Poker Math That Matters

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Seems like a small thing, right? Let's run it out again. You now
have $97 left in your stack.
You bet pot on the flop, and he calls. The pot is now $19.50.
You now have $90.50 left in your stack.
You bet pot on the turn, and he calls. The pot is now $58.50.
You now have $71 left in your stack. Now in order to get all
your money in, you have to bet $71 into a $58.50 pot. This can
be a significant change to your opponent's mentality in terms of
whether he feels like he should call your river bet.
Notice the difference in those two scenarios started with 50
cents. In terms of the difference in your stack and the pot, that
50 cents resulted in a $13.50 difference. You went from having
$1 less than the pot on the river to having $12.50 more than the
pot on the river. The extra $1 in the preflop pot turns into $9 by
the time the turn betting is over and $27 by the time the hand is
over. There are many important things to point out about this
phenomenon of exponential growth.
The first thing is the importance of the amount you bring to a
table. If you bring 100x or more, be prepared to face some very
large river bet decisions. Because the river is the final stage in
the hand, it’s the point at which the maximum amount of
information has been revealed. All the cards are out, and all the
betting patterns and tells have been revealed. It’s the point at
which the more experienced player has the greatest advantage.
Unfortunately for the beginner, it’s also the point where the big
money is won or lost. More often than not, the beginner is going
to take a beating on the big-money streets. Because of this, my
recommendation for many beginners is to start with a 40x stack.
This can easily turn hold’em into a game with three rounds of
betting instead of four. Watch the pot unfold when we start with