents seldom bluff. If you want to play poker on a high level, pay attention to players' styles, recall that knowledge in the heat of battle, and make the correct situational play.



A highly advanced play is understanding the styles of your opponents prior to the flop and making the play that sets up the situation to exploit their weaknesses. If you are playing with players who are susceptible to trapping plays, don't raise in marginal situations, call with more marginal hands in small pots from late positions (but not if first in), and maintain an image of being capable of bluffing.



Make these plays and then you can listen to your opponents tell you how lucky a player you are!

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. Please see his ad on Page 130. His books are available at http://www.conjelco.com/. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a freelance writer in South Florida.