Betting with a Purpose – Texas Hold'em

If you want to be successful in No-Limit Texas Hold'em, you have to act with a plan in mind at all times.

Many poker players bet with little thought as to what their goals are for doing so. You should know exactly why you are betting before you put a single chip into the pot.

When you bet without a clear purpose in mind, you are throwing money away. Your bets need to have a specific reason. There are only two reasons to raise or bet: you either want to make a worse hand by calling, or you want to make a better hand by folding.

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Betting by value, Value Bet

When your goal is to get an opponent to call with a worse hand, you are making a value bet.

If you have a hand that you think is better than your opponent's range, you bet to gain value from his worse hands.

Value betting is one of the most fundamental skills in No-Limit Texas Hold'em. It's how you get paid off with big hands and is really the essence of the game.

If you had to explain to a friend who doesn't know the game why poker is profitable, it's the value bet you'd talk about.

You would tell them “Winning players know when their hand is better than their opponents’, and only bet when they feel they have the best possible hand.”

Before you decide to bet for value, ask yourself: “If I bet, will my opponent call me with a worse hand?”

If you believe the answer is yes, try to imagine a list of hands that could extract value.

Example:

$1/$2 Cash Game Table. Effective stacks of $200.
You have :As :Ac on the button and raise to $8.
The loose big blind calls and the flop is :Jh :7h :3s
Your opponent bets $12.

You decide that your hand is much better than your opponent's range, and he will likely continue in the game with worse hands.

But before you bet, let's think about what types of hands we could get value from.

Your opponent is a loose player, and he is unlikely to fold Jacks, so we can add AJ-JT to his calling range.

He is also likely to chase his draws with random pairs lower than JJ, such as TT-88 and some 77s.

Since you know your opponent will continue in the game with worse hands than yours, then you have an easy value raise.

So you increase it to $40.

It's worth remembering that this is never 100% accurate.

Of course, guessing what types of hands your opponent will or won't call you with is never 100% accurate.

You have to use the information you gained from playing against him to generate a well thought out hypothesis.

Knowing what types of hands your opponent will and won't call you with is a skill that separates you from a good player and a great player.

Great players always seem to know when their hands are the best, and are able to make thin value bets with extreme precision.

Over time you will improve your value betting if you always ask yourself what kind of hand your opponent would call you with.

If you can't think of a worse hand that would call, then you're no longer making a value bet.

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The Bluff Bet

If you're not betting for value, you're betting to make a better hand fold. This is technically a bluff.

When you decide to bluff, you tell yourself that your hand would have no chance of winning at a showdown.

The only way to win the pot is to make your opponent fold a better hand, therefore turning an unprofitable hand into a profitable hand.

To do this, you again need to have an idea of your opponent's range.
Think about the types of hands he usually plays, and decide whether they can handle the pressure or not. If his hand set is weak, throw in a bet.

However, if he has a hand that a) is no worse than yours and b) he will never fold, then betting doesn't solve anything.

Example:

$1/$2 Cash Game Table. Effective stacks of $200.
You receive :Tc :Th on the button and raise to $8.
Your opponent calls from the big blind and you bet $12.
He calls and the turn is a :Jd
He checks, you bet $25 and he calls.
The river is a :Ks. He checks.

Now think about it. If you bet, would he call with a worse hand? Probably not.

What if you bet hoping he folds a better hand? Well, that's not very likely either.

If your opponent called the turn, he will almost always call the river with any hand that beats him.

If, in another situation, he missed his draw, he would not call a bet anyway.

The best thing to do is check behind and see a showdown with a hand that has some value, rather than turning your hand into a bluff.

The neutral bet

There are times when you are neither betting for value nor bluffing.

A continuation bet, for example, is intended to win the pot immediately, not to extract value or make a better hand fold.

Most of the time, continuation betting is used only to collect dead money in the pot.

You raised before the flop, and the flop usually doesn't help anyone. You bet because you have the initiative to bet preflop.

Since your opponent is a passive player preflop, he will often give the pot to you on the flop.

This is the grey (neutral) zone of betting.

The rest of the time you should think of a reason for your bet.

Reasons

You will often hear new players justifying their bets by saying that they wanted information.

This is a wrong idea. By betting you can gain information, it is true. But this is just a bonus, and should not be used as the main motive.

Your goals should be clear in your mind before you bet or raise a pot.

If your hand doesn't make a worse hand call or a better hand fold, it's a bad bet.

If you just eliminate these bad bets from your arsenal, and ask yourself every time “Why am I making this bet?” you will end up making better bets.

Before you know it, you will have added some extra winnings to your game.

Article translated and adapted from the original: Betting with a Purpose in Texas Hold'em by: Daniel Skolovy