No Limit Holdem Betting Structure and Strategy

Marcelo: Guys, I received a question via email and would like to ask it here to hear your opinions.

How does it work and what should the betting structure and strategy be for No Limit Holdem? In my case, I am a beginner Limit Holdem player, and I have difficulties participating in NL tables, because of the bets.

How to place bets and when to do so, the logical structure, if any, even trying to draw a parallel with the L and the PL and the relationship between the amounts involved or the amount of BB.
When I play or watch HoldemNL, I get confused by the way online players are betting, I know it is different from the way professionals bet, especially on TV.

Simão: Well, I've read and watched videos of various strategies, both for cash and tournaments, and also according to the level of the tournament.

Currently in cash I raise 3bb+1 per limper, and post flop it is 1/2 pot as a continuation bet, on the turn 3/4 and value bet of 1 to 1.5 pot. I don't bluff because I really don't like it.

In tournaments I use the same strategy, but if the blinds are already very high and with antes I reduce to 2bb+1 for each limp pre-flop.

Pre-flop re-raise I place 2 to 3 times the villain's bet, post-flop it varies a lot.

In short, this is the strategy I use, but I have used others that also work well.

About poker on TV, the bets can seem a bit strange maybe because of the straddle, or because the guys are insane.:D:D:D

Marcelo: Limit Holdem: The betting system is simple. Bet when you have a good hand, fold if you have a bad hand. Evaluate your hand on the flop. If you have a good draw and it's cheap, watch the turn. Maybe you can even bet to increase the pot. But if the turn card doesn't help, your chances of drawing decrease and it becomes much more expensive to continue.

Pot Limit Holdem: This may seem like an intermediate system, but I would say it is much more similar to No Limit than Limit. It is difficult to isolate yourself preflop, especially out of position. In pot limit you have better control over the size of the pot, which is good for draws but bad when you have a great hand.

No Limit Holdem: The standard is to avoid limping (minimum bet), except in specific situations, such as when you are on the button and 3 have limped before you, and your hand is speculative. The standard, most commonly used, raise is 2.5 to 4 times the size of the big blind (BB) before the flop. If someone has limped before, the ideal is to bet a little more.

From the flop onwards, you should consider the size of the pot. If the pot has 400 chips, there is no point in betting 50 chips, for example. If you bet so little, your opponent will be able to call you with anything, and it is profitable for him to call if he has a good draw. In this case (pot of 400 chips), the ideal is to bet between 200 and 400 chips, depending on the case and the strength of your hand. Betting more than the pot is usually also complicated because in these cases your opponent will only call your bet if he is a terrible player or if he has a very good hand (probably better than yours).

chepan: Thanks Marcelo and Simaoeller;

I think the answers are within the idea of the question. It would also be nice if anyone has read something about it could give a recommendation.

Hugs to all.

Chepan:thumbsup:

susseiro: I'll explain how the betting system works in no-limit cash games. I don't know if it's the same in high stakes, but in mid-low-micro it's basically like this. I think all the rules here can be used in pot-limit too.

Preflop:

I avoid limping, as already mentioned. The size of the raise can vary depending on the limit and room. In general, it is between 3 and 4 BB, adding an extra BB for each person who limps.
Look at the tables and see how many players are betting PF in general, I always go with the majority; for example, at Full Tilt Poker at NL5, players generally raise 3.5BB PF, because they have the bet pot button, while at Pokerstars the standard raise for this limit is 4BB.
Some people also like to add an extra BB when they are in early position, because they will have to act first; I personally don't do this.
The size of the 3bet (re-raise) can vary, but it is generally between 3 and 3.5 times the size of the original raise, i.e., if a player raises 20c, I would raise to 60c or 65c. If you are going to make a 4-bet, it is usually better to shove (all in) at once, at least at micro stakes, if you are going to make a 4-bet then you have to go down.

Post Flop:
Post-flop, value betting is generally close to the size of the pot. It is not common to bet more than the size of the pot, and generally if this happens it means a very strong hand.
Continuation bets in no-limit generally range from 50~70% to the pot value, it is not a good idea to bet more than that. For each situation there will be a different ideal continuation bet size.
Raises, whether for value or bluff, are three to three and a half times the value of the opponent's bet, always varying. But for example, a player bets 10c into a pot of 30c, and I want to raise, I raise here to 40c.
If you are betting the turn and river and your bet is more than 60 or 70% of your stack, it is better to go all in straight away, even if it is larger than the pot size.

I think that's it, maybe I'll add some more later but now I have to get off the computer.

susseiro: So, just adding a little.

In No-limit and Pot-limit, it is important to bet well so as not to give your opponent good odds to hit his draws, and to extract as much money as possible when he doesn't. That's why you don't min-raise anywhere other than the river. In microstakes, players generally don't think much about odds; they see a flush draw and will call any bet until the river to see if it hits.

Ex: on the turn your opponent has a flush draw and you have top set, the pot is 80c, and you both still have $2 on your stack. With flush draws on the board you want to bet big, close to the pot size, or when you think he will call with a flush draw. He will only hit the 18% flush in most cases, so for him not to get good odds, you only need to bet 18% of the pot size. However, you still have 2$ on your stack, and you know you won't drop a set. So your bet has to be bigger than 18% of $2.80, which would be 50c. So by betting 75c you will be extracting a good profit from his draw.

Another thing about post-flop betsizing. In a value situation, the ideal bet size is this: river>turn>flop>preflop.
Ex: In NL5, you raise 20c preflop and an opponent calls. The pot is 47c. You flop a set on a dry board, and for some reason you know your opponent has top pair. How can you extract more value without scaring him away? Answer: Bet flop 40c, turn $1.15, river $2.5 or 3 or all in.

It is not recommended to bet the same amount on the river as you bet on the turn. If you decide that you want to river bet $1.25 and take down the pot for that amount, bet the turn accordingly.
The reasons are because you will be missing out on value. If you are going to bet, bet to win as much as possible, or else check.
One reason is because this type of bet signifies a weak/vulnerable hand, and a thinking opponent may want to raise this type of weak bet on the river and often take down the pot, with a worse hand than yours.

I think I did it, I overdid it a bit and ended up writing a lot hehe. I recommend the following book for betsizing in NL Hold'em, it's just math, but it really helps: No Limit Hold 'em Theory and Practice (David Sklansky, Ed Miller)

Original author: Marcelo.