Why do you bet?
What do you expect to accomplish by betting? Just one of three things: (1) you can get a better hand to fold; (2) you can get a worse hand to call; or (3) you can protect the best hand. If you can’t accomplish any of these things, you should not be betting.
- Chris Ferguson, Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide, p. 118
This may seem like a self-evident question, but why do you bet in a cash game? Usually the answer is pretty vague: “to take down the pot” or “to push my draw hard.” I like Ferguson’s typology of why to bet, because it points out a few situations where you should not be betting no matter what. He mentions this particular one in his chapter:
You raise pocket eights and someone flat calls immediately behind you. The flop is:
K 
T 9 
You continuation bet. Why? To protect the best hand? That’s unlikely; almost every hand he could be calling with, for example KQ/KJ/KT/QJ/QT/JT/T9/J9/Q9/AT/A9/99 is now way ahead of you. To get a worse hand to call? Well, maybe he called with pocket fives, but he certainly won’t be paying off if you bet strong here. To get a better hand to fold? That’s the most likely possibility, and someone might lay down a really weak bottom pair hand to pressure. But the flop texture makes it almost impossible for someone to have a worse hand than a pair of eights.
One of my favorite phrases from “Harrington on Hold ‘Em 2″ is the “dark tunnel bluff.” Harrington is referring to double-barreling with AK after your opponent check-calls you on the flop. When you make a second bet with AK, you may no longer have any idea if you’re betting for value (A high is the best hand), betting as a bluff (he has a good hand and you’re making him fold on a scary board) or betting as a semi-bluff (he has a weak made hand so your overcards are outs that may win the pot on the river).
I played a lot of hands today and especially at low-stakes games, you find yourself in positions where a number of factors suggest you should bet – you were the pre-flop raiser, the pot is heads-up, you are in position – but with the looseness of the games there’s simply no point in betting. It’s hard to fight the betting instinct, since we’re taught that active is better than passive and that continuation betting on flops is where you make money. The best example I can think of:
I raised pocket tens and the flop was:
K Q 
J
My loose-passive opponent checked it to me from the blinds. This is not a spot to bet, because he almost surely has a piece of this. It’s completely possible he called in the blinds with K8 or Q9; even J7 isn’t out of the question at these stakes. But many opponents will never bet their hands. He may have top 2 pair and be checking this. He may have bottom two pair, or a made straight. But many players just don’t bet without the nuts or near it, they wait for others to bet. Check behind here and if an ace comes, at least you’re chopping the pot or winning a small one.
Here is the greatest illustration of this principle at low-stakes NL: I am holding the very excellent hand of 6 4 in the big blind. The pot is unraised and I check. I miss the flop and it’s checked around. I miss the turn and it’s checked around. The river is a six.
The board reads:
5 K 8 K 6 
It’s checked to me again and I make a tiny bet with my pair of sixes (probably should have checked). The player behind me min-raises. I call, partly out of curiosity, partly because we may be chopping the pot (e.g. he has 76).
What is the villain’s hand here? If you said a full house (kings full of fives) you would be right! Why would anyone check a full house to the river and then raise the minimum? I have no idea, but that’s how it’s played at the micro-stakes. People don’t bet, no matter how good their hand is.
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I sometimes bet draws knowing there is a small chance i will get a better hand to fold and a large chance that i am naming my own price for drawing. This I do more often OOP.
Also, short-handed or heads up i often bet to establish an image, particularly in position. If I can get a guy thinking he is a genius for calling me down with middle pair then I feel I’m gonna make a lotta money from him on later hands.