Stack Sizing In No Limit Poker (Part 1)

All things being equal, the biggest key to being a winning no limit poker stars is wager sizing. In the long run, the $100 you save on making a smaller bluff, or the $500 pot you win making a bigger bluff, all add up to your bottom line. The amount you raise pre-flop might help you stack your opponent, or help him get away from the hand.

There are a multitude of things to consider when choosing a bet size. Knowing something about your opponents will help you refine bet sizes. The goal of chip sizing in general is very simple, maximize the pots in your winning hands, and minimize the pots in your losing hands.

The beauty of no limit poker is that there are so many possibilities. You have tight play, loose play, semi-loose. Combine those three styles with a mix of passive and aggressive play, and you have a lot of different player styles to deal with. Then you have the fact that a player can switch styles, whenever he chooses.

Then you must always consider stack sizes when making a wager. Stak size might even be the most important factor. I'll give a rather simple, and definitive example of this. Let's say you're playing an MTT, the blinds are at 50/100 on PokerStars.

You have 3,000 and the action has folded to you in the small blind. You have K 10. If your opponent has 300 left this would be an easy decision.You simply push all in. If he has 3,000 chips like you do, that changes things a lot.

Pushing 3,000 all in to win150 with K10 is very risky. Sklanzky-Chubakov numbers with K 10 you would be correct to go all in with about 2,200 chips in this situation.This means that you would make chips in the long run with these sized amounts. Not that it would be the best play. Utilizing pokerstars, the numbers show this would be an incorrect move with 3,000 chips.

This is a classic example of how different you bet against different stack sizes. When someone is short-stacked acting after you, you need to consider how he will respond to a raise. If you have a hand that you won't call his push, but you want to play, you might limp, or raise smaller than normal. This way you save a little when you have to fold.

What do want to accomplish with your stack? This is the key question to choosing the bet size. Do you want a call? Do you want to make your opponent fold on pokerstars? Are you trying to build a big pot? Once you have this in mind you need to pick a wager size that will hopefully accomplish that goal.

Most players just make the same raise when they see the same two cards. This is too simplistic, and will probably cost them money. More things need to be considered.

In Part 2 we will look at this in greater detail. We will try and give some good ideas on how to do this successfully. In the meantime, good luck at the tables!