Multi-way pots
Poker Strategy
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Marcus Bateman /
22 March 2011 /
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Poker at it's heart is a game of ranges and patterns. Certain key factors continually affect our perception of these factors, and one of the most important is the number of possible hand combinations available. A Hold'em hand where you hold top pair with top strength kicker is a pretty good hand in a heads up pot depending on the exact opponent and flop, but that same hand against seven players (a multi-way pot) is a very different proposition.
Every extra player in a pot adds a huge number of extra possible ranges, and every extra possible set of ranges available increases the likelihood of a player or players having a hand at the very upper end of theirs. Think of a hand like a set in terms of the two simple examples above.
In the first case - that of the heads up pot - the likelihood of a set is pretty low. Your opponent's range on most flops will be worse pairs, the same pair with a weaker kicker, and some draws. You can generally be happy inducing action in such a spot, and mostly you will run into hands you beat.
In the second example however, you should be much more worried about inducing action. Against seven opponents the chances of one of them having hit a set is much larger, and if you suddenly see big bets go in you should often be extremely concerned about the strength of your hand. The combined range of seven opponent's includes huge numbers of hands that beat your hand, and we go from having the best hand most of the time, to having the best hand a much slimmer percentage of the time.
Weak players often misunderstand just how important every extra player in a pot is every time you see a flop, but it is a mistake critical to avoid. Poker is a game of pure relativity, and hands you can fall in love with and get your stack in every time in a heads up pot are a very different proposition to ones that you have to see against multiple numbers of opponents.
This effect is not just limited to the number of people in a pot. We only have to look at how much tighter our big bet ranges in a game like Pot Limit Omaha have to be compared to Hold'em - even in heads up pots - simply because the extra combinations of cards create the exact same effect as extra opponents in Hold'em. Never make a single decision in poker without considering the number of possible hand combinations. Be it number of opponents, number of cards, or even number of bets, it is a factor that has to be at the forefront of your mind at all times if you want to avoid disaster.
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