Poker Math That Matters

125
So, we end up with an SPR of about 13. As we saw, an SPR of
13 gives us a pot-size bet on each postflop street. If we
minraised preflop, and the big blind called, the pot would be 4.5
big blinds preflop. We would have 98 big blinds left. Our SPR
would be 22. An SPR of 22 would make it impossible to get our
whole stack in unless someone raises or overbets a street
postflop. Now, that may not actually be a bad thing. Maybe
your hand and situation isn’t one where you’re going to be
comfortable getting all-in very often. You get to cater to these
situations preflop with your bet sizes. You can’t always design
your SPR because you can’t be certain how many players will
call. But, you can certainly head that direction. You’ll find that
playing live will give you much more room to work with preflop
bet-sizing. Whereas online, it’s very rare, almost awkward, to
see a preflop raise larger than four big blinds if no one has
already entered the pot. The idea of SPR was first introduced to
the poker community by a book entitled Professional No-Limit
Hold’em. I recommend that book for those interested in learning
more about the topic of SPR and how you can use it. I merely
introduce it here so you can think more clearly about chunking
up your stack. Table 13 shows some betting lines you can take to
get all-in by the river given different SPRs.
Table 13. Chunking options with common SPRs.
SPR Chunking Option
13 Pot, pot, pot
9 Pot, 3/4 pot, 3/4 pot
7 3/4 Pot, 3/4 pot, 3/4 pot
5.5 Pot, half-pot, half-pot
3.5 Half-pot, half-pot, half-pot