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Betting with a Purpose

Betting is a huge part of poker. It's always fun to see some of the great players make the perfect bet; always seeming to know what bet will get their opponents off their hand, or the exact amount their opponents will pay them off on the river. I believe that betting can make or break any given tournament. I am going to discuss 2 types of betting in this article, value betting, and betting to gather information.

Value betting- A value bet is when you put your opponent on a hand, and your hand is better. You figure out how much your opponent is willing to pay you, and then make that bet. To be a consistent player I think it is very important to maximize your winning hands. I see so often players make a hand and either under bet making far less than they should, or over bet and lose any chance of getting paid. They key in all of this is to know your opponent and being able to accurately put your opponent on a hand, or range of hands. If you know your opponent is capable of paying you off pot sized bets, with an inferior hand, then a pot size bet might be the right bet. If your opponent is tight with his chips then you might need to bet considerably less to get paid. Trying to extract maximum value on a consistent basis takes a lot of time and practice. You will also need to have accurate knowledge of your opponents play, and pay attention what happens on every street of a particular hand. You can also use your hand history online to get a feel on previous hands just what a player may or may not pay you.

Betting to gather information - So many times during a poker hand you have limited information. A lot of time the best way to gather information is with betting and or raising. As a general rule checking and calling is a bad way to go. If you check and your opponent bets and you call you gather zero information on where you stand in the hand. If you are willing to check call you might as well lead out into your opponent. This way you can also win the pot if you opponent folds. You can't win the pot by check calling. Example, you flop middle pair out of the big blind in a heads up pot against a mid position limper. If you check he will most likely bet, then you have no idea where you stand? If you lead out into him you should gather important info about the hand. If he flat calls he may be drawing, or wants to see how you act on the turn. You have gathered some information about the hand to proceed. Another benefit to betting or raising in position, is typically your opponent will check the turn to you giving you a chance at a free card if you are drawing, and also it keeps the pot smaller so you can call a bet on the river.

Poker is a game of uncertainty and incomplete information. By betting and raising rather than checking and calling you gather vital information on how to proceed in the hand.

Good Luck

Debo