Bet Sizing

pocketehs

pocketehs

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Hi CC:

Whenever Ive posted in HA, people comment and are like "I like/dont like your bet sizing there." I understand that our objective is to stack a player when we're strong but I need some help understanding why you like/dont like the bet sizing in hands. Im obv relatively new to poker and playing micros however this is pretty much what I've been doing:

- all raises are 3 x BB pre flop
- bets post flop are always 75% on flop and usually 75%-50% on T/R.

Anyone have any tips, decent articles or past threads on bet sizing to help?

Thanks
 
JCgrind

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not usually gunna be that much of a problem at micros, but as a general rule we dont bet 75% all streets unless we have a fkn monster because 1. we pot commit ourselves and 2. because if we bet tons then all worse hands fold and only better ones call
 
LuckyChippy

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3bb preflop should be fine so you don't need to worry about that.

First thing wrong with point two is the word always. In poker nothing should ever be always, the 3x preflop is as close as it gets but even that's not always.

First, what is your flop bet trying to accomplish? You can usually get away with 50% for most continuation bets. You want to increase the % as the flop gets 'wetter' which means more connected. For example T98 all the same suit is much wetter or more connected than K82 all different suits.

Obviously the more connected the flop the stronger a hand we need to bet with. So we want to base our % on the wetness of the flop not the strength of our hand, but in some ways we end up betting more with stronger hands. For example, we'd bet around 50% on a K82 flop regardless of what hand we have as it accomplishes the same thing as a 75% bet. Villain will fold their air and weak hands regardless and we save money when he calls and we have air or a weak hand. They're not likely to call and the 25% won't make a difference either way. Remember you'll miss the flop about 2/3rds of the time and you're likely to need them to fold.

But on T98 suited flop we'd only bet with our strong hands like sets/two pairs and big draws and we'd tend to bet strongly as we're very likely to be called and want to charge draws and worse hands ourselves. We can just give up on a ton of these flops with our weak hands, we'll just get ourselves called and into trouble.


You should probably apply this first before thinking too much about later streets but some general rules: What are you trying to accomplish, what range of hands will he call with. Just try to think why.
 
pocketehs

pocketehs

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Thanks for the replies

@Jchoop - I like that logic that "only the good hands call and worse hands fold." Im going to think about that when Im sizing my bets. Thanks

@LuckyChippy - I think you bring up quite a few good points in your post. I think I get myself into trouble sometimes betting like 75% pot on those T98s boards with hands like AQ etc. It relates back to Jchoops point in that the good hands are only going to call and the worse hands fold. I mean Im going to have to continuation bet sometimes on these wet boards if I have a draw but not if Im just c-betting to get the Villain to fold.

This helps a lot. Thanks again!
 
JCgrind

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Thanks for the replies

@Jchoop - I like that logic that "only the good hands call and worse hands fold." Im going to think about that when Im sizing my bets. Thanks

@LuckyChippy - I think you bring up quite a few good points in your post. I think I get myself into trouble sometimes betting like 75% pot on those T98s boards with hands like AQ etc. It relates back to Jchoops point in that the good hands are only going to call and the worse hands fold. I mean Im going to have to continuation bet sometimes on these wet boards if I have a draw but not if Im just c-betting to get the Villain to fold.

This helps a lot. Thanks again!

obv that T98ss board is a shocking one to Cbet with a hand like AQ (could be worse since we do have a gutshot), but ye if you do decide to Cbet without a hand, opponents thatd fold to a 75% bet will still prob fold to a 50% so you just save more money when youve got nothing. Alternatively, if we have top set on that same board, you might as well pot it because the various flush and straight combinations are going to call pretty much any size
 
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jazzaxe

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I think that most games work on a standard bet for any table especially at the micro level. You don't see a lot of three betting at the micros and when you do, there is a lot of folding. You really need to examine the table and see how soft the folding is. I have seen people consistently win with 5 bb bets because no one wants to call over 3 or 4 and people min-re-raising the standard 3bb bets and getting folds. Then again, you get on tables where 2 or 3 players call everything.
 
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