Stack To Pot Ratio (SPR) Explained

Working It Out

Divide The Smaller Of The Two Stacks Still In The Hand By The Size Of The Pot When The Flop Is Dealt. The Table Works Through The Three Common Preflop Pot Types At 100 Big Blinds, Using An Open To 2.5 Big Blinds, A Three Bet To 7.5 And A Four Bet To 20, With The Blinds Folding In The Three And Four Bet Pots And The Big Blind Calling In The Single Raised Pot.

What SPR Tells You

A Low SPR Means The Stacks Can Go In With A Normal Bet On Each Street, So Strong One Pair Hands Such As Top Pair With A Good Kicker Are Often Worth Committing With. A High SPR Means There Is Room For Several Large Bets, So One Pair Hands Become Harder To Play For Stacks And Hands That Make Very Strong Holdings, Such As Sets And Straights, Gain Value.

A Common Guideline Is That With An SPR Below About 4, Top Pair Is Usually A Hand To Get All In With, And With An SPR Above About 10 It Usually Is Not, With The Range In Between Depending On The Board And The Opponent. Treat The Thresholds As Rough Markers Rather Than Rules.

Using SPR To Plan

SPR Is Most Useful Before The Flop, As A Planning Tool. If You Three Bet And Are Called, You Know The Flop SPR Will Be Low, So Hands Such As Big Pairs And Strong Aces Play Well. If You Call An Open With A Small Pair, You Are Hoping For A High SPR, Because You Need Deep Stacks Behind To Be Paid When You Flop A Set.

It Also Explains Why The Same Hand Plays Differently In Different Formats. Tournament Stacks Are Often Shallow And SPRs Low, So Hands With High Card Strength Gain Value. Deep Cash Games Create High SPRs, Where Speculative Hands And Position Matter More. And Straddles And Antes Shrink The Effective SPR For Everyone At The Table.

Practise It On Smarter.Poker

The Answer Above Is Complete. When You Want To Drill It, These Are The Matching Training Tools.

• Play SPR Mastery The Training Game For This Lesson.
• Open Jarvis Training Insights Jarvis Explains Your Training Decisions In Words.