Stack
Your stack is the chips you have in play, which is the maximum you can win or lose in any single hand.
It is measured in big blinds rather than in money, because that is the number that means the same thing everywhere. A 100 big blind stack plays the same way at every stake, and the same amount of money does not.
Depth changes which hands are worth playing far more than most people expect. The same two cards can be a clear raise at 20 big blinds and a fold at 200, because what a hand is trying to do changes with how much is behind it.
an example
your cards
You sit down with 200 at a table where the blinds are 1 and 2, so your stack is 100 big blinds. Against an opponent who bought in for 40, the hand between you is worth at most 20 big blinds whatever your own stack says.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find stack in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
Effective stack
The effective stack is the smaller of the two stacks in a pot, because that is the most either player can actually win o ...
Big blind
The big blind is the larger of the two forced bets, posted by the player two seats left of the button, and it is also th ...
Stack to pot ratio
Stack to pot ratio, or SPR, is the smaller of the two remaining stacks divided by the size of the pot at the start of a ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
The full order of play, from the blinds to the showdown.