Blog crosspost: How much to bet by FPaulsson

[ChuckTs]

Just wanted to emphasize this blog post. Fredrik - you may be a newbie to NL holdem, but you're already way ahead of most of us with strategic/theoretical thinking.

I think it's a very good point that Fredrik brings up:

The size of my bet should be in relation to what I think my opponent is holding, not to what I’m holding.

Sounds simple enough, but it is a very important point. The idea behind this is (to quote Fredrik again):

When I bet, I’m not betting on the relative strength of my hand, I’m betting to try to elicit a wanted response from the hand I think my opponent is likely to be holding.

So basically, instead of focusing solely on the strength of your hand, you're using it in conjuction with your opponent's hand strength, and their situation. ie they're on a flush draw, and you have top pair. You want to bet enough that it makes it a bad call on their part to chase. Furthermore, a key thing to keep in mind is 'measuring' how far your opponent will go past that "bad odds" line. This goes hand in hand with their tightness/looseness.

Most of us do these kinds of observations/measurements subconciously (you don't think mid-hand "ok, i've got aces, and I put him on a flush draw, so i wonder how much i can milk out of him while he's still drawing..." - you just bet what you feel is right!), but don't think about it in detail. That's what analysis is for - you can't do all this thinking mid-hand.

What do you guys think? Any opinions/comments?
I just think it was a great point; one of those really simple ones that is very important.

Nice post Freddy boy!

 

[poettic1]

is't your opponent what pokers about anyway. everyonce in a while i play blind with friends( we play once a week and switch off). it's odd how fast you can learn general tells when you are just an observer with the ability to play puppet master.


no seriously great post tho i think that everyone can learn to better ways to play POKER and not SOLITIARE