We’ve already looked at when you should bet. Now we’re looking at a topic that is just as important - how to size your bets.
Different situations will call for different bet-sizes, and the way we size our bets can affect our results greatly.
Many inexperienced players will just bet a random number without thinking. Knowing how to size your bets well can make a huge difference to your results.
Preflop
Preflop raise sizes are usually fairly standard in most games. Most players will open with a raise of between 2-4bb (big blinds). For example, if the blinds are $1/$2 in a no-limit cash game, then the most likely preflop raise sizes you will see will be between $4-8.
Raising more than this can be problematic because unless you fold very frequently, you’ll be building too many big pots with weak hands. That means your rivals will get big pots when they win.
Value-betting
The aim of a value-bet is to get our opponent to put money into the pot with worse hands. It therefore follows that if we expect to win the hand, we want to build up the pot as much as we can.
The key to sizing your value-bets is to bet as much as you think your opponent will call with a worse hand. It is fairly standard practice to size your bets between 50-100% of the current pot size but it is almost always better to err on the side of making your bets too big rather than too small.
A larger bet needs to be called much less frequently than a smaller bet to show the same profit.
Pot building - example one
Let’s look at an example where we can see how altering your bet-sizes can have a dramatic effect on the amount of money you can win.
The game is a $0.50/$1 No Limit Texas Hold'Em with 9 players.
The players are sitting at the table with the following amounts of money:
BTN (button): $32.50
SB (small blind): $231.50
BB (big blind): $100
UTG (under the gun):$53.50
UTG+1: $105.55
UTG+2: $102.35
MP1 (middle position 1):$119.25
MP2: $100.00
CO:$229.50
Pre Flop: The cards are dealt and MP2 has 5 of hearts and 5 of clubs.
4 players fold and MP2 raises to $3. 2 more players then fold while SB calls $2.50 followed by another fold.
Flop: Two players are left. The flop cards are 5 of diamonds, 8 of diamonds, and King of hearts.
SB checks, MP2 bets $3.50, SB calls $3.50.
Turn: There is $14 in the pot. The card is 6 of hearts.
SB checks, MP2 bets $7, SB calls $7.
River: There is $28 in the pot. The card is King of spades.
SB checks, MP2 bets $14, SB calls $14.
Final Pot: There is $56 in the pot.
BTN shows King of clubs and Ten of clubs (Three of a kind, Kings)
MP2 shows Five of clubs and Five of hearts (Full house, Five full of Kings)
MP2 wins $56.
In the above example, MP2 flopped a set of fives, so he knew that he was only losing to a higher set (three-of-a-kind) which was unlikely. He therefore decided to value-bet, hoping to be called by a King or a draw (or worse if SB thought he was bluffing). MP2 decided to value-bet half the pot on each street and this resulted in him winning a pot of $56.
Example two
Let’s see what happened if MP2 played the same hand, but elected to bet 80% of the pot instead:
BTN: $32.50
SB: $231.20
BB: $100.00
UTG: $53.50
UTG+1: $105.55
UTG+2: $102.35
MP1: $119.25
MP2: $100.00
CO: $229.50
Pre Flop: ($1.50) MP2 has Five of hearts and Five of clubs.
4 players fold, MP2 raises to $3, two more players fold, SB calls $2.50, one player folds.
Flop: ($7) Two players are left. The flop cards are 5 of diamonds, 8 of diamonds, and King of hearts.
SB checks, MP2 bets $5.60, SB calls $5.60.
Turn: ($18.20) The additional card is Six of hearts.
SB checks. MP2 bets $14.50. SB calls $14.50.
River: ($47.20) King of spades.
SB checks, MP2 bets $37.80
Final Pot:
BTN shows King of clubs and 9 of clubs (Three of a kind, Kings)
MP2 shows Five of Clubs and Five of Hearts (Full house, Fives full of Kings)
MP2 wins $122.80
What a difference that made!
Now instead of winning $56, MP2 has won a pot of $122.80. All he did was bet 80% of the pot size instead of half the pot size. Doing that more than doubled his winnings.
You might argue that building bigger pots this way will also lead to bigger losses. But just remember this. We've decided to value-bet because we believe we have the best hand.
Even if we occasionally get it wrong and lose a big pot to a bigger hand, in the long-run we will be consistently winning more big pots than we lose.
Bluffing
When sizing our bluffs, we want to do the opposite of when we value-bet. We want to bet as little as possible to make our opponent fold. Every little bit we can shave off our bluff and still make it effective is money saved.
It is important not to go too low, however, as our opponent may be tempted to call a tiny bet with a weak hand that still beats us. A tiny bet may also be perceived as weakness and invite our opponent to try to counter-bluff us.
Be Dynamic
Although our bet sizes are often going to be within certain ‘standard’ parameters, we should always be conscious of what we are trying to achieve with our bets. If a situation calls for it then there is no reason that we can’t stray outside of these parameters.
If you have an opponent who just never folds, then it can be very profitable to increase the size of your value-bets and start betting the pot or even more.
Most importantly, rather than taking any action automatically, think about what you are doing. Before you make any bet, think first about the reason that you are betting, and then come to a logical conclusion about how much to bet. Following these guidelines will help you establish a solid fundamental betting game.
Now that we know about betting, it's time to look at bluffing. Check out When to bluff and how to bluff.
