Why are you betting?

With all poker decisions, it’s very important to define why you’re doing something before you do it.

I'm always flipping through the e-pages of cardchat's hand analysis section, frequently in threads made by struggling microstakes players, and one of the bigger problems I notice is that people don't actually stop to think why they're taking a certain action. The intent of this article is to benefit those posters.

I believe the best illustration I can give is with postflop continuation betting. You should have an exact reason for why you're doing it. Why? Simply put, it makes your subsequent decisions easier, gives you a plan for the hand, makes everything more profitable, and most important of all gets your poker brain thinking properly.

There are three reasons for betting:

1. For value
2. As a bluff
3. To collect dead money

Some might argue that betting for information might be a reason for betting, but it is more of a result of betting for one of the above reasons. If you're in a 3bet pot with AQ, flop a Q and cbet, you're not betting for information (or "to see where I'm at"). You're betting first and foremost to get value, and getting information is simply a consequence of that. The goal of every poker hand is to make the most money (or lose the least), not to get the most information on our opponent's range.

1) For value:

Villain is a loose-passive fish who plays about %40 of his hands vs a raise.

Hero raises AK in LP

Fish in BB calls

Flop comes A92

Fish checks, Hero cbets...

Why are we betting here?

First thing's first, let's define our opponent's range: it's wide. Any ace, any broadway, any pair, and plenty of suited connectors.

Second, what part of that range will continue against our cbet? Probably any pair from Ax through 9x, maybe worse. Maybe sometimes he peels with KQ thinking he has the best hand. Maybe sometimes he gets fed up and check-raises with 67c. Sometimes he also has A9, A2, 99 or 22, and very rarely a slowplayed AA, but this part of his range is much smaller in comparison to the part that we have beat.

So we bet for value.

To clarify: we think our range not only beats our opponent’s, but his CALLING RANGE vs our cbet will be a significant dog too.

Easy peasy.

2) As a bluff:

Villain in this hand is a

Hero raises 76 in LP

Reg in BB calls

Flop comes K82

Reg checks, Hero cbets...

Again, step one is to define our opponent's range on the flop. It most likely includes some AT, AJ, AQ type hands, most pairs up to probably JJ which he is normally 3betting preflop, some broadway hands and some suited connectors.

What part of that range continues vs a cbet? Most hands actually fold - he continues with all of his monsters obviously, Kx, probably 99-TT, and the occasional 89s or 78s. Everything else folds for the most part.

So again, to clarify: we bet as a bluff because we think we can fold out a large portion of villain’s range, which often has us beat.

3) To pick up dead money:

This reason is clearly a bit more tricky, and should actually never be your primary reason for betting. It works for two reasons: 1) to buy our equity share in the pot, and 2) the dead money we pick up when our bet is successful is going to make up for all the times we're called and lose.

Let's make a very specific situation here, to illustrate this third point. Villain in this hand is a loose-passive fish who never bluffs if we check back the flop, never folds any pair on either the flop, turn or river, and folds everything else.

Hero raises KQ in MP

Fish in BB calls

Flop comes A62

Fish checks, Hero cbets...

Why are we betting?

Reason #1 doesn't apply, since he never calls with worse (like 89s for example).

Reason #2 doesn't apply either, since based on our assumption of him never folding a pair means he can't fold a better hand.

What about if he has a hand like 98? It's a worse hand than ours, but we actually don't mind folding it out. Why? It still has equity against us. It has 6 outs to a pair and even has a backdoor draw - this means there's a non-zero chance he'll improve to the best hand, and in this theoretical situation, we can't allow that.

A more practical example would be something like 99 on an A82r flop. This is a spot where we could conceivably bet for value (perhaps a fish peels 8x here often) or as a bluff (in a 3bet pot a tight reg may fold TT), but either way it's thin. The dead money in the pot is usually enough to make a hand like this a bet, and once again we don't mind folding out a hand like JT because it has equity that we don't want him to realize.

Remember that we can use combinations of several reasons too. With As7s on a Ts9s2c flop, we may bet as a bluff (to fold out 8h9h for example), and at the same time bet for value (to get a call from QcJh for example). All the while, collecting dead money if we get a fold is perfectly fine with us.

FOR ENTERTAINMENT and having a GOOD time

Fine with me.

very nice post chuck, lots of good info

I must admit that this is a problem of mine, especially in this age of multi-tabling. Sometimes, my actions are of blind habit or impulse due to inattentiveness. When analyzing my hands & actions later, I sometimes draw a blank on what I was doing. Upon finding this leak, I have cut down my number of tables and allowed myself to use more of the clock in many hands. But I'm not totally cured. Still workin' on it.

I also like to take the question a step further and ask "Is your reason for betting valid?" and even "Is it OK to NOT bet here?" Like on the flop VS a calling station or on the river with a very wet board. Can be interesting at times.

Great post Chuck.


I always wondered if this "betting for information" came from the days when limit was king. It seems more applicable when the cost of the bet is smaller and the chances of folding out hands is smaller because of the limited pot odds we can generate.


is a ? TAG?

Yeah, something like a taggy marginal regular. Trailed off there, sorry.

np; that was just to prove that I was actually reading.

btw, when you have room for students again you should get Daks to edit in some links to threads like this one and a couple others that you did over the years.

Very good post.. not lengthy and is to the point, very informative, though your posts usually are, Chuck.. congo-rats on your 13K posts!

Great post Chuck love it, basic poker understanding is pretty important, and lots of the time having it hammered home a bit is great. It comes down the the simple fact that understanding is better that knowing.

Grats on the 13K posts.

thanks for the post...it definitely made me think about how i approach my betting and how i will interpret bets made by opponents. however, i would say there are more than 3 reasons for betting. one important factor of betting can be for controlling the size of pot. another reason for betting might be done as a defensive bet...a small bet you make when you don’t like the flop, but want to remain the aggressor in the hand. The hope is that your bet will be large enough that opponents will be discouraged from bluffing, and you will get to see additional cards.

If you wanted to control the size of the pot wouldn't you be checking rather than betting?

If you are betting small as a defensive bet you probably shouldn't be betting at all. If we think we are ahead of our opponent's range we should be betting for value, if we are raised we should always be calling or re raising here. If we think we are behind we can bet as a bluff but if we get raised we will be folding.

Great post Chuckster.

I think that these reasons are very much like 2 of the 3 reasons Chuck lists! Betting to control the size of the pot makes the most sense in hands where you are ahead, are betting for value, and want a large pot. So the large pot would be more like a result of your betting for value as opposed to a stand alone reason for betting.

The second point sounds a whole lot like a continuation bet, which is pretty much the same concept as picking up dead money.

Anyway, awesome post Chuck! Simple, easy to understand and a real solid building block for post-flop betting. I think this should be the first post that pops up automatically whenever a member enters the cash game hand analysis section of CC for the first time (or maybe everytime).

This pretty much sums up my response to the above post:

Thanks again guys, glad you enjoyed it even though it's not a very new or breakthrough concept or whatever by nature.

Just bumping this (very nice) thread. This stuff has helped me a lot to start and think recently. BTW, to give credit where it's due, it's taken from Baluga Whale's book, Easy Game, which I started reading and it seems great, I recommend it to everyone.

While this may not be ground breaking or new i think it lays out why we bet clearer than other books/ posts out there and is way less to read, almost like a really awesome tl;dr. Should be in the golden archives imo

Good post. I should put more thought into my actions. There are so many pots that I know nobody has anything, but I'm afraid to bet. Then somebody has the balls to bet and takes it down with nothing.

Nicely done. Very informative. Thanks for the time and effort to put it together.

Thanks for the post ChuckTs, it really was very informative