Learning how much to bet in to no-limit holdem is one of the trickiest parts of the game. It is always a battle between risk and reward. For example, you would like to get paid off on your good hands, but if you bet too much you chase everyone away and if you bet too little to keep them in, it runs the risk of backfiring by giving them odds to draw.
There are two schools of thought for how much to bet:
One school says that it is good to bet the same amount each time, regardless of whether you have a great hand or a marginal one. The idea is that this makes it harder for your opponents to read what you have because your bets and raises are consistent.
The second school of thought takes a more intuitive approach where by you weigh each situation differently and bet accordingly; the hope is that you can make more doing this than just keeping things the same each time.
I like the second approach more than the first—especially for cash games. One of the features that make no-limit holdem so nice is that you can bet varying amounts and use this as a psychological tool. By raising the same amount each time or betting the same amount post-flop, I think you rob yourself of part of the weaponry. Below you’ll find a few tips regarding betting/raising in no limit:
1. Have a clear goal of what you are trying to accomplish with each bet and don’t risk more than need be to accomplish said goal. Above I mentioned that you are always balancing between risk and reward. Many times in no limit holdem you’ll raise preflop and miss the flop, having only one opponent between you and the pot. When you bet into that opponent with nothing, you are “pushing.” Your goal is to represent a strong hand and hopefully win because you raised preflop. In situations like this or similar ones where you are semi-bluffing or bluffing, it makes no sense to go all-in when you could have accomplished the same goal without going all-in. Why bet $10k and risk that when $5k would have worked just as well? Think about it for a second. When you make a big bet in no limit holdem, chances are that the only hand that is going to call you is one that beats you, so why risk so much when most likely the opponent will also fold if you just make a reasonably sized bet?
2. Most no limit holdem raises are between 3-5x the BB preflop. Just because this is standard, doesn’t mean it is ideal for each game. Firstly, the more players who have already limped in preflop, the more you can raise behind them since they are already in for some money. For example, let’s say you have QQ in late position and 4 players limped in before you. Raising to 3x the BB now will not be ideal. Most likely what will happen is you get 4 callers. Instead you raise more than normal to drive players out. (In situations like this also, people play differently—more loosely. Often times they will give you less respect for a hand assuming you are raising just because no one else has yet. Use this to your advantage to build a bigger pot.)
Secondly, very loose games if people call more, raise more. For example, if you know a player is really bad and he will call $100, why would you only raise $50? Tailor the betting amounts based on the players too. If you are up against a good player on the river, maybe you won’t bet that much because you want to get called; you “price him in.” On the opposite spectrum you may have someone who will call any amount on the river, so why not push all your chips in?
3. No limit holdem is a game of trapping. Everyone knows how to slow play and trap. A slow play is where you just keep checking to a person, suggesting you don’t have much of a hand, only to raise them later. There is more to trapping and tricky play than this though. No limit holdem allows the game to be much more psychological. Overbetting and underbetting. Overbetting is when you intentionally bet more than you normally would to trip up an opponent’s thinking. Let’s say you have the nuts and the flop is such that it is pretty obvious. Instead of betting a moderate amount, sometimes it is affective to overbet. When you overbet the opponent thinks, “If he really has this hand, why would he bet so much when he knows I won’t call a huge bet? He must not have the hand then.” Players are suspect of big bets.
Another trap that works sometimes is to underbet a pot. Again you have the nuts but instead of overbetting or making a decent bet, you make repeated small bets into the player. This works especially well if the opponent has raised preflop. For example, let’s say you have 88 and call a raise preflop from the big blind. The flop comes back 9-8-4. You are fairly sure that the opponent does have a big pair like JJ-AA. A good way to get paid off on it is to first check the flop and call his bet. Then on the turn you come out firing, a really weak bet though (hopefully the turn card isn’t a scare card like a flush or straight getting there.)
When you make a little bet like this in a weird spot, people assume you don’t have much. If you really did have a great hand, why wouldn’t you check raise or bet more? So he raises, gets committed and you take his whole stack. Next, these kinds of tactics work better on some players than on others. As you learn the game more, try to find spots like this where you can maximize your hands.
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