Betting for Maximum Profit in Poker
Betting is one of the best advantages that No-Limit Hold'em
offers. You can bet any amount at any given time, so it's important
to develop a betting strategy that will help you win.
In our experience, there are two tactics used in successful
betting:
- Knowing how much a player is willing to call
- Betting specific amounts to trigger a response in an opponent
How Much Will He Call?
Knowing how much a player will call is vital to successful
betting. The key is figuring out what kind of player you're up
against as well as his mood in general. If you upset a player,
he may call a bit more than usual, or if he's a very tight
player, you may have to bet a little less to extract more value
out of him.
You'll also want to pay attention to a player's betting patterns.
If he's betting big you may need to bump up your bet size just a
little. In addition, watch out for check-raises because you may not
want to bet at all if you think you're beat.
Betting the Right Amounts
There's a certain strategy to betting the right
amounts in order to extract the most value from your hand. Betting
the right amounts in No-Limit Hold'em because it really pays off.
Using a No-Limit short-handed cash game with a maximum buy-in of
$600 and blinds at $3/$6, we'll show you some really cool betting
tricks you may want to add to your arsenal.
$30 raise - We like to use this huge raise pre-flop to induce
callers when weI hold a premium hand. One advantage it holds is
being an even number, which people will generally call with more
ease. The exception to this is if you throw out a $100 chip because
it will intimidate players rather than draw them in.
$24 raise - We like to raise this amount with high pocket pairs
such as 10-10. Although it's smaller, it will appear scarier than
$20 with the extra $4 added on. To make it scarier, bet $23. Odd
numbers have the opposite effect of even ones and will most likely
reduce callers.
$12 raise (raising double) - we almost never raise double,
especially with pocket aces or kings. We hate people who do this
with these hands because the idea is to create a heads-up situation
with them. The only thing it's good for is raising with a crap hand
to create a crazy table image.
Ascending Bets - This is one of my favorite betting techniques.
When we have aces or hit my hand on the flop and want callers, we'll
keep betting a little more each round to get my opponent pot
committed. For example, with pocket aces I'll raise about $30
pre-flop, then bet $48 on the flop, and another $64 on the turn. By
that time my opponent will hopefully be pot committed, and we can
take him all-in on the river.
These are just examples and you don't have to precisely follow
them to become a great bettor. Experiment with them and have fun,
consider them useful little tricks that can amount to extra profit. |
