Bet types - why do you bet?
Introduction
In this article
- Why to bet
- What sort of bets types are at your disposal
What weapons are at your disposal in No-Limit Hold'em? Of course, you have your logic, your experience and your reads. But most important are your chips!
This means the most important questions are: when do you put your chips at risk and, more importantly, how many of them? Another important thing is to know why you put your chips at risk and what you hope to ultimately achieve. This article is intended to give you an overview of why you should put your chips at risk at all and which goals you want to achieve in what situations.
Why bet at all?
Why should you even bet? Some players, so called 'calling stations' rarely bet or raise by themselves, and simply call everything. Even though they might sometimes appear to be successful in the short or even medium term, they are all losing players in the long run.
The reasons are very simple:
-
Their passive game doesn't generate any fold equity: this means they will seldom to never win a pot with a worse hand, as they will practically always be forced to go to a showdown.
-
They can't bet for value. A player who just calls all the time can only influence the size of the pot indirectly (he basically always plays for pot control). He can't inflate the pot with stronger hands, as he would have to deviate from his standard line and to get active himself. In case he does, every attentive opponent will see the 'red light' and he will thus very rarely be paid off with his monsters.
-
They never know where they're at. By calling with marginal hands pre-flop, they find themselves in a hard spot on a flop where they happen to hit top pair; can he risk his whole stack if the opponent barrels three times straight? Usually, though, top pair is the nuts for this type of players anyway and they have a very hard time letting go of it. It is very doubtful, though, whether this often pays off, as all they can do due to the lack of information about the opposing player's hand is to call down and pray for the better kicker.
-
They are readable. As previously mentioned, you can usually assume you're behind if one of these passive players happens to raise you. On the other hand, they will call you down and pay you off with a lot of marginal hands. Their only deception consists of the fact that they call down a lot of draws and very strong hands next to all the semi-strong hands and total trash, meaning they can easily suck out and you can sometimes run into a real monster.
Still, it should now be obvious to you that this passive style of playing can't be profitable. You will want to play aggressive, raise pre-flop and keep the aggression up post-flop; this continued activity will not only help you win a decent amount of pots unimproved, but it will also ensure your very strong hands are paid off.
What do you want to achieve by betting?
You know that calling down your hands passively can't work out in the long run, so that's why you bet and raise. But what exactly do you want to achieve? What's the goal of your actions? Initially, you can roughly divide the motivation for your bets and raises into two categories:
- Value bets
- Bluff bets
Your hand is so strong that you want villain to call you - you are thus betting to get a maximum value out of villain. Of course, your favorite opponent here would be the one described above, a player who calls down even with marginal hands because he hasn't got a clue where he's at with his hand. In case you know he is, you bet your strong hand on the flop, the turn and the river, trying everything to get him all-in, simply because you want all of his money, his whole stack respectively, if possible.
That's the most basic thought in poker: you want money with your strong hands, and as much as possible at that point. But since your opponent might not start betting, you take care of this yourself: you bet and raise as far as possible to earn the maximum amount possible.
The second category relies on a completely different approach: you don't have a strong hand, but a hand that would better be described as weak or even trash, and which is not able to win a showdown most of the times. There is no point even thinking about value here - there isn't a weaker hand that would give you more money. So what could your aim for this hand be?
You have two possibilities. The first one is to simply give up; you check/fold and cede the pot to your opponent. It doesn't cost you any more money and you save yourself the trouble and the nerves. If you do this every time, though, it will get hard on you: you will be readable and have to wonder about your ability to deceive. If you only bet strong hands and always check/fold the weak ones, your opponents can adjust accordingly.
This means you should also bet or raise from time to time. The goal then is to get your opponent to fold. In the ideal case, he will even fold a better hand, which is the definition of a bluff bet. You bet to get a stronger hand to fold and to win the pot right away.
Of course, this division is very rough and will be elaborated in the articles linked on the bottom of this one. The basic principle should always be kept in mind though: you should always know what possibilities you have for betting your chips.
Extended betting types
As we have said, the division in the previous paragraph was very rough. The following listing gives you a more detailed overview of what a bet's purpose can be:
- Value bets
- Protection bets
- Bluff bets
- Semi-bluff bets
- Continuation bets
- Probe bets
- Position bets
- Information bets
- Block bets
- Donk bets
This listing is just a starting point though. In this case, protection bets are put under value bets, while bluff bets, semi-bluff bets as well as continuation bets and a couple of other bets are listed separately. You can decide on your own whether this makes sense to you at the end of this article, because we will soon see that a bet only rarely has a single goal.
Take a look at the bets in the list and ask yourself what you would want to achieve with that kind of bet. The definition of a value bet and a bluff bet will be ignored for now.
Protection means that you want to protect your hand. When you hit the flop and can account for a strong hand, so that you see yourself ahead most of the times, you should try to protect it. Of course, the more draw heavy the board is and the more likely it is that the opponent has a fitting hand for a draw and lots of outs against you, the more important this point becomes.
One thing becomes clear: when you think protection is important, you are, at the same time, betting for value. If, by definition, you assume to be paid off by weaker (made) hands, this counts for draws, too. You want to give your opponent incorrect odds to draw for his outs, but at the same time, you want to win money if he makes mistakes.
A semi-bluff describes a situation where you usually have a draw or a few outs up your sleeve and are betting or raising to get your opponent to fold the better hand.
This means success does not solely depend on your fold equity, but if the bluff fails and you hit your draw or improve your hand, you can also extract further value in the later streets.
These bets are especially important in order to avoid becoming readable. As long as you play both strong hands and draws with the same aggression, you force your opponent to make mistakes. If you, however, were to only bet strong made hands and to check/call your strong or semi-strong draws, you won't be paid off with your strong made hands often enough and will rarely get any additional value in case you hit your draw, as your opponents will start to notice that this is how you play them.
In contrast to a pure bluff bet, a semi-bluff can always turn into a strong made hand on the following streets, opening the way for a switch to value bets on the later streets. Next to flush and straight draws, you could also have overcards as example.
Even though opinions differ on this subject, we will try to define what a continuation bet is. First of all, a continuation bet is a bet on the flop after you were pre-flop aggressor and thus have the initiative. If you raised pre-flop, you will usually also bet the flop, as you give yourself the necessary fold equity.
When you're trying to get a better hand to fold, you start moving into the area of bluff bets. But what if you hit a strong hand? You will also usually bet the flop, but in this case you want to be paid off by your opponent. This means a continuation bet can't solely be defined as a bluff bet.
Basically, a continuation bet is a bet on the flop as pre-flop aggressor, no matter whether you hit and bet for value or miss and rely on your fold equity. It therefore becomes obvious that you should bet flops you didn't hit to avoid being readable. You only seldom hit the flop perfectly and will be paid off rarely if that's the only time you're betting. It's self-evident that check/folding every missed flop can't be profitable.
A probe bet is a bet that you place to see whether you can perhaps win the pot with a small bet. Mostly, you will need a small pot and a marginal hand that you don't have to bring to the showdown, where you would be afraid of a bet from your opponent.
For instance, if you hit middle pair in an unraised multi-way pot and are the first to act (for example as SB completer or as BB after checking), you will simply lead with a bet. You would probably fold to most raises, so the bet could fit better into the bluff category. You will rarely get value from weaker hands, but this depends on your opponents. As the possibility still exists (like a draw or a middle pair with a weaker kicker), your probe bet fulfills multiple objectives, so you should definitely bet if you see the possibility of taking the pot or being paid off by weaker hands.
A basic thought here is: if you intend to play check/call on a street, it's often a good idea to lead out with a bet yourself.
A position bet is very close to a probe bet, but there are two fundamental differences:
First of all, as the name says, you place it in position, which means you're usually the last to act. The bet can also easily be placed in raised pots when the pre-flop aggressor and all other players check to you and offer you the opportunity to bet first on the flop.
In case you have a hand without any showdown value, one with which you'll win very few to no pots, making it impossible to call a bet on any later street, you can just bet. In this case, a position bet is in fact a bluff bet, depending mostly on fold equity.
If you happen to be sitting on a monster hand, though, you bet to extract value. If you have a semi-strong hand, you can check behind and switch to way ahead / way behind, as it would be annoying if you had to bet/fold, turning a hand with at least some showdown value into a bluff.
A strong draw, however, is a borderline case: as you will be in position, hitting will mean you can play the following streets in position and have enough possibilities to be paid off. But there are further trains of thought that play a role here. For example, you have the advantage of two outstanding streets on the turn, and thus a higher equity on the flop than on a missed turn. Furthermore, you could bet the flop for a free card on the turn, as your opponent will often check to you, giving you the river card for free.
There is a lot of discussion about information bets. Even if they might make sense in theory, you have the same problem we saw with position bets.
If you have a made hand that could potentially be the best hand, bet/fold is very aggravating. The bet/fold turns your hand into a bluff, which wouldn't require a made hand to start with. On the other hand, you would like to protect, but against strong resistance, you are probably more likely to get the information that you only hold the second best hand than that you're up against a draw.
In this case, conflicting motivations all come together and you are left wondering: do I bet for value? Do I protect? Do I bluff? Do I overplay or play the hand too weak?
A block bet is a bet that is supposed to give you as much information as possible out of position - you try to make up for your positional disadvantage. We often see this bet on the river.
When you bet a good hand on the flop and on the turn to protect it and to get paid off by a worse hand, you often find yourself on the river wondering whether you should make another value bet. In case a draw hit the river, you don't want to pay it off. If you would bet again after three barrels, the odds would probably be so good that you have to call a push by the opponent with your normal 100BB stack. If you play check/call however, you also get a huge pot you didn't necessarily want, but you still see yourself ahead often enough to call a 2/3 potsize bet by the opponent.
But what other options do you have? This is where the block bet comes in. You make a bet of about 1/5 to 1/3 potsize. Your opponent will usually only raise with very strong hands, and then you will be beat so often that you can find an easy fold. Opponents usually have a way easier time making a bluff bet than making a bluff raise - use this to your advantage.
At the same time, you can still hope your opponent calls your small bet with a very weak hand. A block bet thus is a thin value bet, combined with an information bet.
The name of this bet is derived from "donkey", which comes from the fact that you play contrary to what the logic of the previous streets would normally dictate. The pre-flop aggressor, for instance, has a theoretical claim to the first action on the flop. If a player is out of position, however, and bets first, he breaks this unwritten rule and thus the game logic.
Of course, this course of action is absolutely legitimate and can have a variety of valid motives: you can, for example, play donk bet/fold on a missed flop as a pure bluff. You could also play donk bet/fold to see where you're at: in that case, it would be close to an information bet, meaning you can start doubting the point of it again (weak hands will fold and won't give you value; strong hands will raise, again giving no value to you; you also open the way to a bluff-raise where you would have to fold the stronger hand).
It is also possible to play donk bet/3-bet with a very strong hand. This is especially effective if you often use the two previous variations, meaning you donk often, then give up the hand to any action. You would use this to "balance" your behaviour, so your opponent can't tell whether you're on a strong hand and want to extract value or whether you are trying to bluff.
Summary
You just took a look at a couple of betting types and saw what purpose they have. However, these are merely some basic thoughts so you can see the possibilities you have at your disposal.
As we saw, a bet hardly ever serves just a single goal; it is therefore important to take both the advantages and the disadvantages into account. You will often find yourself in a situation where you wonder if you want to bet to extract value off a weaker hand or whether you want to get a stronger hand to fold.
Only when you know exactly what goals you are pursuing with a bet in a certain situation, will you be able to estimate its success.
