Min Betters at Low Stakes

Pascal-lf

Pascal-lf

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I'm just trying to learn the ropes, and am enjoying playing a couple of tables of $2 NLHE at a time.

I keep running into what I would call 'min betters' though, and was hoping for some advice on how to deal/read with them.

For example, I'm dealt TT, raise to 4x bb, one caller. Flop comes 246 (rainbow), he min bets. I raise to $0.1, he calls. Turn is a 9, he min bets again - I raise to $0.2 ($0.36 in the pot) and he folds.

However, on other occasions, I've been min bet into, raised it, and then been reraised.

I'm divided as to whether a min bet means they've got a very strong hand (JJ on above board or better) and want to ensure that they get as much as they can from the pot by giving me easily call-able bets, or whether they don't have a strong hand/only have two overcards and want to see if they can push me off while staying in the pot, or even something completely different?
 
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WarriorStoic

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In my experience MOST of the time a min bet means weakness, rarley you are looking at a guy who min bets at you becuase he is sitting on an undercover monster and WANTS a raise, but most often it means weakness. This does not mean they dont have a piece of the hand, it means that they are not sure where they stand in the hand and are trying to find out for a SMALL risk.
poker hand being highly situational, next time you find yourself in this situation, if you can not make up your mind which side of the resoning they are on with a min bet, after reviewing the actually play of the hand you are IN, try to think back to what you've seen from them in previous play and then make a desciscion. If in doubt, i reccomend raising it as this will tell you where you are in the hand, while a call will tell you NOTHING, but has you in effect putting more money in the pot BLIND.
 
Elie_Yammine

Elie_Yammine

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Want to see something weird?at micro tables people may commit a quarter of their stack in a pot by rasing u than reraising you each time and then they check the river and if you raise a very small raise in relation to the pot they just fold...figure they just want to gamble or something!
 
blueskies

blueskies

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just saw a guy preflop raise 7xBB. He got called, and the caller leads out with a min 5c bet which was less than 1/10 of the pot, and the dude just folds.

Guess he was just trying to steal a 7c pot???

Later on, this same pushed more than $5 into a 20c pot on the river. I was holding 33 on a board of k4567 in a 4 way pot and everyone had checked all the way down. This shover was last to act and shoved all of it in. I was to his immediate right so I didn't have to worry about further action behind me.

My gut is that he didn't have an 8, but I just couldn't bring myself to call it in case he did and lose my whole stack. Preflop limp so he could have had anything. And if he had a 3 also, then it was a split pot and just rake for PS.
 
SavagePenguin

SavagePenguin

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For the most part min-bets means that they are weak and want to see the next card for cheap. 3-betting them a good amount will make them fold.

An exception to this would be if an nitty player makes a small bet. This is more likely to be a trap.
 
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swingro

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Min betters are ussualy betting to stop you from betting or because they have a strong hand. If u reraise and they call u have to ring the bell. I ussualy raise min to see what other players will do just to be sure that i have to go out of the hand. Or i raise min to be sure that there is some fish to fry.
Anyway ... if someone raise you min, u can call, fold or reraise. There are ppl who slowplay like this just to squeze some more money from the others. I think if u are not in a draw better reraise to see where u are. If a guy slowplay, u can be in big trouble if the turn or the river hits you and he has the best hand.
 
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