Counting Bets

[Scal007]

I'm wondering how it is that you count bets, especially in the live games. With Online games it's easy to know how much is in the pot and how to figure the odds, but in live games it seems so much more dfficult.

All the books that I'm learning from advocate "always know how much is in the pot", but how do you do that in live games?

Looking forward to the replies.

Thanks

[Xhad]

It's really not that difficult. First thing to realize is that it's best not to think in terms of $, instead think in terms of bets.

If you're still getting used to it, for simplicity's sake ignore the SB and the rake (if the rake is high enough like in most B&M 2/4 games I ignore both blinds since the rake usually eats them anyway). Then just count the bets as they go in. Usually I ignore the BB until the BB acts preflop as it makes the count easier for me.

Ex: UTG raises (think "2"), 2 cold-calls ("4", "6"), folded to button who 3bets (9), SB folds, BB folds (10), UTG calls (11), cold-callers call (12, 13).

When you get to the turn obviously just divide the running count by 2 (another simplifying approximation is to round down to the nearest whole bet, meaning in the above example if the flop is checked around you would be thinking "6" as of the turn).

[sharpie]

I usually count the number of players in the hand just before they deal the flop. Multiply that by how many raises went in PF.

On the flop I either start adding 1 to the preflop number everytime another bet goes in, or I just count the number of people involved and multiply that by how many bets went in. I'm more likely to do the latter one if I have more important things to focus on during the round.

On the turn I divide the number by 2 and then just start adding 1 for every bet that goes in.

On the river I just click call because the pot is usually big by now.

[XmasXmas]

if you lose track, remember how many bets (i.e. [pot got capped) went in on a street and how many players there are.

even when you're not in the hand, try to keep track. eventually, it becomes natural. really, though, most of the time the actual pot size won't matter. as long as you have an intuitive understanding of small, medium, and big pot, your decisions should be pretty good. ex. 3 players called a raise pf and a bet each on the flop, you can call w/ your fd on the turn to see the river b/c the pot is kind of big.