poker school
lesson 14: betting the wrong amounts in no limit hold'em
Hey guys welcome back. The last lesson gave you a synopsis of what to expect at No Limit tables and this lesson is going to give you some insight on different betting techniques that could hurt your chances. Pay close attention and you will be a better player when we are through. Let's get going.
The player who makes the fewest mistakes in No Limit Hold'em is the one makes the most money. One of the fatal flaws is betting the wrong amount: too much or too little.
overbetting the pot
When it is your turn to induce action towards a pot that has $50 in it, and you come over the top and put in a raise of $500 the player's at your table will become very suspicious of your actions. They will often wonder why you would come in with such a big raise with the pot being so small. There are a couple of things your opponents will be questioning with this decision: Do you have the nuts or are you just trying to buy them out of the pot. Obviously your goal is for them to think you have the nuts. A lot of the times your intentions for over betting is to try and buy the pot with a marginal hand that you believe has the potential to be the best hand. In case you are wrong about your hand you are screaming inside of yourself for your opponents to not call that bet. Oftentimes, you will see a player outrageously over bet when they have late position. The main objective when you have that position is to try and force all the remaining players to lay down their cards and pass their chips across the table and help you increase your chip stack. However, this can create a problem for you if somebody does happen to call and they are holding a stronger hand because now your chips are going across the table. Obviously that's not a good thing.
Another problem is even if you do win the pot the chances are it's going to be a small one. Remember that if you do come in with a big bet and you get called there is a strong possibility your hand is the second best one. Just be careful. When you are betting and you proceed to raise the same amount each time your opponents will have a tough time getting a read on you. A good bet would be to raise about three times the size of the big blind for each round you raise. That is a strong bet and it will make your opponents think.
underbetting the pot
This is a trouble spot for many tight poker players. They are timid to play a lot of their chips and as a consequence they allow too many players to play their drawing hands for a cheap price. As a result, they make it profitable for these players to get into the hand and possibly hit their straight or flush draw and proceed to collect your chips. This is definitely not an ideal situation for you to get yourself into. The idea is to get somebody to raise so you can re-raise then you got them.
Your main goal when betting is to make your bet costly enough that the players that are holding marginal hands will fold them. Again, remember you do not want to over bet the pot either, because if you have something significant you want some of the players to bite the bait and you can proceed to reel them and their chips in. These are two significant skills that you need to focus on when playing poker. You have to think about the size of your bets constantly. There also are advantages to using these as well (such as slow playing, and to steal blinds) but for this lesson we just want to make you aware of what can happen to you if you do over bet or under bet the pot. Our next lesson is one in which most of you are always interested in, and that is how to make money playing No Limit.
good luck and enjoy your experiences at the poker tables
