betting weird amounts?

Hey guys, I use full tilt poker and over the months I have noticed more and more people betting weird amounts. For example someone bets 199 instead of 200 and i was wondering how they do it. Help?

To make the stack look and feel like a bigger amount of money than it really is. I see people do this LIVE and will also get loads of $2 chips to make their stack look huge.

you are wondering how?

they just type the bet amount in and hit enter.

If you are wondering why, it's to intimidate, make your bet look biger and some feel it screws with people trying to do poker math.

Its suppose to scare off the others from calling, like its making them FEEL like they have to put in more than they really are.. Hard to explain..

Kinda like with casino chips, chips are easier to play with you don't FEEL like your betting/calling as much than if it were money you were handling.

I dont know my self why they do it unless they think the stack is taller and it makes you seem like they are betting more. To me its stupid and takes longer to type something in instead of just betting

I just like betting weird numbers personally.

I have to ask.. why?

^ this.

Personally I never use the slider, I type all my bet amounts in. I just don't make it weird amounts like 766 or whatever.

As to why... meh, who cares why. At best they probably think it'll make their opponents overthink your action: "Why did he bet 99 and not 100? Does he have nines? Does it mean something else."

Unless there's some really obvious pattern I just round off to some reasonable number and act based on that.

I like betting consecutive numbers sometimes just to throw people off -- ie. 333, 777, 2222.

Does anyone have any info to suggest that this actually puts people off?

Do you do this when you have only decent hands or do you do this primarily as a bluff?

The fact that you have chosen to take the time to make an unusual sized bet may give away information that you didn't intend. Do you try and rattle your opponents when you usually have the nuts, or do you try and rattle them mainly when you are bluffing?

I doubt very much that you do this truly randomly so some good note taking is quite likely to show your natural tendencies when making odd sized bets.

Have you played say 100K hands with normal sized bets and 100K with odd sized bets thrown in and actually seen an increase in winrate?

I think the majority of people doing this are just playing meta-games with themselves and not the rest of the table.

^^^ This Stu, yes i've messed around with it, it does work on ones who won't fold to the reg bet, with the slider bar.
Tho i don't need to do that anymore now, but i will do so when a table calls for it.
I should also thats IMO.


Kid

Someone was doing this the other night in a 9 person SnG, I told him he was like a store charging $9,999 instead of $10k he laughed. I then got Aces on the button, he raised his weird number from utg, so I reraised him basically 3x to another weird number. He shoves and I insta call he flips over AQo and is drawing dead by the turn. I was hoping he took my weird bet (which I had never done) as playing with him, don't know whether it worked or not, but Im guessing it did.

In my experience, people do this to make a weird bet so that people will be curious/suspicious and look them up.

Then they keep doing it later, to disguise what they had already done.

There isn't much thought in it, but calling the first weird-sized bet is dangerous unless you have a good hand. But after that first bet, feh... don't worry about it.

I have noticed this too.

The odd thing is they tend to get looked up by hands that would have looked up a normal sized bet too!!

One bets weird numbers because sometimes 100 chips is not always the most optimal bet size to get the most + chip EV result. Sometimes it is 106. But alas this is definitely not how most people think.

Now be 100% honest, are you able to do ev calculations in the 15 seconds availiable that are accurate to 6 chips?

Its correct, but do you actually do this? If so how do you type in your opponents assumed range so quickly and then run perform an EV run in the time given?

If you do this via pen and paper, why are you wasting your talents playing poker?

It just isnt possible to be this accurate in the time given.

I do it for the following reasons in order of importance (not that I know any of them actually work but it is my rationale for doing it):

1. Hiding increased bet sizes based on my hand strength against fish. Almost all of my non river, non inducing bets are 55-95% of the pot. If I think someone isn't really paying attention, I'll bet larger for value and smaller when I have air. If I think someone has picked up on this, I'll balance my range more and occasionally play the leveling game.

2. It diverts attention. If someone has to determine rough pot odds, it's harder with weird numbers. I can do math quickly in my head so I think this creates a non negligible edge in the decision making process.

3. The visual chip effect. Larger amounts of chips looks more intimidating. Whether this actually has an effect on other people's decision making, I have no idea.

Playing live I guess I could give this some credence*. But online? Surely people just look at the number next to the graphic and nobody's actually scared off by a few extra pixelated chips?

* Don't be a douche and do this live, BTW. Any "advantage" it may or may not yield will almost certainly be outweighed by the fact that you're slowing the game down and will be seeing less hands per hour.

Personally I think it's annoying, but only mildly so. Sometimes I comment on it, mostly to see if I can get any insights into the player doing it. There might be a correlation between the odd bets and alcohol, but I have no research to back that up. I've also suggested that perhaps they're typing in the dark, expecting the usual sophmoric jokes that follow - anything to lighten the mood is okay by me.

I know it is correct but I was leveling

Stu: I just do it for the LULZ, really. If I want to bet 2/3 pot, and that works out being 200, maybe I'll throw out 222.

Some do it to bring them luck they say and when they go all in they keep back one dollar lol.

Just type the amount you want to bet to make it harder for your opponents to calculate the right pot odds...

I give props to him... I said how not why

where do I type it in

it has no effect and is pointless. If you think it works go for it, like a rabbits foot I guess.

When it's your turn to act the betting options will pop up. On the lower right hand side there is a betting field. Highlight that with your mouse like in picture one.

Then just type in what ever amount you want. (If you are playing on a cash table make sure you hit the "." or you will be betting dollars and not cents.) Then hit enter or hit the raise to button. In the second picture I typed in ".36" and then hit enter.

Hope this is what you were looking for, if you still need help, let me know.

Attached Images

betting.JPG (92.9 KB, 83 views)

betting2.JPG (90.3 KB, 82 views)

Personally I don't treat weird bets any different from regular ones. I just assume that person has an interesting quirk, better not to overthink such things : ]

I really don't see how it makes it harder to calculate odds and the like, I mean if they are already calculating odds then its still simple.

I think people do it just to try to throw off other players or to irritate them. Silly strategy in my mind, but who cares?

I have only done this a few times. It takes me too long to think of a weird number to type, but when I see people betting weird amounts, it does make me pause before calling. I think anything that gets your opponent to think and possibly fold a better hand is good. It's one of those things I don't really do, but I don't thinks it's bad.

If I am at a table and someone bets a weird amount, it makes think what a Jack-off.

There a visual illusion to seeing bigger stack of chips. I pay the "weird amount" bet no never mind besides the ratio of the bet to the pot.

I think its funny only one person read the ? and answered it and nobody reads the replies because in the middle the would have noticed that he said how and not why.. I noticed they showed how it was done on fulltilt on some oother sites it is wierd becausethey just click a button like 1/3 or 1/2 the pot .