Betting for Beginners
Understanding how to bet is one of the fundamental skills in poker. In order to start your path towards greatness in the game of poker, you have to understand why you are betting in the first place and how to manipulate your opponents into doing what you want so you can win as much as possible. In this lesson, we will cover basic poker betting concepts beginners need to understand that will apply to various situations both before and after the flop in no limit hold’em style games.
Betting Pre-Flop
You should now be familiar with the best and worst starting hands in hold’em. It’s great knowing which hand is good, and which isn’t, but you now need to know how to bet with these starting hands – and why. The pre-flop betting round is very important in hold’em, particularly when playing no limit.
Raising Pre-Flop
"Why should I raise? I just want to see the flop and see what happens". This is a common statement among novice poker players and it’s important to understand why this is ultimately a losing philosophy. Whether you play tight aggressive or loose aggressive, you should always strive to play an aggressive style of poker as it has been statistically proven to be the most profitable. This means that if you are in the hand you are most often times going to be raising or re-raising. But there are different reasons to raise and you should know why you are doing it each hand you play. Good reasons to raise are:
- To thin the field
- To take control of a hand
- To raise for value
- To get others to fold
In most cases you don’t want to play a raised pot versus more than two other players. If you have a big starting hand, it can still be vulnerable and you don’t want someone catching some random two pair hand or a crazy straight draw. The less people in the hand means you have less people to fight to win the pot and fewer decisions to make, so you should often be looking to raise when you enter the hand.
A good tip for beginners is to raise three times the big blind, plus one big blind for every limper in the pot. If it folds to you, raising three times the big blind is often enough to ensure the field of players doesn’t grow too large. For example, in a poker tournament with blinds at 25/50, and with two calls (limps) before you, it is a good idea to raise to about 225-250 (that’s 3 x 50 + 2 x 50). But you have to base this on the tendencies of the poker players at the table and many other situational factors. It’s not uncommon to get five callers in the early stages of a poker tournament or a low stakes cash game. If this is the case, you just need to adjust your raises and it might take raising four to six times the big blind to narrow the field.
Another very good reason to raise, is that it announces to the poker table that you have a strong hand. Even if you miss the flop, you can often continue your aggression and take down the pot. Since you raised pre-flop, players will more likely respect your next bet. When you raise pre-flop you’ll often find that after the flop has been dealt the other players will check to you, to see what you’re going to do. So basically, you’re taking control of the hand.
Sometimes you are raising because you have a hand that you are confident is the best hand. So you might raise or re-raise because you want to get called. This doesn’t necessarily mean raising the minimum. It means raising an amount where you maximize how much you win. While you are still learning how to play poker it’s very important that you avoid raising the minimum. A common beginner mistake is when three of four people limp in and you raise the minimum with a pair of Aces. This is bad because while AA is the best hand pre-flop, it is unlikely that the others will fold. “But I want them to call and build the pot” – actually you don’t. AA is not a favourite to win versus four random hands.
Since bluffing is certainly part of poker, sometimes you are raising in order to get others to fold. This is especially true in tournament poker where stealing the blinds and antes is crucial for building your chip stack. If your goal is to get others to fold, you can’t be timid. While a smaller raise can look like a big hand, you want to bet an amount that your opponent can’t call. However, keep in mind that each bet tells a story. While going all-in might be the largest amount you can bet, it looks like you want a fold and you actually might get a call from someone who doesn’t believe you. You need to make sure you are representing a hand and you are playing according to each poker players’ personality.
Calling Pre-Flop
While you should strive to play an aggressive style of poker, particularly when playing no limit hold’em, there are situations in which it is best to just call pre-flop. There are too many situations to go into detail in this lesson, but there are a few concepts you should understand.
- When you’re first to act – There are times in which the strength of your hand, your position at the table and other situational factors dictate that it is better to limp into the pot. The important concept to remember is that you should only be limping with a hand you can stand to call a raise with. An example would be limping in early position with a small pocket pair in hopes of catching a set (note: if these words don’t make sense then re-visit “Poker Terms Explained)“.
- Calling after other limpers – If 3-4 players have already limped in, it’s often okay to call with certain types of hands but it is important that you still use good hand selection. Just because other people are playing doesn’t mean you can justify playing any two cards.
- Calling a raise – The decision to call a raise is almost always situational and too extensive to go into during this lesson. However, what you should take away while you are still learning to play is that when you are faced with a tough decision, calling is almost always the LAST choice. In poker, raising is better than folding and folding is better than calling.
Betting After the Flop
We’ve covered quite a bit of information about pre-flop betting, but let’s have a quick look at betting after the flop.
How Much Should You Bet?
While your bet size should depend on the situation, a general rule of thumb is to bet between ½ the pot and the size of the pot. This will give draws incorrect odds to call, get worse hands to call and often times get better hands to fold. By betting more than the pot, you are usually losing money in the long run because you are usually only getting called by a hand that beats you.
Betting vs. Checking
Just like pre-flop, it is usually best to fall on the side of being aggressive instead of passive. If you were aggressive pre-flop, depending on what cards are on the flop, you can continue your aggression by betting and often winning the hand even if you miss.
Varied vs. Consistent Bet Sizes
Since the size of your bet tells a story to the other players, it is important that you do not give off patterns in your play – both pre-flop and after the flop. A common pattern for beginners is to bet more when you have a strong hand and less when you have a weak hand. This can eventually become predictable and make it easy for your opponents to play against you.
In order to prevent being readable, there are two schools of thought: randomly vary the size of your bet or keep betting the same increment every time. The reason why you would vary your bet sizes is to throw off your opponent and keep them guessing. At the same time, that is also the goal of staying consistent. If you bet the same amount whether you have a hand or are bluffing, your bluffs are more believable and your opponents cannot pick up patterns in your play. While both can be effective, it is best for beginners to stay consistent because until you gain enough experience it’s easy to accidentally fall into a pattern or out think yourself when trying to stay random.
Conclusion
Hopefully this lesson has taught you the importance of betting, and the reasons why it’s a good idea to raise and sometimes just to call. We’ve only really touched on the subject of betting, and later in the course we’ll talk a lot more about betting and we’ll dive deeper into these concepts. Our next lesson is about the importance of position in poker, and it’s a fundamental poker concept which dictates whether you should even be in a hand to bet with in the first place.
Next Lesson: Beginners Level » Module 3 » Lesson 2 » The Value of Position