Betting Question

I have questions about betting. If this has been posted before, my apologies.

How do you determine how much to bet pre-flop and post-flop? Should I bet 3x the Big Blinds or 5x or 10x? How do you decide when to continuation bet, and how much? How do I decide when to 3-bet?

This is something a lot of players struggle with.

Pre-flop, you want to keep it consistent with all your hands. So a 2.5x raise pre is a good starting point.

On the flop and beyond, your bets will be in regards to the pot size. The more you bet, the more polarizing you're making your hand. This means it looks like you have the absolute nuts or nothing.

TheDude6622 said:

This is something a lot of players struggle with.

Pre-flop, you want to keep it consistent with all your hands. So a 2.5x raise pre is a good starting point.

On the flop and beyond, your bets will be in regards to the pot size. The more you bet, the more polarizing you're making your hand. This means it looks like you have the absolute nuts or nothing.

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This makes sense. So then my goal post-flop is to make the pot odds for my opponent worse than their card odds, relative to my own?

porkchop1955 said:

This makes sense. So then my goal post-flop is to make the pot odds for my opponent worse than their card odds, relative to my own?

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The goal postflop is to create your own goal and decide what your strategy is for that hand. You either want:

1.) NonShowdown Value (aiming to get opponent to fold as either a bluff or as blocking their equity when you have a hand that could be outdrawn). This where possible should always be your goal. Cards for the most part play themselves, but finding the above spots is where the real money is.
2.) Showdown Value (aiming to have the best hand by the river. Your bread and butter to break even as a player)

So it depends on your strategy for the hand. Sometimes semi-bluffing with draws can lead to doing both the above!

TheDude6622 said:

Pre-flop, you want to keep it consistent with all your hands. So a 2.5x raise pre is a good starting point.

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No you don't want to keep the raise size preflop the same. Definitely not.

Preflop raise sizes depend on your strategy for that hand. An example, if you are in early position and you want to have as many callers as possible with a hand that plays multi-way then you might raise smaller. If you have a monster and you want to "buy the button" which means you want almost everyone to fold and play headsup vs blinds you might bet up to 5x. If you are at a loose live game where everyone flat calls, your raise size could be up to 10x.

You have to be flexible with preflop sizing depending on your table image, your opponents, your handstrength and your intended strategy for the hand as a whole.

Postflop depends on your strategy too. "It Depends" by far is the best answer in poker for everything, you have to learn yourself what "it depends" on and use that to formulate your own strategy in that spot!

If I had to tell you a default game, then it would be a raise size vs unknowns with 100bb stacks as follows:

1.) Early positions raise 4.5x to buy the button and reduce chance of 3bets.
2.) Mid positions and HighJack raise 3.5x to buy the button and reduce chance of 3bets
3.) Cutoff and Button raise 2.5x to make blinds resteals less likely
4.) Small Blind depends on handstrength and BigBlinds Resteal%. Could be a limp, 2x or 2.5x depending on factors such as handstrength.

i mix up my bets dependant on position and players at table history etc....

i do not want you knowing if i have aa or 22... sometimes bet a certain amount a few times in a row ,,, if this happens im on a rush of cards and will play the same amount raise but honestly you do not see me doing same raises often.... above is only time you see it and that might last say up to 5-6 hands total... mostly im going to change amounts of raises with positions etc... and with knowledge of my field or peers im playing so to speak... i am different is plenty of people whom will say play same amount each time... i don't agree with this imho goood goooooood gooooooooood players will eat you up if you have any patterns whatsoever in your game... steal your blinds and own you my two cents love the above dan statement good stuff

You want to vary your opening range depending on table make up and your position.

Generally in early position you want to open 3.5-4BB. In late position you can reduce this to 2.5BB. This is because:
A) Less people behind, so less likely to run into a stronger hand.
B) You're more likely to have position for the rest of the hand (on the button it's guaranteed).

In terms of table make up, if you've got a bunch of calling stations, you can increase your bet sizes with your premium hands, knowing that they are going to call with their rubbish and you can get more value. Equally, if your on a table full of tight nits, you can reduce your bet sizes, knowing they're folding everything but their premium hands and when they do, you lose the least.

Of course poker is never that easy, so you will rarely find a table full of calling stations or tight nits; you have to adjust depending on who's at the table at the time.

Your bet sizing CAN vary if you're playing against the right villain. Some players will call any size open without thinking about it. You definitely want to take advantage of that when you can

TheDude6622 said:

This is something a lot of players struggle with.

Pre-flop, you want to keep it consistent with all your hands. So a 2.5x raise pre is a good starting point.

On the flop and beyond, your bets will be in regards to the pot size. The more you bet, the more polarizing you're making your hand. This means it looks like you have the absolute nuts or nothing.

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I 100% agree with this post. I will note though: if unsure about bet size, especially open-raising, it is probably better to go slightly bigger. It is probably better to polarize your represented hand range than it is to constantly bet way too small and give your opponent(s) great odds on everything.

The goal is to 1) Make the opponent not be able to guess what we have when we're building the pot and 2) Not play the same hands the same way.

We want to be raising our okay hands SOMETIMES like our big hands. We want to limp UTG SOMETIMES with our huge hands. The key is sometimes. We don't want to limp all the time with monsters, otherwise our opponents will gain that read on us. Mix it up. Bet big sometimes with your monsters. Just not all the time.

Also, I want to point out, just because I post an opinion does not mean I posted the only correct play. There are so many diverse plays we can utilize, and I appreciate the others that post here with their insight.

Thank you everyone!

We raise to buy the button and to hopefully steal the blinds. If you are further away from the button then it makes sense to raise higher to make the steal more effective. Vary raise size dependent on position and not hand strength!!!

To bet before or after the flop depends on the hand, the position of your range game and the rivals depending on how long you on the table, make it unpredictable for your opponents is most important not know if you open with AA or 22

he is a 3x preflop bet advisor but personally I like min raise 2x when I play a lot of hands. that saves me a little bit of chips. it has several factors that come into play when I decide to continue my aggression. my stack, the flop, the number of opponents who are in the game and their style of play. but the most important is my image at the table. generally I avoid being too aggressive at the start of the game and against several opponents. I prefer to play a reduced variance game and wait for the right spot.

I totally agree with tauri103's comment - I Play basically the same way. Prefer min raise 2x in General. However sometimes I like to mix it up in order to have a balanced way and to be able to be more profitable, I sometimes raise 3x BB with monsters, sometimes 3x BB with medium-strong Hands such as JTs

My advice

Hello, I suppose you are in nl2, in that case it would be good if you raise to 3x or 3.5x is my favorite, in the event that the pot comes up, I recommend 3bet with your premium hands. for all that I advise you to look for help tables. and good to continue your bet will depend a lot on the flop, if it is good I recommend you bet at 75/80%