Poker Math That Matters

40x. We make a pot-size preflop raise and get one caller. The
pot is $7.50. You now have $36.50 left in your stack.
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You bet the pot on the flop, and he calls. The pot is now $22.50.
You now have $27 left in your stack. You have a bit more than a
pot-size bet left on the turn. There is little to no betting left to be
had on the river. This can save the beginner both headaches and
money while he’s developing his skills.
You can also think of how multiple callers would impact a hand.
Imagine if we raised pot preflop, and three players called. Now
the pot on the flop might be up to $12. What a difference this
makes in getting your stack in!
Notice thinking in terms of big blinds instead of money can
simplify the betting among different stakes. It doesn’t matter if
you’re playing $0.50/$1 or $500/$1,000. If you started with
100x stacks and have one opponent, the money is all gone after
four pot-size bets. It often helps to think in terms of big blinds
instead of actual money.
Another thing we can tinker with is getting out of the box with
our bet-sizing. Something I’ve noticed is that many players play
NLHE as if it’s actually pot-limit hold’em. You rarely see
players get creative with their betting. However, thinking in
terms of chunking our stack gives us the control to determine
how many streets of betting we’ll allow to take place. How many
streets do you want to play? You decide. In a video I recently
made for dragthebar.com, I played the following hand.
I had a 100x stack and opened with a pot-size raise in early
position holding A♠K♦. A loose and aggressive player called me
in middle position, and everyone else folded. He started the
hand with a 50x stack. The flop was A♥J♥T♦. I considered this
to be a very good flop for my situation. I felt my opponent had