'The Pot' to Manage Contributions in Poker

A pot in poker is the accumulation of all players bets, whether automatic or not. Any money in any given hand is held in the pot, which is the incentive for players to get involved (as it's what players are getting involved to win). In general, the more money that's on offer, the more aggressive the play to try to win it. This makes sense - after all, you wouldn't risk all your money to win a few pennies.

To ensure that there's money in each pot from the outset, there are automatic bets called the big and small blinds. These automatic bets, posted by the two players left of the dealer, are posted regardless of whether the players posting them choose to play the hand or not. This means right from the start, there's an incentive for players to try to win what's available. If these automatic bets weren't used, players would simply wait for monster hands. The fact that players stacks are impacted by these automatic bets, to stay profitable, they need to play some hands. This keeps the game interesting and makes it considerably more interesting to watch.

Size of the Pot affects play

Of course the next challenge is working out which hands to play. Adopting a suitable starting hand strategy is key. Post flop, players use their judgment based on their hole cards, the community cards and the pot size to determine whether to continue to contribute any further. Odds can be used to determine whether to play a hand when forced with a tough situation.

It's not always about the math. As the pot grows, so does the appeal to play the hand. It's very common for players to bluff when the pot size warrants.