Spr Poker
- Poker SPR abbreviation meaning defined here. What does SPR stand for in Poker? Get the top SPR abbreviation related to Poker.
- SPR is easy to calculate. It’s the ratio of the size of the pot, to the size of the effective stack (chips still left to bet). So if there is $50 in the pot, and $100 left to bet, the stack to pot ratio is 2 (100/50). The important thing to remember is that SPR.
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The TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) Executive Summary:
Calculating the stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, in a poker hand can be a powerful tool to help you determine if and when you are pot committed. Like its name suggests, SPR is calculated by dividing your effective stack size by the current size of the pot. The smaller the SPR, the more you should feel pot committed with weaker holdings. For instance, if the SPR is three or less, you are often pot committed when you hold at least one pair. If your SPR is four or larger, however, you should *not* feel pot committed unless you have greater than 50% equity (e.g., two pair or greater type hands).
Introduction to SPR and Pot Commitment:
Do you want to make your postflop decisions easier in cash games? If so, you need to learn how to calculate your SPR, or Stack-to-Pot Ratio.
Ed Miller and his co-authors coined this “SPR” term a few years ago in Professional No Limit Hold’em: Volume I, which, in my opinion, is a must-read book for intermediate players looking to move up. Among all the other good stuff in the book is the concept of SPR:
SPR = Size of the Effective Stack divided by the Pot Size
Generally speaking, the lower the SPR, the more “pot committed” (1) you should feel about getting all your money into the middle with weaker holdings. Your hand may not have much equity, but the risk-to-reward ratio of your stack to the current pot size makes getting your money into the middle a plus EV play. In this article, we’ll look at the numerical guidelines to use when evaluating SPR and pot commitment, but first, we need to learn how to calculate SPR.
How to Calculate SPR:
Let’s say you raise in early position to $8 in a $1/$2 NL cash game, where everyone started with $250 stacks. Only one player calls, and both blinds fold. What’s the SPR on the flop? (To keep this example simple, we’ll ignore the effect of rake.)
To calculate SPR, we need to know two things: a) the pot size going to the flop; and, b) the effective stack size.
The pot size, after all the preflop betting action takes place, and before any action on the flop takes place, is: $8 + $8 + $1 + $2 = $19.
The stack size on the flop is the original stack size, minus the amount that was put into the pot: $250 – $8 = $242.
The stack-to-pot ratio is then calculated exactly as you’d expect: we simply divide the stack by the size of the pot. In this example, the SPR would, therefore, be: $242 divided by $19 = 12.7.
Note that when calculating SPR, you must use the effective stack size, which is simply the smaller of yours and your active opponent’s stack. If you had $750 to start this hand example, and the opponent who called had $250, the effective stack size would be the size of the smaller stack. In this case, the effective stack size the villain’s stack of $250. (For a more detailed explanation of effective stack sizes click here.)
Also, note that SPR can be calculated and used at any time during the course of a poker hand to determine your pot commitment (2). Analyzing pot commitment via SPR can and should be performed on all the streets of action in a poker hand (e.g., flop, turn, and river). It is not a flop-only tool.
SPR is Simply a Measure of Risk versus Reward:
SPR is nothing more than a measure of how much risk you are undertaking (i.e., the possible loss of your entire stack) versus the immediate reward for taking that risk (i.e., winning the current pot).
The higher the SPR, the less you should feel pot committed with non-premium strength cards; high SPRs mean, literally, that the risk is high relative to the potential reward. Conversely, low SPRs mean decisions are easier because the relative risk is lower. In other words, low SPRs means you can be mathematically pot committed with weaker cards than with larger SPRs.
Low SPR situations are often very simple to play; getting your money into the middle and going to a showdown is often the correct play. I.e., calling a shove is frequently correct with hands as weak as just middle pair.
Note however that low SPRs mean you’re not going to be able to do things like float the flop and check-raise all-in on the turn as a bluff. Your opponent will also be pot committed by that point (because it’s the effective stack size that matters, which you both share), and he will (rightfully) feel he needs to call with equally weak holdings, despite the strength you might be representing.
Further, implied odds are lower with low SPRs; there simply isn’t much money left behind to vie for. For this reason, low SPRs mean that weak draws and speculative holdings are not nearly as playable, but big face cards and pairs are (3).
If you have a low enough SPR and a one pair hand on a coordinated flop, getting it all in is usually the right play. High SPRs, on the other hand, mean you are not pot committed (if, for example, a villain shoves all in). There is simply too much risk for the given reward.
High SPRs offer the ability to get creative post-flop with things like floats and check-raises. High SPRs also mean that implied odds are better, allowing you to play cards like weak suited aces, set-mining with small pairs, and seeing flops with connectors and gappers. It also, unfortunately, means that one pair-only hands should often be folded prior to showdown if you’re getting strong action from an opponent.
Large SPRs are why suited connectors, gappers, and other “small ball” hands that experts like Daniel Negreanu play are so profitable for them—they’re deep stacking with “bust-em” hands; both players are in high-risk situations, and the better player can typically apply tremendous pressure to the lesser player. Bluffing and drawing hands make up a big part of their ranges, so it’s difficult and dangerous to tangle with them unless you know what you’re doing. Further, guys like Negreanu are also masters of dumping big one- (and even two-) pair hands on deep-stacked coordinated boards and/or when they read that their opponents’ ranges hit the board.
Stack-Off SPR Guidelines:
Okay, now that we understand that low SPRs mean higher levels of pot commitment, we need to have some actual hard guidelines to use. Unfortunately, this is another area in which there remains a lot of bad advice floating around from otherwise knowledgeable poker experts. Myths, lore, and incorrect SPR guidelines (4) continue today. Let’s set the record straight, once and for all.
As I’ve written before, sound decision-making is the key to winning at poker. And at the heart of every decision is its intrinsic expected value, or EV. Every decision is either +EV, -EV, or neutral. This is true for all situations, including when we’re considering stacking-off with a weak holding because we feel pot committed; i.e., we should ultimately base our decision on the expected value of the situation—and not just some chart we’ve read on the internet somewhere that says to do X when our SPR is Y.
To illustrate this, let’s look at a simple example in which an opponent shoves all-in and we must decide whether we should call or not. The expected value of calling is easily calculated via the standard EV equation:
EV = (%W x $W) - (%L x $L)
In this equation, %W is probability we win the hand (i.e., our pot equity); $W is the amount we stand to win (i.e., the current pot size); %L is the probability we’ll lose (i.e., 100% - Pot Equity); and $L is the amount we stand to lose (i.e., our remaining effective stack).
If we know the current pot size (including the villain’s shove), our own stack size, and our hand’s pot equity, we can easily calculate the EV of calling. If the number is greater than zero, we should call. If it’s less than zero we should fold.
Now, we can rearrange some terms in the EV equation and essentially calculate expected value as a function of SPR and equity. Further, we can plot the calculated EV in a grid format, with SPR on the vertical Y-axis and Pot Equity along the horizontal X-axis:
As you can see, the expected value of calling when you’re on the left side of the grid is negative, and on the right side of the grid is positive. This means if your current situation finds you on the left-side of the chart, you should fold. And if you’re on the right side, you should call a shove.
We can be more accurate with this left-vs.-right analysis by literally drawing a line through all the zero EV values to see exactly where the transition from negative to positive takes place:
The interesting thing about this curve is that there is a definitive “knee” in the curve that occurs at SPRs of around ~3.5-4:
For SPRs greater than four, the transition from negative to positive EV becomes a nearly vertical line (5) at pot equities between 45-50%; in other words, if your SPR is greater than four, you need at least 50% pot equity, or more, to make calling correct. This in turn means that you need relatively strong hands that are going to win at least half the time against the range you put the villain on. Said yet another way: you need to hold cards that are stronger than just draws and one pair in most of these situations.
In contrast, for SPRs less than four, the transition rapidly decreases in terms of required pot equity; i.e., you need less and less pot equity the lower the SPR value. This means it’s often correct to get all the money in with relatively weak holdings like weak 1-pair hands and weak draws when the SPR is less than three. Why? Because you don’t need much pot equity to stay on the right side of the zero curve.
Some Basic SPR Guidelines:
While you need to always make reads and evaluate your pot equity as accurately as you can to make the correct pot-commitment decision, here are some additional general guidelines to keep in mind:
Low SPR: 0-3. Good hands for shallow stacks include any pair, straight or flush draws, and over-cards to the board. With SPRs this low, we don’t mind getting it all-in on the flop, even if we know we don’t have the best hand. Remember, this is a game based entirely on math, EV, and the long-run. Positive expected value is positive expected value, period.
Transition SPR: 3-4. Good cards for SPRs in this transition range often include hands like top- and over-pairs, strong (nutt-ish) drawing hands, and made weak flushes and straights. But again, you have to put your opponent on a range to make all this work; i.e., you need 40-50% pot equity or more to make a call in this situation, and that depends entirely on the range you put your opponent on.
High SPR: 4+. Good hands for high SPRs are two pairs, sets, big combo nut drawing hands, and big made flushes and straights. Hands like these have greater than 50% equity and are better suited to deep stack play.
A Simple Example of SPR in Action:
Let’s look at a simple hand situation to see how this works in practice:
Imagine that you’re in a $2/$4 NL Texas Hold’em cash game. You’re relatively new to the table and only recognize one player. You pick up Q♠Q♥ on the button. Player A limps UTG, Player B (whom you know as a tricky player) raises in middle position to $12 and the action is on you. You re-raise to $36. The blinds fold, Player A folds, but Player B calls. Going to the flop, there is $82 in the pot.
How committed are you to going with your hand? Well, that depends on a number of factors, including what the flop cards are and what range you put the villain on (i.e., how hard does his range hit that flop). But it also depends on stack sizes. I.e., what is the SPR?
Per our guidelines, above, we should be more willing to get our money in on a wide range of flops if our SPR is less than or equal to three. This means if the effective stack size is (3 x $82) = $246, or less, we should feel OK about getting our money in if we think we have at least ~40% equity.
The lower the effective stack size, the less equity we’ll need. If for example, the effective stacks are only ~$100, our SPR will be ($100/$82) = 1.2. At this low of an SPR, we’ll only need around 33% equity. In other words, we are mathematically correct to get our money in even if we know the villain probably has us beaten.
On the other hand, if the effective stack size is greater than (4 x $82) = $328, we should be less and less willing to feel committed to our hand. For example, if the board comes out 8♦-7♦-4♦ and our opponent shoves we should probably just fold. Even if we know him to be a tricky player who can make big bluffs, our equity isn’t likely to be strong enough to go with the hand.
Our decisions in these situations always come down to a combination of SPR and reads. Based on the range we put the villain on, we are either to the right or the left of the zero EV line in the chart.
Some Additional SPR Factors to Consider:
Here are a few additional things to keep in mind as you begin to take SPR into battle with you at the poker table:
SPR is NOT a Flop-Only Tool. As we noted earlier, a key thing to note is that SPR as a pot-commitment tool is valid to use on all betting streets in a hand of poker. Nowhere in our analysis did we need to know whether we were on the flop, turn, or river; i.e., SPR is strictly a function of stack size, pot size, and your current pot equity. It is not a function of betting streets. Feel free to use SPR as a pot commitment tool on the flop, turn, and river.
It’s All About The Equities. To correctly determine pot commitment, you cannot simply calculate SPR, look at your hand in isolation, and make a call. You must first and always put your opponent on a range. Then you have to estimate your own hand equity against that range. Expected Value is still the ultimate decider of your decisions in poker; SPR is just another tool to help evaluate EV, and, in the end, validate a call or a fold. SPR is nothing more, and nothing less, than an alternative way of looking at EV, which in turn depend on equities.
Offense versus Defense. In the example above, we only looked at “defensive” situations; i.e., you’re considering a call when facing a shove. If, however, you’re the person considering shoving on your opponent, you must also factor in SPR into that decisions. I.e., given the current stack sizes, will your opponent feel “pot committed” or not? Remember, SPR uses effective stacks, so—by definition—you are both using the same stack-to-pot ratio. The only difference is your individual equities. Further, the shallower the stack sizes, the lower the shoving player’s situational fold equity. Yes, there will always be an advantage that the offensive (betting) player has in poker, but the shallower the stacks, the lower this advantage. Shallow stacks mean low fold equity and higher levels of commitment for both hero and villain.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy. Finally, SPR should never be confused with sunk costs. The money you’ve previously put into the pot no longer belongs to you—and in no way should be factored into your pot commitment decision. That money doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the pot, period. (Click here for more on the sunk cost fallacy in poker.)
The Bottom Line:
SPR is a powerful tool, but it’s also not some magical solution to poker. It ultimately depends on how good you are at estimating equities, which of course points back to the importance of hand reading. You cannot simply look at the stack-to-pot ratio and blithely decide that your middle pair is good for a shove or an all-in call; you must consider your hand’s pot equity, too. Many, many short-stackers (i.e., players who purposely buy-in with ~30bb or so, and then wait for 1-pair hands to shove preflop) have ultimately gone busto because they forgot this important rule. Like all aspects of poker, you must first R-is-for-Read and E-is-for-Evaluate before you can D-is-for-Decide with SPR-is-for-Stack-to-Pot-Ratios.
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(1) Pot commitment means that folding to a bet or raise would be incorrect. I.e., both the pot is sufficiently large and your hand is sufficiently strong that getting all of your money into the middle is mathematically correct, even if you expect to lose the hand the majority of the time.
(2) This is an often misunderstood aspect of SPR. Many otherwise expert poker players will tell you that SPR should only be calculated—and used—on the flop. This is outdated and incorrect advice, as SPR is simply a measure of risk vs. reward, and in fact is a function only of expected value and equity. SPR has nothing to do with which betting street you’re currently on in the hand. SPR can be used on the flop, turn, and river with equal effectiveness.
(3) This is the reason professional short stackers primarily only play pairs and big Aces. With their small stacks, they only get involved with the types of hands that work well with low SPRs. For them and these types of hands, getting it all in preflop is often the correct mathematical play.
(4) Unfortunately, I see this mistake all the time. Otherwise reputable poker advice blogs and websites frequently get this wrong, sometimes WAY wrong. This also includes the original advice in Miller’s otherwise excellent book.
(5) Note that the line is not perfectly vertical, and in fact keeps increasing with a very steep slope.
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There's also a handy classroom section on SPR starting at 6:26 in SplitSuit's 'Playing AA' video.
The stack-to-pot ratio (or SPR for short) principle was coined by Ed Miller in the book Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume I.
In this article I aim to explain the basics of SPR in poker and show you how it can be used to make your post-flop decisions a lot easier in cash games.
This article is merely a brief introduction and overview of SPR. I highly recommend you buy the book to feel the full force of 70 pages worth of SPR euphoria.
- SPR equation.
- Benefits of SPR example.
- High SPR situation.
- Low SPR situation.
- SPR example evaluation.
- Good hands for low SPRs.
- Good hands for medium SPRs.
- Good hands for high SPRs.
- Tailoring your preflop raises.
- Example of raising to 3bb.
- Example of raising to 6bb.
- Not entering pots.
I) What is SPR?
SPR is the effective stack sizes divided by the size of the pot on the flop.
Let's say you raise to $6 in MP before the flop in a $1/$2 NL cash game. One opponent calls on the button and both of the blinds fold. If both you and your opponent have $100 in your stack, the stack to pot ratio would be:
- $94 : $15
- SPR = 100 / 15 = 6.3
To put it another way, in this example the remaining effective stack sizes are 6.3 times the size of the pot. Easy stuff really.
Spr Poker Hands
SPR can also be considered the ratio of risk : reward. In every no limit hand, the pot is the reward and the size of the effective stacks is the potential risk. Therefore the greater the SPR, the greater the risk : reward ratio.
A) SPR equation.
The SPR equation. It's straightforward, but it could still do with some explaining.
- Important points about working out SPR.
- You must use effective stack sizes. If you have $150 and your opponent only has $100, then the effective stack sizes are $100, as you cannot win or lose more than $100 against this player.
- SPR is worked out on the flop only. Stack to pot ratios are not going to be used for the turn or river.
II) What is the use of SPR?
By taking control of SPR you can make post flop play a lot easier for yourself.
Low SPR situations are simple to play, as they greatly reduce the amount of post flop actions and decision that you are required to make because there is so little room for manoeuvre due to the large pot size and small effective stacks. You're not going to be floating the flop and check raising all-in on the turn if the flop is $10 and you have $20 left in your stack.
High SPR situations can be a lot trickier to play (depending on what sort of hand you have on the flop) because there is a lot of money left in the stacks to be played with on the flop, turn and river.
Different strengths of hands can be more suited to either high or low SPRs. Therefore, if you know what sort of SPRs your hand plays well in, you can manipulate the pot sizes by the way you bet or raise preflop, or avoid certain situations altogether (by folding) to land yourself in a good SPR situation for your particular hand.
A) Benefits of SPR example.
The best example of SPR is when you have a top pair hand like A K on a flop of K T 9. We have top pair, but the board is highly coordinated and in all honesty we'd really prefer to bet and just take this pot down on the flop.
i) High SPR situation.
Pokerstars Play Money
If the pot size is $10 and the effective stacks are $200, the SPR is 20. If we bet this flop and get raised we are put in a very tricky situation, as we could well have the best hand here but we're not really prepared to commit too much money with just top pair.
If we do end up getting it all in on this flop or on the turn or river the chances are that we do not hold the best hand. This makes playing top pair hands like this tricky if the SPR is mid-sized or high.
ii) Low SPR situation.
If the pot size is $10 and the effective stacks are $30, the SPR is 3. If we bet this flop and get raised we are in a much more comfortable position to call or raise all-in, as we do not fear further bets on the turn or river.
Sure, our opponent could still hold a better hand but the risk here is much lower. We are committed to the hand and so putting all our chips in the middle is a much easier decision.
iii) SPR example evaluation.
In the two different scenarios above the strength of our hand did not change, yet the outcomes were very different due to the stack to pot ratio. With the low SPR of 3 the risk is much lower relative to the reward, which makes it very easy for us to call all-in with our top pair hand.
Spr Poker Significado
III) High, medium and low SPRs.
- Low SPR = 0 - 6
- Medium SPR = 7 - 16
- High SPR = 17+
These SPR figures are very rough guidelines and their implications will vary greatly depending on how loose or tight your opponents are. They also mean nothing unless we have an idea of which hands play best depending on the stack to pot ratio.
A) Good hands for low SPRs.
- Overpairs.
- Top pair.
- Bottom two pair.
These are the sorts of hands that we do not want to play big pots with, as the bigger the pots get the greater the chances are that we are behind. Low SPRs reduce the number of decisions we need to make with these hands, which makes them a lot easier to play and thus more profitable situations over the long run.
With mediocre hands like these, you want to to avoid becoming pot committed after starting with a full stack.
B) Good hands for medium SPRs.
- Top two pair.
- Sets.
- Good drawing hands.
- Flushes and straights.
These are much stronger hands than the ones above and will remain as the best hand when you're all-in often enough to keep them profitable when the SPR is between around 7 to 16.
The higher likely SPR also makes it profitable to play more speculative hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors that infrequently hit big flops, as there is a lot more money to potentially be won from the hand on later betting rounds.
C) Good hands for high SPRs.
- Sets.
- Strong drawing hands.
- Big flushes and high-end straights.
These are the hands that are almost guaranteed to win you the pot. If the SPR is high, you want be be sure that you have near enough the nuts or a draw to pretty much the nuts if there is a lot of action. The last thing you want to do in high SPR situations is get a lot of money in to the pot without a very good chance of winning.
IV) How to get good SPRs.
How To Get Spr
Depending on the type of hand you hold before the flop, you should have a rough idea of the ideal SPR for making your post flop play as easy and as profitable as possible. There are two things that you can do to get yourself in ideal situations in terms of SPR:
- Tailor your preflop raises to set yourself up for the ideal SPR.
- Do not enter the pot in the first place.
A) Tailor your preflop raises.
You're not always going to have the luxury of tailoring your preflop raises to get that perfect SPR, but when you do have the opportunity you should take advantage of it.
i) Example of raising to 3bb.
You hold A K and you and an opponent have $100 effective stacks in a $1/$2 6max NLHE game. If you raise to 3bb from MP and your opponent in the CO calls, you will have an SPR of 6.3 ($94 : ) on the flop.
This SPR may well be a little too high for you to justify putting all of your chips in the middle if you hit top pair on the flop, especially so if your opponent is tight as there is a greater likelihood that they are only going to be willing to get all their chips in the middle they will have a better hand than TPTK.
ii) Example of raising to 6bb.
Using the same example as above where the effective stacks are still $100, let's say we raise to 6bb ($12) instead of 3bb preflop. If our opponent again calls we will have an SPR of 3.3 ($88 : ) on the flop.
With this lower SPR we will feel a lot more comfortable putting all of our chips in the middle if needs be. In addition the chances are that all of the money will be in by the turn, which saves us from a potentially difficult river decision.
B) Not entering the pot.
If you have a small pocket pair like 44 and the effective stack sizes are fairly low, it is not going to be profitable to raise or call raises as the SPR is going to be low also.
With low SPRs you are going to have very little in the way of implied odds (or fold equity if you turn your hand in to a bluff later on down the line), which means that you are far better off folding hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors if you anticipate the SPR will be low.
Spr Poker Term
V) Evaluation of stack to pot ratios in poker.
One of the key points that you should take from this article is that planning your hands from the start is vitally important for setting yourself up for profitable and easier-to-play situations later on in the hand. Another key point is just how much of an effect pot sizes on the flop can influence the way you play your cards.
You're not always going to be able to grab SPR by the horns and create flop pot sizes exactly how you want them, but nonetheless opportunities to tailor SPR will occur, so don't pass them up when they come around. Trust me when I say that post flop play gets so much easier when you plan your hands and use your knowledge of SPR effectively.
Again, this really is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SPR. I'd highly recommend you pick up a copy of Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume I for more information on this topic. This is the book that also contains the invaluable REM process framework.
Alternatively, this 'concept of the week' article on SPR at 2+2 is also pretty awesome.
Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.
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