Hi, I’m very new to poker, a thing I struggle with most is bet sizing so I’m wondering if anyone can give me a little help. I’m so new I only recently discovered the 4 hand categories so please bare with me

-If I got a premium made hand I’m usually betting 1/3 pot to get value (unless it’s draw heavy I may bet larger to protect)
-If I’ve got a marginal made hand I’m usually check calling (unless I think I’m beat)
-If I’ve got a draw then I’m usually betting 2/3 pot (unless I feel like the flop has connected well with my opponents range already)
-If I’ve got junk then I’m check folding unless we improve

^^^ Would you say the bet sizings are ok? It probably differs from hand to hand slightly I’m sure but I’m just looking for help. (Cash games 0.02/0.05)

As stated above I’m only playing $0.02/0.05 to get to grips with things and get experience. I’m trying to play tag as I feel like sometimes you could literally be up against any 2 cards if you don’t have any information on that player.

I’m serious about learning so what’s my best way? I’ve bought the Matthew Janda Applications of No Limit Hold’em book and read the first 50/60 pages or so but it’s VERY math based and aimed at advanced players imo. Also signed up for a free trial at poker coaching and I like their content, less math based. Not sure what route to take to improve. Any advice welcome and thanks in advance!

So to sum up quickly 2 things I’m asking

Are my bet sizings ok?
Best way to improve/study?

Sounds to me like you're pretty easy to read.

Well this is the reason I’m here, to improve, get some better advice and become and better player. Hence why I’m playing for peanuts

What is your thought process on betting different amounts based on your hand strength? Does this disguise the strength of your hand? Or does it turn your hand face up for those paying attention?

For an absolute beginner, just make all your bet sizings the same, say 2/3 pot or something like that on the flop.

Always betting more with a weak hand than a strong one is about the worst adjustment you could make. The core of winning poker against weak opponents is putting more money in the pot when you have it i.e. value betting.

Yeah you’re right it does turn the hand face up I guess. My thought process was bet small for value to prevent the opponents weaker hands from folding, then betting bigger with draws to make the fold. I guess there’s some truth to it but I understand it’s not the correct way of play

Makes sense mate and that way I’d become less readable by always having similar bet sizings, I find often that small stakes people will just fold if you bet high hence why I was using 1/3 pot to get them to call all 3 streets but I’ll try bet higher and see how it goes, thank you

People fold in microstakes?

Really?

Most of the people I play against are calling stations who will call with any piece of the board (pair or draw).

If people are folding too much you need to bluff more.

Generally speaking, your hand strength is not part of the bet size decision. Factors you should use include pot size, stack size, opponent tendencies, prior action, and other situational factors.

Your hand helps determine when to bet or raise, but not how much.

This is true, but it's weird that you mention all these factors and not board texture as it relates to the ranges in play, which is (theoretically speaking) basically the most important fundamental bedrock strategically.

Agree, I just lumped it under situational.

I still like the Harrington on Cash Games series very much. Not for his strategy part, that is a little outdated and has never been that good for the micro's. The poker basics in the books still hold up though.

The best parts of the books are the "The problems" sections. They really helped me improve my thought process.

Also, pick one thing you want to learn, get hold of that before you move on to the next thing. So if you think bet sizing is your biggest problem, go study bet sizing. break it down in as many parts as you can and study those parts one by one.

There are a lot of good tidbits posted already. You should write them down and look at them every time before you play. Sometimes we make poker way more complicated than it needs to be. In some hands ... OOP, wet Board, multi-way bloated pot, deep stacks ... there is not an easy way 'out'. But for others all we need is ...

... Bet one more unit than your opponent is willing to call if you want them to fold and bet one less unit than your opponent is willing to fold to if you want a call.

Where the fun comes in is trying to determine the threshold of different opponents for 'the same' spot to get max value for our chip stack. GL

I wouldn't adjust my bet sizes based on my hand (we don't want to be predictable) but on the board itself, For example, boards with a ton of draws often require bigger sizes (whether you are bluffing or value-betting)

The best poker players know what sort of bet sizes they would make in a certain situation, which means board cards and actions so far NOT your hand or opponents hand. When they arrive at that situation, they then know if their hand (whether a made hand or a draw) should be bet for that bet size or not. But the key is that every bet size in any situation needs to have bluffs and made hands as possibilities or else they will be far too easy to play against.

There are later reasons to think about bluffing more or less in certain spots that you can add to your game. But I think you're too early in your poker journey to be thinking about those things.

Another poster suggested that as a beginner you should use one bet sizing only and I think that is good advice. You currently bet 1/3 and 2/3 so 1/2 is a great compromise and you can basically keep betting all the same hands you were betting as value or bluffs but just switch to 1/2 size. 2/3 is also a fine choice but theoretically some things that were value bets for 1/3 are not good enough to value bet for 2/3.