Sean’s Betting Chart

Visually check how many barrels your stack allows

As argued in How To Manipulate The Pot Size Effectively, managing one’s stack so as to make the best use of it is a crucial aspect of Pot-Limit and No-Limit poker.

The following charts represent consecutive bets of several sizes, and let you see whether they fit your SPR or not.

The x-axis is the Stack to Pot Ratio (SPR), and the y-axis is the size of the bets, from Pot-Size Bet (PSB) on top, to 1/3 of the pot on bottom. The first bet is represented by a green box, the second is orange, the third is red and so on.

Each box includes smaller subdivisions symbolizing a (final) smaller bet, again from full PSB (top) to 1/3 PSB (bottom). As we move down the chart, there are lesser sub-boxes since there are fewer smaller bets, and naturally the last bar (1/3 PSB) contains no sub-box. All bets of the same ratio are in the same shade.

For example, if you take the first of the five “big” bars (PSB), with the most saturated shades and covering the full span of the chart, then the the orange box on that line (standing for the second barrel), then the second sub-box on third sub-line (2/3 PSB), you see that it ends on the “SPR 3″ vertical line. This means that with a SPR 3, you can bet one full PSB (the green box on the left), then one 2/3 PSB.

Mathematically, there is no difference between a PSB then a 2/3 PSB, or the opposite. When you look up the chart to see how to fire “n” barrels, you should order your bets from biggest to smallest, and start looking up from top to bottom. Also, the chart can only find a series of one or more bets with the same ratio, optionally followed by a last bet of a different size.

Here’s a zoomed-in version for SPR 1-20:

As a last example, you can see that a SPR 6 lets you bet two 3/4 PSB, then a 1/2 PSB, or even three 1/2 PSB and a bit less than 1/3 PSB.

if you want to see what you can do with a given SPR, follow the vertical line and check what boxes end close to it.

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