In no-limit hold'em, a very important number that affects the nature of the entire hand is the size of the remaining stacks on the flop divided by the size of the flop pot. The higher this number becomes, the more play there is left in the hand. This number is called the stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR for short, and it's critical that you know the flop SPR of every single hand you play.

When you're playing before the flop, you have to think ahead to the flop SPR when you're sizing your bets. Hands that are likely to benefit from implied odds prefer an SPR of around 13, since this allows for three full pot-sized bets after the flop. That means one pot-sized bet on the flop, turn and river each.

For hands that are most likely to make big pair hands without implied odds potential, you would prefer smaller SPRs around three to six. Since the cutoff point for two full pot-sized bets is an SPR of four, all SPRs in the range of three to six offer either two large bets or three small bets without the fear of being raised off of your hand. This is ideal for big pair hands like Ace-King, Ace-Queen and big pocket pairs.

To make good SPR decisions pre-flop, consider what will happen to the flop pot with your different betting options. This depends on the size of the stacks and the action ahead of you, but is one of the main ideas that determine your three-betting size pre-flop, and the size you raise to when you open the betting yourself.