Let's say you flop the nut straight in pot limit Omaha. It's a bare nut straight, that is, you have no draws to stronger hands like a flush or full house.

Omaha example of SPR considerations

You have $500 left in your stack and there is $20 in the pot. Now one player bets the pot ($20), another raises pot by betting $80 and two players call. What do you do?

If you're a holdem player and not used to pot limit Omaha (PLO), you might say it's an easy raise since you have the nuts. But a seasoned PLO player would probably just call and play a smaller pot.

Most PLO players feel that the bare nut straight doesn't play well in a huge pot. It's the best hand right now but it may not be a favorite to win the hand. If the board flushes or pairs you're looking at losing a huge pot.

If, on the contrary, you had only $160 left in the stack, then it would be an easy call since you have the best hand and you can't lose any further bets if an opponent improves to a flush etc.

Holdem example of SPR considerations

Or say that you flop bottom two pair in holdem. If there's $20 in the pot and one opponent bets pot, your decision would probably depend on the size of your stack.

With $60 in the stack you might raise all in hoping that you have the best hand. With $600 in the stack, you'd probably want to just call in order to keep the pot smaller.

There are plenty of situations where your decisions at the poker table depends on the size of your stack compared to the size of the pot - the stack to pot ratio, or SPR.

Effective stack is what counts

Or, as a matter of fact, it's not your stack that counts, but the effective stack. That is, how much money you can lose in the hand.

if you're heads up, the effective stack is whatever stack is shorter. If you have $100 and your single opponent $50, the effective stack size is $50. That's how much you can lose in the pot.

If you're more than two players in the hand, there are different possibilities. As long as one opponent has more chips than you, your own stack is the effective stack (for you).

If you have the biggest stack, the effective stack is the biggest one of your opponents' stacks. That's how much you can lose in the hand.

Definition of SPR

The stack-to-pot ratio is defined as follows:

SPR = Effective stack / Pot

If all players have $500 stacks and there's $20 in the pot, your SPR is 25. This is a very high SPR and you can be looking at a huge pot and you need to plan your game accordingly.

With $20 in the pot and an effective stack of $80, the SPR is 4. This is a short-stack scenario and calls for very different strategies.

We won't go into any specific strategies here. A lot have been written about those in various poker books, for example "Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha" by Jeff Hwang, or "No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice" by Sklansky and Miller.

Read them!

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