The best play for a certain hand depends on how much money you have in your stack. In both holdem and Omaha, the stack-to-pot ratio is an important tool for better decisions.

We'll look at a couple of examples and then define the concepts properly.

The Stack-to-Pot Ratio, or SPR for short, is defined as the ratio of the effective stack-size divided by the size of the pot. It is important to know for betting and commitment purposes. For example, if the effective stack size (smaller of the two stacks) is $200 and the pot is $50 the SPR is 4. Stack-to-Pot Ratio means the ratio of the shortest stack in the hand (aka the effective stack) divided by the pot on any given street. For example, if the pot is $10 and the effective stack is $100, the SPR is 10 (100/10).

Omaha example of SPR considerations

Let's say you flop the nut straight in pot limit Omaha. It's a bare nut straight, that is, you have no draws to stronger hands like a flush or full house.

You have $500 left in your stack and there is $20 in the pot. Now one player bets the pot ($20), another raises pot by betting $80 and two players call. What do you do?

Most PLO players feel that the bare nut straight doesn't play well in a huge pot. It's the best hand right now but many cards would give you big troubles on later streets. If the board flushes or pairs you're looking at losing a huge pot. The straight may not even be a favorite to win the hand.

If, on the contrary, you had only $80 left in the stack, then it would be an easy call since you have the best hand and you can't lose any further bets if an opponent improves to a flush etc.

Holdem example of SPR considerations

Or say that you flop bottom two pair in holdem. If there's $20 in the pot and one opponent bets pot, your decision would probably depend on the size of your stack.

With $60 in the stack you might raise all in hoping that you have the best hand.With so short stacks, the opponent would bet with many hands that you beat, and if you lose it's not that expensive.

With $600 in the stack, you'd probably want to just call and see what develops on the turn. You'd want to keep the pot smaller and not committ too much with a marginal hand.

There are plenty of situations where your decisions at the poker table depend on the size of your stack compared to the size of the pot - the stack to pot ratio, or SPR.

Effective stack is what counts

As a matter of fact, it's not really your stack that counts, but the effective stack. That is, how much money you can lose in the hand.

if you're heads up, the effective stack is whatever stack is shorter. If you have $100 and your single opponent $50, the effective stack size is $50. That's how much you can lose in the pot.

If more than two players remain in the hand, there are several possibilities. As long as one remaining opponent has more chips than you, your own stack is the effective stack (for you).

If you have the biggest stack, the effective stack is the biggest one of your opponents' stacks. That's how much you can lose in the hand.

Definition of SPR

Now that we know what 'effective stack' means, the stack-to-pot ratio is defined as follows:

SPR = Effective stack / Pot

If all players have $500 stacks and there's $20 in the pot, your SPR is 25. This is a very high SPR. You could be looking at a huge pot and you need to plan your game accordingly.

With $20 in the pot and an effective stack of $80, the SPR is 4. This is a short-stack scenario and calls for very different strategies. Paople will bet and call with more marginal hands. (Basically since the fold equity increases compared to the implied or effective odds.)

We won't go into any specific strategies here. A lot have been written about those in various poker books, for example 'Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha' by Jeff Hwang or 'No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice' by Sklansky and Miller.

Read them!

/Charlie River

Poker Spreads

StarsCaption works with any custom PokerStars/FullTilt layout without any additional configuration (

Poker Spreads

you may need torestartthe programafter changing the poker table theme/layout). It doesn't require a chat or any other special settings of the poker client, except desctibed there.



A brieflist of features:
1. Betscript:
- predefinedbet/raise size valuesformany game situations (the value automatically entered tothe bet box at hero action),
- betting hotkeys with formulas support,

2. Hotkeys:
- bet/raise, Sit out next bb, Sit out next bb at all tables, I am back, Fold to any bet, table closing, etc.
3. Mouse wheel can be set tochange a bet atany value (in bb or $), wheel direction can be changed, bet size on postflop can be changed as % of pot.
4. Customizable HUDwiththe ability to displaya wide variety ofinformation - stake, blinds level, call odds, push odds, number of tables with hero action, totalnumber of tables, SPR, bluffEquity, size of the potand stackon the nextstreet(depends onthe current value inbet boxandsize of the pot), bet box valie as % of pot, etc.
Numerical informationin the HUDcanautomaticallycolordepending on the value,also setthe colorsof positions; position names can be customizedtoany table size.
5. Various options:
Never sitout (separatelyfor cashand tournaments), table under mouse brings to foreground, auto time bank, stacks / bets / buttons in big blinds (separatelyfor cashand tournaments), bb bet box, table cropping - removing table title bar / table frame.
6. Auto processing of various message boxes: