Yes, it’s been far too long since I last wrote. I have endured some writers block. It has ebbed out of this dread I have right now for these stacks of papers staring me in the face. The only thing I like about paperwork is nice neat stacks. Funny thing, that’s the same thing I love about poker chips, nice neat, big, tall stacks! Seems like there is something else I like this way, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it right away… hummm. Anyway, last time we touched on leaks and one of those leaks is not getting the most out of a good hand. So, without further inane segues let’s get on with it.

How often have you had the rookie player pre-flop go all in on you forcing you to fold a hand you otherwise would have played? This is one of the many mistakes that are made by the novice who has no betting finesse. If he had such a strong hand, why not let you bet at least SOMETHING into him. Ideally, you’ll catch a piece of the flop and lose your whole stack to him. Instead, he’ll likely wind up seizing the blinds with his pocket aces due to his premature chip spewing.

So, what are the ideal bet sizes? I am one of those that will tell you that you can read dozens of books and find out about “equity”, “ev” and all those technical terms, but in reality you’ve got to consider a few other things first. One, you are playing a game of the mind. This is by far the most predominant thing you always have to consider especially when playing a “book” player. He’ll (or she’ll) know what you should bet in any given situation based on all the “factors” (position, cards, yada, yada, yada). But, you are more concerned on playing your opponent and his potential cards thusly extracting the maximum amount of chips form him/her. (If you readers don’t mind, I’ll just go male pronoun from here on out! ). So, when you are thinking of chips to lay out there, not only are the number of chips you put out, but the manner in which you do it going to count (i.e. online length of time to bet is an indicator of thinking).

Here is what I personally advocate. Every time you bet online, take time. The same amount of time roughly. This will mask your thinking and any tells. Don’t insta-call unless you want to give a message. As far as amount, spend time developing a feel for different types of games. Loose games need one type of betting size and tight games another. Vary your bet sizes to mask card strength. The ultimate compliments I have gotten, and this has been both in live and online games, is, “I simply never could get a read on you.” Think about that. If someone could never figure out what you were on, then you had ultimate control over that game. I had done very well in those games, but I was almost staggered to hear that compliment. Sometimes I pushed strong hands other times I slow played them. Sometimes I min raised with modest hands, limped or bluffed. I simply made it impossible to let another player put me on a hand. This way, I made it possible to often extract the maximum chips when I really wanted to.

In summary, I never plan on going all in except when I am running a trap and I have the other player pot committed to the non-nuts and I have the nuts. Or, if I am trying to isolate a player I’ll go all in. Finally, I’ll go all in to force a player off a hand when I really don’t want a call. I’ll also call and all in when I have one of the four premium hands: A-A, K-K, Q-Q or A-K. I might also with J-J. Otherwise, I am working on utilizing nuance and subtlety to position myself every hand to win the maximum amount of chips. It’s an art and not a science in my view. I encourage you all to read articles by the mathematicians on all the technical concepts behind bet sizing, but always come back to the psychology. That is the trump card in poker. Now, I better see what I can do to get some of this paperwork done. Nah, football is on… Oh and it’s almost time for the Bellagio Weekly. Paperwork can wait!

~ John aka BAS aka BallsAsteel

On most sites I'm BallsASteel (or some variation), on FeltStars I'm BASPokerBlog. See you on the felts

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