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Bet sizes? Bet sizes?

08-29-2021 , 03:17 AM
What's the best rule of thumb to find the bet size on any street? I'm having trouble finding the right bet size and it's affecting my game. It seems I don't get the number of chips I should be getting. I win a little over average pots but the majority are not big and always on the smaller size, this, in turn, makes me run the tournament with a stack below the average. I would love more than anything to be deeply stacked and run through a game. Even though this is a bad thing good things came with it. I'm able to play decently with smaller stacks.

Maybe you could help me out and give me the advice to help me improve my game. Thank you.

BB247.
Bet sizes? Quote
08-29-2021 , 10:45 AM
There's no easy answer to this.
It depends on your hand, your range, your opponents range, players in the hand, the board, remaining stack sizes, images, ...

Bet sizing is probably the hardest part of NLHE.

Some very generic advice:
- For value try to bet the largest amount you think will get frequently called.
- As a bluff try to bet the smallest amount you think will get frequent folds.

Base your bet size on your range and the board, not your actual hand, otherwise it makes you very easy to play against for anyone paying attention.
If you always bet big for value and small as a bluff, anyone paying attention will quickly pick up on this.
Just don't bet small for value and large as a bluff, that way you're never going to win :P
Bet sizes? Quote
08-29-2021 , 04:00 PM
To add what was written above, you can also look at what pot odds you want to give your opponent. What type of hands do you think villain has? How many outs to improve? What pot odds do you think villain would be willing to call (or not)?

Just another thing to think about along with everything else.
Bet sizes? Quote
08-29-2021 , 09:32 PM
In line with the above suggestions, the following blog on Tumblr provides math-based bet sizing theory using applicable EV equations.

https://holdemmathology.tumblr.com/p...-sizing-theory

Here is the blog part where you consider villain pot odds.

Case 1a. You have equity > 50%; you bet


You hold AA and you are pretty certain villain has a lower pair; this is normally an 80/20 advantage for you. You believe villain will call if the pot odds are likely to be favorable; otherwise he will fold. The pot is 90; how much should you bet?

The break-even bet size for call vs. fold is based on setting the applicable hero EV equation to Pot, hero’s profit if villain folds. It is as follows

Bet > Pot*(1-eq ) / (2*eq-1) = 90*0.20/(2*0.80-1) = 18/0.6 = 30,

which is 1/3 x Pot.

Here we see that villain’s odds against are 80/20 = 4 to 1 and a bet of 30 gives him pot odds of 120/30 or 4 to 1. So, any bet larger than 30 is denying him proper odds. Since you want a call, your bet size should be the largest amount over 30 that you believe villain will call.

Naturally, there are other considerations, especially if there are more betting streets, but this kind of analysis gives you an initial cut at sizing a bet.
Bet sizes? Quote
08-30-2021 , 09:39 AM
General rule is to bet what you think they will call, while denying them correct odds to draw. This is not always greatest in terms of pure +EV (think what works better if you have the nuts, you think they'll call a 4bb bet every time, but a 100bb jam 5% of the time). From how you describe your post it seems a little bit entitled, maybe it's a case of you're betting too large and pricing everyone out, you're perceived as a nit and getting no action, it's hard to say in a vacuum

Quote:
Originally Posted by BB247
I would love more than anything to be deeply stacked and run through a game
Describe what you mean like this. It seems a bit like you want to be Gus Hansen circa 2008 and play any old crap and be profitable, which is somewhere between hubris and ridiculous, and either way is outside of the scope of BQ
Bet sizes? Quote
09-01-2021 , 11:55 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sixfour
General rule is to bet what you think they will call, while denying them correct odds to draw. This is not always greatest in terms of pure +EV (think what works better if you have the nuts, you think they'll call a 4bb bet every time, but a 100bb jam 5% of the time). From how you describe your post it seems a little bit entitled, maybe it's a case of you're betting too large and pricing everyone out, you're perceived as a nit and getting no action, it's hard to say in a vacuum



Describe what you mean like this. It seems a bit like you want to be Gus Hansen circa 2008 and play any old crap and be profitable, which is somewhere between hubris and ridiculous, and either way is outside of the scope of BQ
I would like to be able to win decent size pots instead of little ones that don't amount too much over time. I know I'm not a nit and I play good hands that get wins. I just need to work on my betting and get the most chips i can out of other players.

I don't know where you got that I want to be Gus Hansen from asking for help with betting.
Bet sizes? Quote
09-02-2021 , 12:08 AM
Thanks! I'm just trying to improve my game where I see a major problem and betting is one of them. I will try to fix my betting size because I believe that my problem is that I either bet too low or too high and never in between. I'll try what was shared here and put it to use.
Bet sizes? Quote
09-02-2021 , 09:00 AM
Big difference between being in position and out of position too.

Generally speaking you want to bet bigger out of position to discourage floats and tougher decisions later.
Bet sizes? Quote
09-03-2021 , 05:21 AM
Probably the hardest question in poker. I think it's more important to use ranges which are appropriate for the sizing you choose than to size perfectly every time.

I'll say I don't think any of the advice in this thread is very useful. "As much as you think they'll call with the nuts," or "the least that will make them fold with bluffs" might seem great, but provides no real way to figure out that point in practice, and it's also just way more complicated than that. "Call/fold" is binary when in reality people are generally calling more frequently against a smaller sizing and less frequently against a larger sizing, and they have tons of hands in their range which may all start calling/raising/folding at different size thresholds which you'll never guess. It's important to consider how often you'll face a raise, also.

Last edited by browni3141; 09-03-2021 at 05:31 AM.
Bet sizes? Quote
09-03-2021 , 11:28 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bdallstar11
Big difference between being in position and out of position too.

Generally speaking you want to bet bigger out of position to discourage floats and tougher decisions later.
This is not really true. For example, block bets are much more prominent oop than ip and they are smaller than standard sized bets.

Choosing the right betsizes depends on range mu, board texture, turn/riv runouts, etc. It's pretty complicated and takes some study.
Bet sizes? Quote
09-04-2021 , 07:27 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bdallstar11
Generally speaking you want to bet bigger out of position to discourage floats and tougher decisions later.
no, we're aiming for ev(check)=ev(marginal bet(I think, I actually might be wrong here), ev(check) is lower oop than ip, which means we need to betmore often and lower ev hands, which pushes our sizing down generally.

----


OP honestly just try to figure out if you can bet (Based on equity advantage) and then just choose sizing thats most natural for your particular hand. Once you get to stakes where this gets you in trouble (500z during weekdays afternoons basically, that's pretty much it) you'll know how to learn, it's gonna involve solvers.
Bet sizes? Quote

      
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