This Fish Chums
Visionary
Silver Level
If you're throwing out a "feeler" bet post flop, consider dividing your bet between the flop, turn, and river betting rounds. Let's say you've got a hand you're moderately confident about. You think its worth 50,000 chips. Instead of betting 50,000 after the flop, consider dividing it between the three betting rounds, such as 15,000 post-flop, 15,000 on the turn, and 20,000 on the river.
One benefit is that if someone else hits and re-raises big, you're out less money.
The second benefit is if someone is chasing, they have to make a call decision on each and every hand, making it harder for them to stick around and suckout on you.
The third benefit is, if someone re-raises you, you've got chips to call with that you were planning to bet on the hand anyway. For instance, if you want to throw out 50,000 but only throw out 15,000 and someone raises you to 45,000, well you were already planning on spending another 50,000 on the hand so you could go ahead and call without losing more chips then you wanted to lose anyway.
And finally, if you're on a draw, betting a consistent low amount on each street makes your hand look slightly more powerful. Think about this, if someone bets 50,000 on the flop, then checks the turn and river, what would you think happened? You'd probably think they were on a busted draw and raise them out of the hand even if you've got nothing. Now think about this, if someone bets 15,000 then 15,000 then 20,000 do you put them on a busted draw or do you assume they have something like a small pair? It's not much, but for the same amount of money you have increased your opponent’s read from the correct busted draw to a more powerful small to medium pair and thus made it slightly less likely they are going to try to push you out of a hand and slightly more likely to get them to fold if they were on a busted draw themselves.
One benefit is that if someone else hits and re-raises big, you're out less money.
The second benefit is if someone is chasing, they have to make a call decision on each and every hand, making it harder for them to stick around and suckout on you.
The third benefit is, if someone re-raises you, you've got chips to call with that you were planning to bet on the hand anyway. For instance, if you want to throw out 50,000 but only throw out 15,000 and someone raises you to 45,000, well you were already planning on spending another 50,000 on the hand so you could go ahead and call without losing more chips then you wanted to lose anyway.
And finally, if you're on a draw, betting a consistent low amount on each street makes your hand look slightly more powerful. Think about this, if someone bets 50,000 on the flop, then checks the turn and river, what would you think happened? You'd probably think they were on a busted draw and raise them out of the hand even if you've got nothing. Now think about this, if someone bets 15,000 then 15,000 then 20,000 do you put them on a busted draw or do you assume they have something like a small pair? It's not much, but for the same amount of money you have increased your opponent’s read from the correct busted draw to a more powerful small to medium pair and thus made it slightly less likely they are going to try to push you out of a hand and slightly more likely to get them to fold if they were on a busted draw themselves.
