Quote:
Originally Posted by just_grindin
Betting 1/3 of the pot in this scenario serves a lot of functions including widening your opponent's calling range and creating a pretty good risk/reward ratio for some of your worst bluffs.
After the flop play, the calling player is typically capped so the betting player takes advantage of this by betting his slam dunk value hands and best bluffs in a ratio.
^^ These are crucial points. By betting small on the flop, you induce light calls at a high frequency, and then you often go much more polarized on the turn to exploit how weak that calling range is. (If you'd bet big on the flop, then all the really weak stuff just folds, so villain's turn range is stronger and there's less scope for you to bloat the pot further).
Matt Janda's written a fair bit about this in his new book, but there's also an excellent article by him on this very topic on the Upswing site:
https://www.upswingpoker.com/small-b...trategy-guide/.
EDIT: One practical example that comes up quite often for me is when I 3-bet out of the SB and the CO or BTN calls, with a range containing a lot of small pairs. If the flop comes Q64r, I can bet small and get called by 99/88/77/55 etc. Then when the turn comes an ace, king, jack or ten, and especially when it creates some BDFDs for me, I can bomb the turn with a Broadway draw, and villain folds his underpair. In a curious way, I get "value" on the flop from a hand that I'm going to make fold on the turn. It's win-win.