Spr Poker
Calculating the stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, in a poker hand can be a powerful tool to help you determine if and when you are pot committed. Like its name suggests, SPR is calculated by dividing your effective stack size by the current size of the pot. The smaller the SPR, the more you should feel pot committed with weaker holdings. Liquidpoker presents online poker article reviews on all the top online poker sites, online poker rooms and poker software. Read poker interviews of major poker tournament champions for absolute poker. Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a mathematical solution to figuring out a poker player’s commitment level on any given flop in cash games. The SPR is represented numerically and is calculated by dividing the. If you’re ready to crush your opponents by outplaying them on the flop, you’re going to need a working knowledge of poker fundamentals. One of these is an incredibly important metric known as stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR. By figuring out our SPR and our opponent’s SPR, we can make better decisions and decide just how com.
It's the middle stage of the tournament. You look down at in the small blind. It folds around and you open the action with a raise to twice the big blind. Your solid and aggressive opponent in the big blind calls, making the pot 4 BBs. The flop comes . What should you do?
If you are unfamiliar with SPR it stands for stack to pot ratio; it is essentially a measure of how much bigger the remaining stack sizes are compared to the preflop pot. So if you have an SPR of 10 then to go all in you must put in 10 times the amount of the pot preflop. To start off this is the quick spreadsheet I threw together. SPR (Stack to Pot Ratio) The stack-to-pot ratio is defined as the ratio of your stack in relation to the pot. Also, the SPR is an indicator of your risk/reward ratio. The pot is $20 and you have $80 left.
To answer the question, you need a critical piece of information — the stack-to-pot ratio. Let's get a firm hold on using the stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) to take the best action in your next tournament.
Profitable poker is a matter of defining the best risk for the potential reward for each of your actions. Every choice you make is an opportunity to outthink and to outplay your opponent. Adding that missing bit of information in the hand, the SPR, lets you know when to hit the gas or when to pump the breaks.
Larger stack sizes demand caution, especially in tournament play when risking all of your chips means you could be in for a long walk to the parking lot. Meanwhile with shorter stacks, the value of your particular hand in a particular situation can very often tip the scales toward you wanting to be all in to win a massive portion of your stack.
Stack-to-pot ratio helps define the riskiness of actions with a particular hand. The SPR gives you a clear action in several cases. For example, with 20 big blind stacks, if you bet with on a flop and face a raise, you are holding a monster! However, if you face the same scenario with 200 big blind stacks, then you should begin to worry how that raise is going to affect the rest of the hand. Will you want to call down with one pair? Will the turn and/or river be scary for your hand? Are you already way behind what your opponent has?
Check out this quick PokerSprout video, then see if you can answer the questions at the end of the article with a firm understanding of the stack-to-pot ratio.
Back to the hand. The flop is , the pot is 4 BBs, and you have a decision, and an SPR.
1. The stacks are 20 BBs, making the SPR 5. What do you do?
Try a check-raise all in. Your opponent might bluff very often, and even if you are called, you have an excellent chance of winning. Make the last raise and you can win the pot by inducing folds as well. Also, and perhaps most importantly, when you check this type of flop in future, your opponent is going to be confused about bluffing.
2. The stacks 30 BBs, making the SPR 7.5. What do you do?
Try continuation betting with the intention of reraising all in. With an SPR of 7.5, your opponent has enough room to make a flop raise to a smaller size than an all-in. What's the worst case scenario? You get called by a great hand like a set and you still have around a 40% chance of winning! You have a great chance of picking up the pot, probably around 12 big blinds, risk-free. Boom!
3. The stacks are 70 BBs, making the SPR 17.5. What do you do?
A continuation bet makes a lot of sense for this one. If you're raised, you can call and play a lot of turns that would be scary for other hands you might want to use when you bet and call, hands like . Also, an all-in raise risks a pretty big stack. If you reraise smaller, then your opponent might put you all in, and calling off a larger stack with queen-high isn't exactly the path to victory! This way, if the turn comes a non-diamond eight, you have some very strong hands and some very weak hands that you play the same way. Nice.
Different SPRs demand different actions. Not only that, SPR paves the way to a balanced game plan that allows you to intuit a strategy extremely difficult to exploit.
Poker Term Spring
If you're on top of SPR, share a comment describing a time that knowing the SPR helped make your next action very clear, and maybe even saved your tournament life.
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Poker Term Spr
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tournament strategyno-limit hold’emstack-to-pot ratiopostflop strategypreflop strategystarting hand selectioncontinuation bettingaggressionbluffingReid YoungPokerSprout
There are all sorts of mathematical equations that can be utilised in poker to assist players to help with their decision making in game.
In order to become successful long term players, we must have a good understanding of poker math theory so it can be applied in real time during live or online play.
Although not the most sexiest subject in the game, a lack of understanding in basic math can lead to costly errors down the track and force our win rate or return on investment to take a substantial hit.
In this article I will introduce the stack to pot ratio equation and how you can use it in game to boost your win rate and results.
What is the stack to pot ratio?
The stack to pot ratio (SPR) is a simple basic calculation that tells us how much we are willing to risk to win a hand.
The equation is calculated post flop and applies on the flop only and before any betting is done. The formula is:
For example, we head to the flop as the pre flop raiser and only the big blind calls. The pot size is 6.5BB. I have 97BB in my stack, the big blind has 40BB in theirs.
The effective stack is 40BB, as I can only win what the big blind has remaining. The stack to pot ratio is: 6.2
6.2 = 40 / 6.5
Depending on what blog you read or what poker book you have, you will find that there is conflicting information on what a low, medium and high SPR is. Some books will say that a low SPR is 2.5, others will say 3-4, and then others will say 6.
As per usual in life the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Through experience of playing hundreds of thousands of hands I have come up with my own conclusions on optimal stack to pot ratio numbers:
- Low SPR: < 4
- Middle SPR: 4-10
- High SPR: > 10
How to interpret the stack to pot ratio
By calculating the SPR we can make a logical decision if we want to play for all the money on the flop.
Below is a hand strength guide which we can use to determine how willing we are to play for all the money on the flop based on the stack to pot ratio:
The basic premise is the higher our SPR is, the higher our hand strength must be to auto stack off on the flop. Overpairs also do well in SPR’s of 6 and below.
Bare also in mind that these numbers are fluid. If you have a specific read on villain and know they like to stack off light, then getting it in with top pair when the SPR is 6 is viable.
Another point to keep in mind is 3bet pots usually create an SPR of roughly 4. This allows you to stack off comfortably with top pair and overpair type holdings.
Draws can be tricky to play with middling SPRs because you can be forced to call it off on the flop if you are presented with the right pot odds.
This can happen if you check raise the flop from the big blind with the nut flush draw and then face a jam. If presented with correct pot odds I advise to make the call, even if the SPR suggests otherwise.
Examples of using the stack to pot ratio
Alright, let's look at a few different examples of using stack to pot ratio in poker. Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of how to use SPR at the tables yourself.
Low SPR example
Button (Hero) 100BB vs BB (villain) 26BB
We hold A
♠ K♣Flop
4♠ 8♦ A♥
Poker Term Splash The Pot
Pot is 6.5BB, SPR is 4. Villain donks for 3BB.
Hero should raise to 9BB and look to call a jam from the BB.
This is an easy stack off opportunity on the flop. We flop top pair top kicker in a low SPR of 4.
Middle SPR example
Button (Hero) 100BB vs BB (villain) 50BB
We hold 4
Stack To Pot Ratio
♥ 4♣Flop
4♠ 6♦ 7♦
Pot is 6.5BB, SPR is 7.7. Hero cbets 4BB. Villain check raises to 12BB.
Hero should jam.
Here the SPR is a little higher at 7.7. We flop bottom set and face a check raise on a wet board.
On this flop we should look to get it in immediately as there are many cards on the turn and river that will kill the action.
Any diamond, 3, 5, 8, 9 and T (almost half the deck!) are bad cards for us and we would rather get our money in on the flop when we are ahead the majority of the time.
High SPR example
Button (Hero) 100BB vs BB (villain) 100BB
We hold A♠ A♥
Flop
8♠ 8♥ 5♥
Pot is 6.5BB, SPR is 15.4. Hero cbets 2.5BB. Villain check raises to 10BB.
Hero should call.
In this example the SPR is high at 15.3. Our threshold for stacking off on the flop at this level should not be overpairs. Hero should call and reassess the action on the turn.
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How the stack to pot ratio can help your poker win rate
Here are a few concepts we can use both pre flop and post flop to assist us in how we plan a hand. First we need to take note of our opponents' stack sizes.
One of the most important and underrated skills we can undertake is to be more aware of our opponents stack size when heading to the flop.
Once we have a rough idea of the SPR, we can plan accordingly and decide whether we want to play for all the money before we perform our action.
You should have a rough idea of the SPR in every hand you play.
We can also exploitatively fold and not cold call marginal holdings such as low pocket pairs and suited connectors pre flop when facing an open raise from a short stacked player (60BB or less).
Spr Poker Tracker
These holdings perform best with SPRs of 10 and higher.
The logic here is that you need to have the opportunity to win a large pot to balance out all the times when you call a raise and are forced to fold when you miss.
This is something that Phil Ivey talks about in a lot more detail in his recent MasterClass poker training.
Tailor your preflop bet sizing to your preferred stack to pot ratio
This situation will occur usually when we face opponents who open limp with a short stack. The general advice is to isolate the limper by raising to 4BB if you have a hand worth playing.
I would add to this advice that you can and should exploitatively raise larger to at least 6BB (or sometimes higher) when you hold a high pocket pair.
The limper will still call the majority of the time and by raising larger you create a larger pot heading to the flop which creates a smaller stack to pot ratio.
Smaller SPRs benefit big overpairs as you can easily get it in on the flop if facing aggression. By the way, I have already written the complete guide on when to fold your overpair.
We can also use this advice when 3 betting. Instead of 3 betting to a conventional 9 or 10BB we can opt for a larger sizing, such as 11 or 12BB.
If our 3bet is called we often head to the flop with an SPR of under 4 (assuming we are playing for 100BB), which can make our decisions easier if we decide to play for all the money.
I would advise against opening the pot (meaning we raise first in before any limpers) pre flop to a sizing higher than 3BB.
Even though this creates a smaller SPR, it forces your opponents to play perfectly against you by calling tighter and 3betting hands that have you crushed.
Unless there are major whales at your table, your raise first in size should be between 2.5-3BB. Remember we make money in poker from our opponents mistakes, not by forcing them to play well.
Proceed with caution when playing deep stacked
There is no worse feeling in poker than accumulating a 200BB stack, only to lose it all after overvaluing an overpair or the low end straight. Or having to think about folding bottom set on the flop when the SPR is 30.
Personally I hate playing deep stacked and to this day I avoid it like the plague. I make a conscious effort to reload the table once my stack is 150BB or higher.
I prefer to keep my decisions as simple as possible at the table and I achieve this by sticking to a stack size of around 100-150BB.
I'm not saying that you should do this as well but mastering how to play one stack size is superior than being average at short, regular or deep stacked.
If you stick to one stack size then you get used to what the SPR’s will be and your post flop decisions will become much easier.
What Does Spr Mean
If you find yourself playing deep stacked for 200BB often then be aware that the SPR will be between 25 and 30 routinely.That means your threshold for stacking off on the flop should in theory be much higher and will be narrowed down to middle and top set, and nutted flushes and straights.
For much more on playing optimal deep stacked poker (and how to use SPR when super deep), check out the The Upswing Poker Lab.
Final thoughts
The stack to pot ratio is a simple math calculation we can utilise on the flop to decide how willing we are to risk our stack to win the hand.
The higher the SPR is on the flop, the higher our threshold and hand strength will be for getting all the money in.
Try and make a habit to know what the SPR is every hand you play so you know how to proceed on the flop if you face aggression.
In doing so it will allow more clarity in our post flop decision making process.
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy that I have used to crush small stakes poker games as a 10+ year pro, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
This article was written by Ryan Lewis. Ryan specializes in 6max cash small stakes online poker. He focuses on playing a fundamentally strong tight and aggressive strategy. He particularly enjoys the statistics and game theory side of the game. You can follow him on Twitter right here.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below on stack to pot ratio. Do you use stack to pot ratio at the poker tables to improve your decision making?