How Do You Randomize Your Bet Sizing?

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SpeedBump621

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Just for fun! Thought I'd ask.

Clearly, this is most useful when playing against solid opponents. And if you have a great method it will not harm your play to disclose what it is!

I've tinkered with using a watch in my live smallish stakes NL game. Example: If the seconds are between 1-20....bet 1/3 pot. If between 21-40.....bet 1/2 pot. 41-60...2/3 pot.

What's your ultra cool, previously undisclosed method? Please? Pretty please? :)
 
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0_5v

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I try to follow Daniel Negrano's keep it small up to the river advice. But if some players are getting crazy, and trying to control the table, I try to remind them IT's MY TABLE BUBBA, sorry, ahhh where was I, oh yes bet sizing variance. Try using the kicker in your hand as a guide.
 
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SpeedBump621

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Thanx for the reply. I've never thought of that. So many ways to use this.
 
okeedokalee

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Use the same bet size if you are bluffing or value betting.Your opponent will never know your hand range from your bet size.
 
BlackJesus

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I do not RANDOMIZE my bet sizes - I always bet depending on situations.

Thats not to say I always follow pot odds, not at all, because there are other things to take into account. What I meant to say was when I bet, I always am aware of why I bet and why I bet as much as I do.
 
IPlay

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You ready for these ultra top secret details I'm about to drop? Ready to have your mind blown by the randomness behind my strategy?























I randomize my bet sizing by board texture and villain tendacies. Don't tell anybody 😎😎😎
 
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When it comes to cash games, I mirror my opponents in aggression extremities:

If they are numbed to it, I willingly bet bigger towards them as I can make more and HAVE TO make more as they will chunk at me form a couple bad beats no doubt.

If they are on the passive side, I underbet in all situations where they don't clearly show they've hit 'good' (but less good than my nuts). You won't profit from scaring easily scared people off of your big hits, they just won't pay you off.

My tightness is usually 'safe enough' I'll call the odd 3BB raise with somethign as bizarre as K4/Q4 if the instigator is being LAG preflop overall. I am ready to blindside them at any point, but limiting how risky you are and how often you go a little crazy is key. Being caught in a bluff is the best thing on Earth as long as your loss wasn't that huge, you no longer need to underbet AT ALL, people will begin to pay you off until they catch on that you're actually tight and just took a rare opportunity with your bluff-gone-wrong.
 
vinnie

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You ready for these ultra top secret details I'm about to drop? Ready to have your mind blown by the randomness behind my strategy?


I randomize my bet sizing by board texture and villain tendacies. Don't tell anybody 😎😎😎

I was going to say this, but it's already been said. I'm not varying my size based on my hand strength. I am basing it on the board texture and how my opponent's play.
 
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Salavat Kozhakhmetov

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on the basis of its stack,from the of my hand strenght
 
mbrenneman0

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You ready for these ultra top secret details I'm about to drop? Ready to have your mind blown by the randomness behind my strategy?























I randomize my bet sizing by board texture and villain tendacies. Don't tell anybody 😎😎😎

woah, this is groundbreaking! *gasp*
 
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johnathan

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i tend to bluff and value at the same price. If im caught bluffing with the sizing; it would encourage a call if I'm valueing the same size, vice versa.
 
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GWU73

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I vary bet size vs opponents based on desired outcome and the player in the hand. It looks random, but its really very exploitative.
 
Beanfacekilla

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Just for fun! Thought I'd ask.

Clearly, this is most useful when playing against solid opponents. And if you have a great method it will not harm your play to disclose what it is!

I've tinkered with using a watch in my live smallish stakes NL game. Example: If the seconds are between 1-20....bet 1/3 pot. If between 21-40.....bet 1/2 pot. 41-60...2/3 pot.

What's your ultra cool, previously undisclosed method? Please? Pretty please? :)


Is this for real man? Are your opponents sitting there with stopwatches and plugging your stats into super computers between hands, and formulating optimal strategies to beat you?

You are over thinking the game. You learn how to navigate by playing, putting your time in, getting lots of hands in. You adjust to your opponents and the spot/board texture in real time. If you are inexperienced, you will make lots of mistakes. You will be unable to think clearly under pressure. Etc.

Others pointed out it is situational. They are correct, in my opinion anyway
 
vinnie

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Is this for real man? Are your opponents sitting there with stopwatches and plugging your stats into super computers between hands, and formulating optimal strategies to beat you?

You are over thinking the game. You learn how to navigate by playing, putting your time in, getting lots of hands in. You adjust to your opponents and the spot/board texture in real time. If you are inexperienced, you will make lots of mistakes. You will be unable to think clearly under pressure. Etc.

Others pointed out it is situational. They are correct, in my opinion anyway

This is actually based on Dan Harrington's advice. He suggests using the second hand on your watch to randomize your plays when there are no other factors or the factors suggest a randomly mixed play. He uses it for mixing up his check/bet or fold/call/raise spots, but it could be used for any time you need a nearly pure way to make a random choice.

I think there are better factors that will help determine the best pot size, and those factors "appear" random to your opponents who do not know what your are taking into consideration or how those considerations change the size you pick.
 
Serjo600

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if you want to isolate and put more, it can even be overbet, but if you want to you prepay your hand you can put less or even to do check.
 
Beanfacekilla

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This is actually based on Dan Harrington's advice. He suggests using the second hand on your watch to randomize your plays when there are no other factors or the factors suggest a randomly mixed play. He uses it for mixing up his check/bet or fold/call/raise spots, but it could be used for any time you need a nearly pure way to make a random choice.

I think there are better factors that will help determine the best pot size, and those factors "appear" random to your opponents who do not know what your are taking into consideration or how those considerations change the size you pick.


Yeah I get it. But OP is not Dan Harrington. He is not playing high stakes (AFAIK, he was talking about $20NL in another post).


The point I was trying to make was basically, learn to crawl before you run. I personally don't think this is an important aspect to even worry about playing micros? I could be wrong here.

It seems to me, learning solid fundamentals and exercising patience and discipline seem more pertinent.

Work on strat first. Plug leaks. Grind up the ladder. Move up in stakes. Repeat. This seems like something that really won't be necessary until later in his poker life.


That's my $0.02 anyway. And I hav been wrong before, will be wrong again too.
 
vinnie

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Yeah, I agree. Actually, I wouldn't even use this for bet-sizing randomization. I could see it being used for things where we don't have another way to determine which random decision to take. But, there are enough factors in place that change an appropriate bet size that being purely random isn't necessary. When I size my bet larger than normal because the board is a bit more draw-heavy and there is a loose passive player in the pot, that reasoning isn't apparent to my opponents. They might assume it's because my hand is stronger than normal. When I bet smaller because the board is really static and players will fold more often because they have little to no equity (or they would call any size bet because they are crushing the board), it might appear like I am randomly varying my bet sizing to those who aren't paying attention.

The watch is unnecessary, and likely counter productive. But, it isn't like he pulled the idea out of thin-air. Probably just misapplying something when there's better factors to use.
 
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SpeedBump621

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Is this for real man? Are your opponents sitting there with stopwatches and plugging your stats into super computers between hands, and formulating optimal strategies to beat you?

You are over thinking the game. You learn how to navigate by playing, putting your time in, getting lots of hands in. You adjust to your opponents and the spot/board texture in real time. If you are inexperienced, you will make lots of mistakes. You will be unable to think clearly under pressure. Etc.

Others pointed out it is situational. They are correct, in my opinion anyway

Thx for the reply. Yup. I'm serious. And I think you are mostly correct. At the small stakes levels I play at there are rarely people who pay attention to such things.

I'll keep blatantly betting for value when I'm a clear favorite against the stations and worry about this detail when I've arrived at higher levels.
 
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I agree totally that randomizing bet sizes is too much trouble because they mostly randomize itself (given board, hand strength, villain, the message I try to get cross), however I follow bet sizes as a main guide against unknown players. The thing is that bet size usually has an optimum value, so randomizing it does not make sense, because you would lose value. I don’t remember what Harrington wrote, but given he is firm believer of exploitable play in micros, not so sure randomizing was about bet sizes at all.

One can say my play style is highly elastic and I do believe bet size is one of the most important factors. I write them down for notes too if something feels out of the book. I feel others are doing it too, that is only thing that explains sometimes the call from reg, for example while seeing call to small bet on 4 to suit board with his second pair.
 
Beanfacekilla

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Here is an example. No need to randomize. We just gotta be crafty...

2/5 live game. We are 500 deep, cover V.


We are in SB. We have Ks-Kh. This will be our 2nd raise in two consecutive hands (so this means we could be out of line to some Vs, even with no evidence).


There are 3 limpers.

We raise option to $40. Only one guy calls. He has like "three and a quarter" back.

Flop 9s-6s-3c.

I hesitate. I think "what can I do to make it seem bluffy?"

We throw a balck chip in there ($100). We do so with this vibe that oozes "dare you to call".

V min raises us to $200.

We snap shove right down his throat.

He only has another 125 or so. He looks like he tasted something bad. Tanks a little. Calls off.

9s-6s-3c-turn 10d-river 10s.

We show. V nods and checks cards like 3 times, then mucks, and leaves quietly.


That's about all the randomizing i do. I bet to serve a purpose. Each case seems different.
 
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Hey there! Nice and beneficial topic especially for beginers, however there were not so many really profitable suggestions which would be able to somehow systemize bet-sizing, which is extremely important in poker, as a newbie player I often can't squeeze every single cent out of my oponent with nuts, he somehow feels the danger and sneeks out of the trap prepaired by me and sometimes I can destroy the stack of my OP with the lowest pair. That's why there is always a question popping up in my head: HOW ON THE EARTH DOES THIS WORK?
Thx for your attention!:)
 
AlexGrinStar

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Just for fun! Thought I'd ask.

Clearly, this is most useful when playing against solid opponents. And if you have a great method it will not harm your play to disclose what it is!

I've tinkered with using a watch in my live smallish stakes NL game. Example: If the seconds are between 1-20....bet 1/3 pot. If between 21-40.....bet 1/2 pot. 41-60...2/3 pot.

What's your ultra cool, previously undisclosed method? Please? Pretty please? :)
You do not have to randomize your bets, but start from the opponents' game... guess what his hand is and how much he is willing to pay for it... or vice versa, put such a bet into a bluff so that he folds... you should try to extract the maximum value
 
Masi2197

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I think it's simple but I'm wrong. there important factors that we must learn .. your cards and the strength of them, the bet, your stad ... from there on you will observe how strong your hand is How to make a bet small or a big bet
 
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It all depends on the size of the flop after the postflop game. And pre flop, mostly 2.5 big blend.
 
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Aca0012

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If there is a good deal with good cards, a 4-bet is required, with AA, KK and QQ!
 
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