You bet to do one of two things:
Get better hands to fold; or
Get worse hands to call.
This should NOT however simply translate into betting big to get people to fold and betting small to get them to call.
It is much more subtle than that.
But your hand is not static. You start with only two cards, get 3 cards added via the flop and another couple via turn and river.
At each street (pre-flop, flop, turn, river) your hand changes. More importantly, your hand strength changes too.
Pre-Flop, with a strong hand, you're first to act. You might:
- Fold. But why fold a stronmg hand when the pot has not yet been opened?
- Call. Open limpoing is generally not a strong strategy.
- Raise. With a strong opening hand (e.g. Premium hands, mid+ pairs, mid+ suited connectors).
Why raise here?
Raising builds the pot.
Raising informs others that your hand strength is sufficient to contest the pot.
Raising pushes out the hands that should not get to see a flop too cheaply.
Raising adds protection to your position by forcing villains to pay to see further streets. The
odds you give your opponent should correspond (to a certain extent) with the pot value, taking into account the danger associated with draws.
So let's say at least one opponent calls...and we go to the flop.
The flop will either:
Make your strong hand stronger.
Make your strong hand weaker.
Do nothing to improve or worsen or improve the situation.
So why might I continue betting?
In this case, I'm eithe in position (IP) or Out of position (OOP).
If I am out of position:
If villain raised my open raise, he becomes the aggressor. So in most situations, I will check back to the aggressor out of position. So out of position, I generally do not want to bet. Let the aggressor give some intel away with his check or bet...and then, if you are strong/nutty, you can look at check-raising, particularly on dry boards.
If I was OOP and aggressor checks the flop, then I need to make a decision on whether I bet the next street. if I think I'm ahead, I might bet (mostly because I don;'t like people to get free cards when I'm strong). Some portion of the time, they'll check the flop even if they remain in the lead, but this is less common among non-trappy players in low stakes games.
If I was the aggressor OOP, then I'm almopst always C-Betting. I'm building a pot. Villain thinks I'm strong as open raise and flop raise indicate. I'm not going to talk about bet sizing here as it muddies the waters and doesn't anwser the WHY BET question. I will be careful however when betting against small stacks which are likely to shove.
If I'm the aggressor IN POSITION, then I'm also typically C-Betting. But it does depend on how many people are in the pot. If I'm heads up,, I'm C-Betting 80% of flops. If 2 villains at the flop, That comes down to 50-80%. With more people in the pot, I'm generally only betting for value. Things can go sideways quickly and the pot can build too quickly when too many people are in the pot and then it becomes very dangerous to fight for the pot.
This is one of the biggest issues with pre-flop limping. You don't really know where you are when the flop hits...and even if you hit the flop, there are huge risks for monsters coming out. You really want to bet pre-flop to thin the pack out. Flop Bluffs have very little utility against a family pot (unless they are unreasonably large)...
C-Betting in position forces your opponent to have to call your pre-flop raise and then a post flop raise. If they haven't hit at this point (as is expected most of the time), a small C-bet is often enought to get tight players to fold. If players are loose or fishy, I may make this a small bet as I know they're going to call the bet. Trouble is you cannot bluff a fish/call-station...so against a fish, you unfortunately are only betting for value...
Fopr turn and River betting, it largely depends on the betting history and intel. If I think I'm ahead, I'll keep betting to protect my hand. By protection, I mean, you're not giving the villain free cards to catch up and overtake ytour hand strength. So make them pay for the privilege. Force them out of the hand. Generally, when I see flush and straight draws on the board, I want to bet larger to protect against people hanging around chasing the draw. Sometimes though, I'll check the turn to see if the flush draw comes through for villain, but generally, I'm betting against them hitting.
Check raising
Against an aggressive, bluffy player and against a wet board, if I've hit well, I'll sometimes check the flop out of position, even if I was the aggressor. I'll sometimes induce the bluff. But generally I like to be the one determining what the bet will be. CHECK never makes anyone run scared.
River betting
here its your last chance to get build the pot and it is your last chance to steal the pot.
Nutty or strong hand? Bet for value.
Swing and a miss on all streets? Bet to force the fold.
Generally, if I've stuck in the pot to the river, it's because I have something, so I'm bgetting the river quite often here...but I do take note of relative stack sizes. If I want to induce a shove, I make sure the bet sizing is such that the player becomes pot committed.
LONG STORY SHORT
I bet against nits to make them fold.
I bet against fish/LAGs to build the pot.
If I want the nit to stay in the hand, the bet will be small (or I'll check).
If I want the fish/LAG to stay in the hand, I'll bet and it may be bigger as I know they'll just call anyway.
If I want the nit to fold, its a nit...a small bet will do.
If I want to fish/LAG to fold...too bad. Its not what they do...so I generally don't try to bluff a fish/LAG.
Have a good evening.
See you on the felt.
JT
