Have you ever had a hand where you knew you had nothing but you already had enough chips out there to call? This is called being “pot committed”, and a lot of times if you follow through with that, it pays off. Below are a few different scenarios where it’s better just to call and see what happens.
Someone Goes All-In
If you already have a big blind in the pot and a low stack on your table goes all-in, you’re usually already pot committed. That means that no matter what two cards you have you have to call the guy’s all-in with the possibility of knocking him out. Bet thing to do is to see what you would be getting out of a possible win. If the amount of money that you have to put out is half or less than half of the pot that is already out there, you should probably call. The exception to that would be if you are a low stack yourself and would be risking your own tournament with stupid cards.
You Face a Small Bet
If a person bets a really small amount into a really huge pot, you usually have to call. Folding will just indicate that you were bluffing the whole time and didn’t have anything. If that’s true, then you have to determine if the other person was bluffing as well. Either way, you should probably put up the chips just to see what happens.
You Have a Ton of Chips Invested
If you’ve already invested a very large portion of your chip stack into a pot, then you probably have to follow through. You of course can fold to preserve your stack, but if you have put in half of your money into one pot, the other half will likely need to follow.
Things will always progress in Internet Poker, but sticking to odds may be your best bet sometimes.
Tags: pot committed, pot odds
