Texas Holdem Guide to Bet Sizing
Bet sizing is an important skill in poker. This article is a Texas Holdem guide to betting size that will help in maximising your winning hands and minimising your losses. When betting correctly you will be making your opponents make mistakes, using incorrect bet sizes will mean you’re the one making the mistakes.
Holdem Guide to Preflop Bet Sizing
When raising preflop a general rule will be to raise three or 4 times the size of the big blind. Say for example it’s a 50c $1 game I would raise to $4. A minimum raise, i.e. $2 will not be enough to make people fold as they are receiving the correct pot odds to call. If you do the minimum raise preflop you will find that you have many opponents going to the flop with you.
If there are people who have limped into the pot already and you wish to raise you need to raise more than four times the big blind to combat this. I raise four times the big blind plus add another big blind on top for every limper. For example if there were two limpers, I would raise to $6, again trying to push them out of the pot, or narrow the field rather than giving them the correct pot odds to call.
Another scenario will be when someone has raised in front of you and you think your hand is good enough to re-raise them. You need to raise more than the minimum. Raising the minimum will not make them fold therefore I advise raising three times their original raise.
Holdem Guide to Post Flop Bet Sizing
When betting post flop when you think you have the best hand a general rule will be to bet about 75% of the pot. It’s very important you know and use the current pot size when deciding how much to bet. The amount you bet into the pot will determine the pot odds your opponent receives. From here they will either be correct to call or incorrect to call with the pot odds you have given them. We want opponents to be calling when they do not have correct odds. By calling they are making a mistake and therefore we are making a profit. If we bet 25% of the pot for example then the opponent will probably have the correct odds to call and it will be you making the mistake, something we want to avoid.
By betting a large amount of the pot we will also thin the field a fair amount of the time. This will make decisions easier on further streets, and reduce the chances of an opponent catching up later in the hand.
Betting an amount like 75% of the pot makes decisions harder for your opponents. If they are calling a large bet they are generally showing they have a decent hand or good drawing hand. We can use this information on further streets. Betting small will not provide us with as much information about the strength of their hand and will make future rounds harder to play.
Holdem Guide to Minimum betting and raising (min raising)
A lot of online players, especially beginners will bet the minimum and min raise. The problem with this is that it will only keep players in the pot; it will not make people fold most of the time. It will give players the correct odds to call and consequently you will find you keep a large amount of players in the hand. If you are going to bet or raise-bet do it strongly.
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