Using Pot Control in cash games

When you play deep stacked then there are very few situations in which you would like the pot to become very large. In fact if you are playing with 100bb or more then the only time that you really want the pot to become big is when you have a big hand. In fact you may not even want the pot to become big even then. We will look at a few situations here to show you what I mean. Let us say that you flop the nuts with 7-7 when the flop comes 7-7-2. This flopped monster is clearly a rarity but it highlights one extreme side of the spectrum. Now clearly you would like to get your opponent all in for a huge amount of big blinds in what is a massively +EV situation and in fact depending on their hand then you could even have 100% equity in this situation.

This is a dream though because most of the time your opponent will either fold on the flop or to a bet on the turn or river. As a rule then you can only extract money from your opponents in increments because they simply do not extract hands that are big enough most of the time. So in this instance then you could flop an absolute monster and still not be doing the right thing by trying to make a huge pot. Now let us look at the other end of the spectrum where you have nothing and are trying to bluff the hand. In a heads up situation then you may pull this off and get your opponent to lay their hand down. This is stressful though to launch bluffs on multiple streets but when it goes wrong then you are going to lose an entire buy in that can lead to several more and you tilting for the session.

So if it isn’t necessarily good to pump pots with total air and monsters then what hands should you be looking to build big pots with? Well the answer is that you shouldn’t and this applies especially against regular players. Experienced opponents will not be making big mistakes against you and so when they themselves get into a big pot then they will have a big hand also. For example if your hand was the 9s-8s and the final board was 10s-4s-6c-Jd-As and you bet for value on the river and your opponent shoved all in then you cannot be confident about your hand against another multi-tabling regular player. These players who are playing six, eight and ten tables are playing very tight ranges and so are not mucking about when they are prepared to get all in.

Your opponent has a straight here as a minimum but he is unlikely to have that hand if you bet the flop and turn. So despite the fact that you have a flush, it isn’t a big flush and three bigger flushes are out there! It may be difficult to fold this but you at least cannot be confident of winning the showdown.