Quote:
Originally Posted by poker2016
If we have range advantage we want to bet small? Can you explain a little why?
Sometimes it's just the case that you have lots of "thin value" hands that can get paid by worse if you bet small and get called. (Betting big produces more fold equity, so you often only want to do it if villain only calls infrequently, and your value range gets more from being called than it would if it went smaller).
I liken the concept to the idea of choosing the "max EV" size for the river. Suppose you had the stone cold nuts and the pot is $100.
Suppose that if you bet $200 (2x pot), villain will call 30% of the time.
As well as getting the $100 pot (which you'd win if you checked back), you're winning an extra $200 30% of the time. 30% of $200 is $60.
Now suppose that you bet $100 (1 x pot), and villain calls this bet 50% of the time. Since 50% of $100 is only $50, this option is not as profitable as overbetting. (You'd literally rather villain call $200 thirty percent of the time, than $100 fifty percent of the time).
If villain would instead call the $100 65% of the time, then now your additional profit goes to $65, and the smaller size nets you greater value, so that would be the better size to use.
Naturally, you have to balance your value-bets with your bluffs. Since betting big means your bluffs will work more often, and makes them at least breakeven, you sometimes want to bet big, to push more of your air hands through.
In spots where you have lots of thin value hands, that will do better by betting small, instead of betting large (when they won't get called by worse) or checking back (no additional value), a smaller size (and a lower proportion of bluffs) makes sense.
Unfortunately, it's not always easy to tell how thinly you should value-bet, or how big you can go before you're value-cutting yourself.
There are definitely spots on the river*, however, where your range has lots of top pair type hands that can get called by worse if they bet about 1/3 pot, but that can't get called by worse if they go much bigger. It's only really in the spots where you're much more polarized (to nuts or air) that overbetting is appropriate.
* It can also happen as a c-bet in a 3-bet or 4-bet pot, where betting small with a range advantage "forces" villain to call with very weak hands. If betting small gets called by worse often, while betting big makes villain fold "too often", then betting small with a range advantage makes sense.