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Making purposed betting in a game of Texas hold'em

• 30.06.2025 7:59 pm
• Helen
• 0 Comments

One of the ways you will ever become successful in the game of no limit hold'em is by always having a plan in mind. The problem with most players is the fact that they place bets without basing it on objectives. Before you chip in on the pit, you need to have in mind what exactly you want to achieve with that bet.

Betting without motives can be compared to money throw away. In order to ensure you are not doing that, you need to have an objective. There can only be two reasons that would lead to you raising or betting; it is either your plan is to make a better fold of hand or you want to make a bad call.

Making the value bet

When you place a bet with the idea of cheating your opponent to calling when they have worse hands than the one you have, then this can be termed as a value bet.

Understanding value bets

In the case where you figure you have a better hand than that of your opponent's range, you're betting that you might get value from the bad hand of the opponent. Value betting is one of the most basic factors in a game of no limit hold'em. This is the way you can get paid for having monster hands and it is the basis of the game. This is actually the best way to explain to anyone about poker profitability.

The explanation would go something like: "a winning player will always have an idea of the times they have stronger hands than those of their opponents, and thus they will only ever place a bet when they are 100% sure that they have the best of the game."

As a good poker player, always ask yourself what are the likely scenarios when you place that bet. Like for example, you need to ask yourself when you bet, will your opponent call on you with worse?

Incase you answered yes to this question; you need to list down all the hands you get value from.

For example:

In a $1/$2 online game with $200 in effective stack

On the button, you have and you make a raise to $8

You lose a big blind and there is a flop of and your opponent places abet of $12

You figure that you have a much better hand than that of your opponent's range and thus there is a likelihood that he will go on with worse hands.

Just before you make that bet, you need to image the kind of hands your opponents may have that can give you value. Like:

• You have a looser player opponent who has the chances of folding jacks, thus he may have AJ-JT In his range to call
• Your opponent is very well likely to strip all the draws he might have with casual pairs that are smaller than the jacks such as TT – 88 as well as some sevens.

You need to think that because your opponent is likely to continue with multiple worse hands than the one you have and thus, you are left with an easy value raise. In this case you make a raise to $40.

This is never 100% in terms of accuracy. It can only make sense as you can never be sure of what your opponent might or might not pay you off with. This is why you need to gather all the information on your opponent you have and use it to make reasonable guesses.

Being able to tell what your opponent may pay you off with is the one skill that distinguishes the good poker players from the great poker players.

Every great player knows when he has the best hand and they have the ability to make exact estimate value bets.

With time, you will see remarkable improvements on your value betting simply because you choose to always question yourself about the likely hand your opponent may pay you off with. In case you find yourself thinking of any possible calling hand, then you need to know that you are not betting for value.

Making the bluff bet

The opposite of betting for value is betting for a bluff and you will do this when you want to make a bet for a better hand fold. Choosing to bluff is another way of accepting the fact that you do not stand a chance of winning incase there is a showdown.

The only chance you have at winning is if you manage to force your opponent to fold their great hand and thus you will have managed to turn your bad hand to a winning hand.

In order to make them fold their better hand, you still need to range your opponent's hand.

You need to think of all the possible hands they may have to fold. From this, you should decide on whether to place a bet depending on the weakness of his range.

In case you find yourself thinking of worse call hands, then you aren't betting for value.

Incase your opponent has:

• A hand that is better than your hand
• No chance of ever folding

There is really no need of betting as it would not bear any fruits.

Take this example for instance;

In a $1/$2 online game with effective stacks are at $200

On the button, you get dealt ad raise to $8

The big blind opponent calls and there is a flop

The big blind opponent checks before you bet $12

The big blind opponent again calls and there is a turn

Again he checks, as you place a bet of $25, before he calls

Then comes the river again he checks

In this case, you need to analyze the situation. Incase you bet, what are the chances that he will call with worse, in this case the chances are few

Incase you bet, what are the odds that he will fold better, this chances are also very minimal.

Incase your opponent decides to call the turn; chances are he will most likely call the river if he has a hand that beats you.

In case he misses his draw, he will not call a bet. It is best for you to check and expect a showdown than trying to turn a showdown value hand to a bluff.

The gray areas

There will be times when you are not making a bet for any of the above reasons. This would be termed as a continuation bet and it is normally aimed at winning the pot as soon as possible. In most scenarios of these bets, the only reason you would place a bet is to collect cash that is regarded dead money.

You happen to raise before a flop and neither of you benefit from the flop. You bet under the idea that you have an initiative of being the pre flop raiser. This makes your opponent the passive flop raises and he will have to give up the pot for you. This is the only time you should consider the continuation bet, otherwise always make a bet for a purpose that you have in mind.

Reasons players give for betting

In most cases, you will hear a player claiming that their bet was based on getting information. This is a wrong way of thinking. It is possible to gain information from betting, but, only as a bonus no the main reason for betting.  You need to have a clear mind set on the goal you want to achieve before you place any bets or raises.

Your bet will be a bad bet if it does not get a fold of a better hand or a call on a worse hand.

Before you bet, always ask yourself, "Why I'm I betting?" in order to make profitable bets.

With this few guidelines you will have added some points to your rate of winning in a short time.