New (new to me) betting strategy

Last night on $10NL I saw something I haven't seen, at least not on a consistent basis.

Someone bought in short stacked, seemed normal, except for their betting: every time they bet, they overbet the pot.

First time it happened I thought, okay, you really wanted that one. The second time he was the BB, SB raised, he called, then on the flop he bet 1.25 at a 0.90 pot.


He didn't play every hand, and sometimes would check through or just call, but whenever he bet, he would overbet the pot and take it down because noone could see a reason to stay in.

The only time he got called down was in a family limped pot. I had 33, no one bet at the flop. Turn came a 3, he overbet the pot; 1.50 into a 0.70 pot. I called, everyone else folded, he pushed on the river and I called taking it down with my set over his AA. I guess he was waiting for some action since he was in early position and then decided he wasn't going to wait any longer, but unfortunately had waited too long.


I tried to stay around and watch because I thought this was an interesting betting strategy but it was late.

It was new to me. Anyone use something similar on a regular basis?

i think a lot of very short stacks buy in with the intention of getting action from big stacks in situations like this.

I have played against smilar people and most of the time they are try to double-up fast! The other times they have top pairs and try to mae the draws pay. If they sit back and pick thei spots beware.

Yeah I see this from time to time, I think it's a faulty strategy though.

People buy in with the minimum and try to double up or feel they can call all-ins because they can only lose the little that they buy in with and can buy back in.

The big problem with this is that short atacks are targets of tall stacks and aggressive players.

Short stacks don't have the tools to re-raise and when they go all-in pot odds often dictate a call from mediocre hands that can draw out on them.

"Scared money don't win" even when someone buys in with the minimum that's a major tell that you can push them around. Even if they win a few pots they will often be too conservative too tight and easily called/raised and pushed around.

The part that was interesting to me wasn't so much the short stack, although that's part of the strategy I'm sure. I see a lot of people buy in at 1/2 maximum down to minimums.

It was the regular overbetting of the pot, without pushing that was interesting. That just seemed to be his regular betting strategy.

And, unlike others that I've seen, he didn't push preflop as a regular bet. He'd limp in behind others, check down, call raises like anyone else, except when he led the betting it would always be 125 - 150% or more of the pot size.

So, he wasn't trying the old push-to-doubleup game, he was just deciding; it's my pot now so I'm going to make it too expensive to keep drawing.

Rather than playing like a short stack, his postflop play was more like a big stack in a tourney situation.

Yep, one of those crucial things to note. Hunt these guys down when you can, and trap em when they go on their rampages

I don't think it is a good strategy at all. Why put so much more in the pot then is it worth? Its a novice play if used too often. Eventually someone has them beat and and they usually lose their whole stack they have built in one or two hands. It is just a game of patience when playing with them.

Well, mystery solved.

I went looking for him tonight, found him at the play money tables.


My theory is that he won some money at a freeroll and it burnt a hole in his pocket. Or, like the other really fishy fish I found a while back, he started with some cash, lost it all, and then realized he should be playing play money.

It was interesting to watch people fold though. Teaches me that I can be more aggressive with the bets sizes sometimes.

I have discovered, through table chat, that many online players equate a pot-sized or smaller bet as "weak". They believe it is either a stealing move or a feel-out bet to see where they are. Unless they are raising the pot, they don't believe they are representing a strong hand. The result is that most of their betting is an overplay. They may hit a hot streak and double or triple up in short order, but over the long run, they're just going to bleed chips. I don't know from where this perspective arose, but it seems to be fairly pervasive right now. As a tight-aggressive player, I love it. If I'm raising the pot, I've got a monster. These "strong" bettors will stay in with much weaker hands and pay me off more times than not.

Hmm, Rammer, I wonder if that comes from no concept of pot odds?

I'm thinking that someone who has never heard of pot odds needs something to base their betting on. Preflop it might be the BB (hence minraising), and post flop, bet the pot.

Just a guess, though.

It probably is the fact that this person plays primarily at the play money tables.

Remember when you had to overbet the pot to keep the entire table from calling with any two cards?

You mean that worked on YOUR play money tables??

Perhaps he has a very deep understanding of pot odds (probably not, but he may be playing in such a way anyway).

The concept in play here is both "pot odds" and "implied odds". It seems to me that he is attempting to take away the odds for drawing hands. He is doing this in two ways:

1. Taking away the immediate pot odds by over-betting the pot. A pot sized bet is giving you opponent 2:1 on his money. Over-betting the pot makes his odds even worse.

2. Taking away the implied odds of draws by having a short stack. A lot of the value of draws comes from what they can reasonably expect to get paid if they hit. Since this guy only has a small amount of money behind there is nothing to get paid off with if they make their hand. Note that the over-bet of the pot also has the effect of shrinking his stack size even more.

This could be a strategy that he came up with to prevent bad beats on his good hands (I was not at all surprised to hear that he had AA in your example). No doubt that if he is primarily a play money player he sees any and all draws call all the time....