"Pot size" betting exceeds pot size -- why?

An example hand: https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/496795634

On the river, there’s 450 in the middle, opponent bets 225 (half pot, correctly calculated). I hit the flush, raise, hitting the “pot size” bet, and it throws in not 675, but 1125. Opponent folds. But would they have folded if I’d correctly sized to 675 like I wanted?

What is the calculation that is going on here? If it were, say, figuring that the “pot” is equal to the chips in the middle, plus the bet from the opponent, plus the amount to call, then that would have been 450+225+225 = 900. Somehow it gets sized to more than that, and I can’t figure out where the extra chips are coming from.

I think taking 1,125 from you is correct.

Pot is 450. Opponent bets 225, you pay 225 to call (making 900 in the pot ) and wish to raise the pot amount, therefore a further 900 is required from your stack.

225+900=1,125

Opponent would have seen the option to call 900

Rob

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I guess it makes sense when you explain it, but it’s very counter-intuitive. What I see out on the table is 625 chips; I want to bet the amount equal to that. I don’t want to call, re-calculate the total size of the new pot, and then raise an amount equal to that.

I don’t want to raise the new pot after calling, I want to equal the chips in the pot, which includes the amount to call. So, should be 625, rather than 1125. It’s a difference of 500 chips, which is 44% the size of the bigger bet, but 80% bigger than the intended bet. That’s a huge, very significant amount.

If I hit 1/2 Pot, then it will end up sizing about correct to what I actually intended. So it’s probably better if I just quickly do the math and then type in the exact amount I want. But that’s tough in lightning games, because the timer is so fast.

The problem is that, facing overbets, “Pot-sized” betting as you proposed isn’t possible.

Example: Current pot is 100 chips. Opponent bets 200 chips. Now the pot is 300. If you try to raise to only 300, that would be less than the minimum raise size, since it would be a raise of just 100 facing a bet of 200.

I’ll often type in my bets. It’s somewhat rare that I’ll actually want to bet/raise 1/2 pot or full pot. Better to figure out what size I want to bet than to pick a size just because there’s an easy-to-click button sitting there. That’s also one of the reasons I prefer to not play lightning games.

I might not understand the rules for bet sizing as well as I thought, but isn’t the minimum bet always 1BB? Does a min raise have to double the size of the original bet, or something?

If you want to bet half pot then select the half pot button. The pot thought is being calculated correctly when you select the pot button as the pot + V’s bet +your call = the pot and the pot size raise is that amount. The math can’t change. 450 + 225 + 225 = 900

Genius!

I want “pot” to equal the pot + the bets ahead of me, not counting the call from me. Intuitively, that makes sense. When I see 600 + 225, I want to bet 825. Not 1150. I know now that I can hit half-pot and get what I intend, but now I have a problem due to there being no “quarter pot” button.

When raising your raise always has to be at least double the bet you’re raising. If you’re playing 50/100 with a 10 ante 9 handed, the pot has 240 in the middle. If you’re the first one to raise you have to raise a minimum of 100 (double the original bet size of 100) plus your call makes your bet 200 and this is regardless of how many players have already limped in. Now, if someone has already come in for a raise, lets say MP made it 330 and it folds to you and you wish to 3! (3 bet), MP has called the 100 original bet and raised 230 over the top of that making his bet 330 total and thus making your required raise size 230 so you would have to go to 330 (MP’s bet) + 230 (your minimum raise) = 560 minimum or any amount higher than 560 up to all in in a no limit game. I hope this helps. :slight_smile:

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Or you could just see that there is 825 in the middle after your opponents bet and type 825 into the bet field. The issue with just auto half pot is when your opponents are down betting (which you see from a lot of Replay players, especially on draws or with weak one pair hands) is that you may not be charging them enough to hit there draws making it profitable to min bet/call. Example say you’re at 500/1K and there is 50K in the pot and your opponent bets 1K the minimum. You select 1/2 pot and raise to 27,000. You are giving your opponents a great price to call with tons of combo draws and lost of other stuff like pair and st8 draw or pair an flush draw or over card and flush draw. This may not be what you intend especially if you have multiple streets of betting remaining in the hand and are deep stack, 200-300 bb’s, where there may be tons of implied odds. I was trying to be direct not facetious, but I like the sound of Genius! :slight_smile:

Typing in a turbo game is risky. I’d rather have a button that does what I want. Understanding how “pot” works, I know how to use it now, which is all I can really expect. Half-pot does what I want without typing, so I’ll use that, but if I ever wanted to call a raise by betting half the overall pot, I’ll have to type it, I guess. In the situation where I wanted to double the chips on the table, I did want to get called. Instead, I way overbet what was on the table, equalling the pot + my call, and got a fold instead, losing chips because I couldn’t get a call.

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