Conservative Crust Poker

Controlling the pot is something every poker player needs to learn to do in order to become a successful poker player. Learning to control the pot is one of the tools you need to stop you from going broke in a tournament. You need to understand the true value of your hands so you know when you are raising and when you are calling a bet.

Checking in front

Realizing when it is best to keep a carbon poker pot small is one of the best ways to increase your profits and decrease you losses. Knowing which situations are best to check in front rather than calling is a good way to limit the amount you have to put into a pot.

For example, if you where on the big blind and have one caller from mid position as well as the small blind in the hand and you have Q-7 with a flop like Q-6-5. The chances are you are in front, but you are also out of position. If you check and then the player after you bets, you can call. You can also use this strategy all the way to the river as your hand has good showdown value against one player. In this situation, you are best to check rather than raise initially, as you have a marginal hand and your hand has too much showdown value.

Checking or calling behind

This is another example of how to control a pot. What you are looking to do is limit you chances of losing all your chips or giving your opponent the chance to re-raise. For example, you have A-Q in mid position and a tight player raises UTG. You hand has a lot of value, yet you know your opponent is strong. Therefore, you are best to call.

The poker flop came A-9-6. So like before you are still in the same position, as the only info you have is that he is strong. So he raises, you are again best to call. You hand has a lot of showdown value, but it is also not overly strong. Turn comes 10. He bets again. You just call. River 2. If you have called to the river and your opponent has a hand similar to you, the likelihood is he will just check. If he has a monster like trips, he will probably value bet.

However, he may try to value bet if he is bluffing as well. So again, you are best just to call if he value bets, as your hand has value. Or check if he checks in front. So he checks, so you check. He shows A-K, which beats your A-Q. However, you have greatly limited your losses and could have easily gone bust if you had re-raised any of his previous bets.

So because you controlled the pot you limited your loses which will also in return increase your profits in the end.