On Pot Control

One of the reasons I enjoy writing on here is it gives me a chance to go back over games and, sometimes, to spotlight errors I make which I can then tighten up. And this is one of those times. It goes back to a big hand I lost to Phil. On the one hand, I can't think of a way I could have played the hand where I would have won. He had a hand he was not going to be driven off so no raise would have won it for me and he had better cards. The problem was I paid him far too many chips...and it was my own misplays that made it that way.

With effective stacks of about 4K the situation was pretty clear. I had been on a rush, built a decent lead, and had been driving people out with raises. Phil was gun shy towards me, having lost 2 or 3 big pots. The blinds were 50/100.

With a couple limpers I picked up the fishhooks on the button. I raised to 300, Phil called UTG, everyone else folded, pot had about 800. Flop was gorgeous, all low, though there was a potential straight if he called with something goofy like a 6/8 or something weird like that. He came out and raised 200. Based on what I had seen I put him on something like top pair with top kicker or maybe 2 big cards. I reraised to 1000. He hesitated, then called. Turn was a King and he hit it. I knew he hit it as sure as if I saw his King. I did not know if he had A/K, K/7, or what...but I knew he had a King. But when he put in another 1000 I called anyway for reasons I will go into shortly and on the river his last 1200 was called as well.

From my standpoint the thinking went like this:
pre-flop with just limpers I believe my Jacks are good.
On the flop, which I loved, I believed I had the best hand. When I have the best hand I love to get all the chips in the pot and double up. I was planning to bet the pot and when he showed interest I adjusted my bet up a bit. The plan was to get all the chips in on the river.
On the turn when he hit the king I went into, "I might hit a miracle card" mode. Horrible play. I knew it was but I also knew I had the chips to play with. On the river, I know I am beat but, as I commented at the time, "there is so much in the pot I can't not call". Another HORRID play. I was 99.9999% convinced I was beat and getting only about 6-1 on my chips. A fold saves 1200 chips and I would still have been in fine shape, though no longer chip lead. Basically it was a frustration call.

From Phil's standpoint, the hand went something like this: limp with big hand, call a frequent raiser, see beautiful flop of all unders, send out feeler bet, get re-raised. Only pocket Aces or a bizarre medium suited connectors that hit 2 pair or straight are beating him. Turn gives a set. Now the object is to get all the chips in the center and the opponent is very aggressive. A nice raise of almost half the remaining chips. Innocuous river card, the rest of the chips go in.

And now, a look at the hand as I SHOULD have played it.

I like my pre-flop raise. There has been plenty of raising in the game so far and a fair amount of limping as well. I have no reason to believe the Cowboys are lurking.

I don't even like my PLANNED raise on the flop. Sure, the odds are my hand is best. But with a pot of 800 and just a pair of Jacks I really don't have a lot. I am vulnerable to any Queen, King, or Ace that falls on the turn or river, to any 2 pair. I want to play a small pot here.
So when Phil bets 200 I should either A)call or B) reraise the same amount or slightly more. No need to bump up to 1000 and make it a big pot.

He was willing to play a small pot with his Kings. If I just call there is only 1200 in the pot. I am not getting hurt, nor is he. This will be important on the turn.

When the King rolled off I saw his reaction. I KNEW he had the King and was beat. If there is only 1200 in the pot I am not tied to it. No big deal, I can let it go and not think about it. He is unlikely to switch gears and throw a huge bet out there and if he does I can happily lay it down.

This was a case of being overaggressive. I would not care hugely except for one basic fact: I do this too often. I get too aggressive, create unnecessarily large pots and then too often can't get away from them because I committed myself with too weak a hand.

I need to be more patient. Every pot does not need to be a big, make or break pot where huge amounts of chips are exchanged. Just as an open raise of 500 with blinds at 25/50 is ridiculous, so my habit of betting the pot borders on ridiculous.

I need to work on controlling the size of the pot. Sure, if I have the nuts I want as many chips as possible in the pot. Otherwise, do I REALLY want to play for all my chips with a weak pair or even 2 pair, something like that?

I need to work on betting less and less often. Sure, aggression is good...when properly channeled. Improperly channeled it leads to huge pots that need not have been played.

Imagine this: Phil calls my 300, I call his 200, I fold to the King. I am still chip leader. I lost only 500 chips on a hand where my Jacks ran into a SET of Kings. I lost less than 10% of my stack.

This has been an ongoing theme that for whatever reason has eluded me in my post-mortems.

So maybe I will have better success sizing my bets with half or 2/3rds of the pot. By slowing down I might do a better job of getting my chips in the center in better situations.

Of course, I understand one reason this occurs. I play pretty tight pre-flop so when I actually catch a hand I want to make some chips off it. But that detracts from the patience I need. Patient aggression, that is a good plan...but can be made better by changing it to patient intelligent aggression.

So we will see if I take the lesson to heart and begin sizing my bets more wisely.