It is most likely poor playing, but here might be the logic if a stronger player is making these kinds of plays:
- The large preflop bets might just be a way to increase the pot size against players who call to the Flop too much. If they raise larger (and especially much larger) then ideally a tighter range should be continuing. Huge preflop open-raises might be tempting players into calling with
hands they shouldn't continue with and then they can simply outplay them with aggression on future betting rounds and pick up the mountain of chips in the middle.
- As for the super tiny bet into a decent pot, it is probably an exaggerated version of a downbet (betting a small amount with the hope that the opponent calls or folds, but doesn't raise); it is a way to "buy" a cheap showdown or at least cheaper to bet tiny and get called than to check and the opponent bets a decent amount (making the pot more costly to continue on).
In the case of this super small bet, I treat it kind of like a check (since it is such a small amount and close to a check) and if I don't want them buying showdown cheaply (like on the Flop with 2 or 3 cards of the same suit giving Flushes future potential), then I'll bet larger (with "good" and "bad" hands I have) to induce them to fold, or charge them to keep continuing.
- The last case also applies to the super tiny bet scenario. This one is more rare, but occasionally certain player types will try this play (usually bad players) as a way to induce a re-raise by you. They have a strong hand, but rather than check and maybe let it go check-check, they decide to bet tiny to induce a massive re-raise by you (in which case they know you have a good hand and they can call or maybe even re-raise you back in a tough spot when they usually have the nuts). Stronger players seldom do this though. If they want to induce a raise, then they will bet a more normal sizing than super tiny; the problem with super tiny is that then pot
odds or implied odds later down the road will justify continuing with any two cards and negate the impact that this small bet was trying to achieve.
The only exception I can think of to super small bets (which I don't think you are referring to here) is when players are short-stacked and not necessarily in shove-fold mode. In these situations, some GTO lines will involve betting the minimum occasionally, but this is a value bet trying to get fold
equity while investing the minimum in case shoved on (and even then certain hands will call it off).
