Bet Sizing In No Limit

Bet sizing is something that a lot of amateur poker players struggle with when they are first getting to grips with the game. If you are unable to make the correct sized bets at each stage of the hand, you will find that you will have a very big leak in your game. By being able to make the correct size bets, you will be able to maximize your wins and minimize your losses. You will also be able to take further control of your game by being able to manipulating how your opponents play giving them the wrong odds to call when they have drawing hands and so on. So here is a quick crash course for you on bet sizing in no limit poker.

The size of any bet you make should always be in relation to the current size of the pot. Therefore before making any bet or raise, you should always keep in mind how much money is currently in the pot. This is because the amount you bet into the pot will determine what odds your opponents are getting, and so they will either be making a call with the correct odds, or making a call with the incorrect odds. Every time our opponent makes a call with the incorrect odds, we are making a profit as they are making a fundamental mistake, so it is important that we make good size bets to make sure our opponents can these mistakes by calling.

If you have a good hand and feel that your opponent(s) have a worse hand than you, you should be looking to bet around ¾ to the full size of the pot when you do indeed make a bet. For example, if you feel you have the best hand in a no limit Holdem game and the pot is $20, you should be looking to bet around $15 to $20 each time. This will prevent our opponents from being able to make a correct call if they are on a draw, because they will not have the correct pot odds to continue with the hand. Furthermore, this size of bets allow us to thin the field and get the weaker hands to fold, which will reduce the chances of our hand being outdrawn when the next card comes.

There are very few instances in poker where I would make a bet that is less than half the size of the pot. By making weak bets, you will usually be losing value on your hands and giving your opponents to right odds to call and outdraw you. The only situation where I might consider making a less than half pot size bet would be when I have a good hand but want to make my opponents to think that I am weak. If I know my opponent is a tricky player and I can get them to think that I am weak, I may well bet a small amount in the hope that they will try and raise me off the hand as a bluff. The majority of the time however, I will be betting strongly rather than weakly.

By making a good size bet when we have a good hand, we are able to let our opponents know that we have a good hand, and so their call will also tell us a little information about the strength of our opponent’s hand. For our opponent to call, they must feel they have a decent or strong holding, or a very strong draw. Therefore we can use this information to influence our decision on the next betting round. If we have a decent hand but it is one that is easily beat, we may consider slowing down our betting on future rounds as our opponent may have us beat as they called our strong bet on an earlier round. However, if we feel we still have the best hand then we should continue our strong betting, to try and extract as much money as possible from our opponents by taking advantage of our pot equity.

The biggest mistake amateur players make with betting and raising is that they make minimum bets and raises when the action gets to them. If you are making a minimum raise before the flop, you will find that a large number of players will call you, as you are giving them good odds to see a flop with any two cards. Similarly, if you minimum raise a player that bets into you, you will often be giving them the correct odds to outdraw you, even if you have the best hand at the time. In addition to this, a minimum bet or raise tells you very little about your opponent’s hand, as they are almost always going to call regardless of what they might be holding.

As a general rule of thumb, if you are making a raise before the flop, you should be looking to raise around 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind. However, if there have been a few limpers before you and you still intend to make a raise, you should add an extra bet onto the 3 or 4 times the BB raise to help prevent other players from calling with good odds. So if you are playing $1/$2 and there have been two limpers in front of you, a good $10 or $12 raise would be sufficient. On the other hand, if you are raising an opponent’s bet, you should be looking to raise them around 3 times the size of their original bet to again worsen the odds they are getting to call to see the next card.

Here is a quick table to show how much you should be raising preflop depending on how many players have limped into the pot:

Evaluation
Whenever you decide that you want to make a bet or a raise, you should always take a look at the size of the pot before moving that chip slider or before counting out the chips in your stack. It is important to reduce the odds your opponents are getting and to maximize your value from your hand by making good strong bets. By making weak bets and by being passive, you are leaving yourself open to being run over by your opponents when they have far weaker hands than you. So make sure you stand your ground, and make healthy bets into the pot at every opportunity to let your opponents know that you are not a player to be messed with.

For further reading, take a look at the article on the Importance Of Aggression in Poker.

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