Pot control
Pot control is keeping the pot small with a hand that is good but not strong enough to play for stacks.
Checking a medium-strength pair instead of betting it is pot control. The hand wins small pots at showdown and avoids losing big ones.
The price is that worse hands get a free card, so pot control suits dry boards better than boards with many draws.
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Related terms
Practise decisions like this in the trainer: ten hands at a time, with the answer and the reason.