Bet types - Why bet?
Introduction
In this article
- Why to bet
- What sort of bet types are at your disposal
What weapons are at your disposal in No Limit Hold'em? You have your logic, your experience and your reads, but most importantly 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 the goals to set yourself in different situations.
Why bet at all?
Why should you even bet? Some players, the so called 'calling stations', rarely bet or raise themselves; they 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 for this are very simple:
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Their passive game doesn't generate any fold equity. This means they will seldom to never win a pot with an inferior hand to their opponents, because they will practically always be forced to go to the showdown.
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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 playing style to get active himself. In case he does, every attentive opponent will see the 'red light' warning go up, so he will very rarely be paid for his monster hands.
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They never know where they're at. By calling with marginal hands pre-flop, they find themselves in a hard spot if they happen to hit top pair on the flop. Does he risk his whole stack if the opponent barrels three times straight? Usually, though, top pair is the nuts for this type of player and they have a very hard time letting go of it. It is doubtful whether this often pays off. All they can do, due to the lack of information about the opposing player's hand, is to call down and pray that they get the better kicker.
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They are predictable. 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 calling down so many draws and very strong hands, together with all the semi-strong hands and total trash, that they can easily suck out and you can sometimes run into a real monster.
Still, it should be obvious to you that this passive style of playing can't be profitable. You will want to play aggressively, raise pre-flop and keep the aggression up post-flop. This continued activity will not only help you win a decent number of pots without having to hit your draws, but it will also ensure that 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 behind 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 your opponent to call you: you bet to get the maximum value out of your opponent. The best 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 that he is, you bet your strong hand on the flop, the turn and the river, trying everything to get him to go all-in, simply because you want all of his money; his entire stack if possible.
This is the most basic thought in poker: you want money with your strong hands and as much of it as possible. If your opponent does not start betting, you take care of this yourself by betting and raising as much 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 be described as weak or even trash, and which is not able to win a showdown most of the time. 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 because you will become readable and have to consider your deceptive ability. If you only bet strong hands and always check/fold the weak ones, your opponents will adjust accordingly.
This means you should also bet or raise weaker hands from time to time. The goal then is to get your opponent to fold. Ideally, 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.
The division between these two is very broad and will be elaborated on in the following articles (linked to at the bottom of this page). The basic principle to bear in mind is: you should always know what your possibilities are when betting your chips.
Extended betting types
The following list gives you a more detailed overview of the purpose of a bet:
- Value bets
- Protection bets
- Bluff bets
- Semi-bluff bets
- Continuation bets
- Probe bets
- Position bets
- Information bets
- Block bets
- Donk bets
This list is only a starting point. In this case, protection bets are under value bets, whereas bluff bets, semi-bluff bets, continuation bets and a couple of other bet types are listed separately. You can decide for yourself whether this makes sense after reading this article, because we will soon see that a bet rarely has but a single goal.
Take a look at the bets in the list and ask yourself what you would want to achieve with such a 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 making a strong hand and believe that your are ahead, you should try to protect it. Of course, the more draw heavy the board is, the more likely it is that the opponent has a good hand for a draw and lots of outs against you. This makes protecting even more important.
One thing becomes clear: when you think protecting is important, you are betting for value at the same time. If you assume that weaker (made) hands are going to pay your winnings, this also counts for your opponents' draws. You want to give your opponent incorrect odds to draw for his outs, but at the same time, you want to make money if he makes mistakes.
A semi-bluff describes a situation in which you usually have a draw or a few outs up your sleeve and are betting or raising to get your opponent to fold a 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 strong hands and draws with the same aggression, you will force your opponents to make mistakes. If you only bet your strong made hands and check/call your strong or semi-strong draws, you won't be paid off with your strong made hands often enough. Furthermore, you will rarely get any additional value if 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 turn into a strong made hand on the following streets. This situation gives you the opportunity to switch to value bets on the later streets. Besides flush and straight draws, you can also use overcards as an example of semi-bluff bets.
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 agressive pre-flop, thus giving you 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 by your opponent. This means a continuation bet can't be defined exclusively as a bluff bet.
A continuation bet is a bet on the flop as a 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 on flops that you don't hit, to avoid becoming readable. You seldomly hit the flop perfectly and will be paid off rarely if that's the only time you're betting. It's evident that check/folding every missed flop can't be profitable.
You place a probe bet to see whether you can perhaps win the pot with a small bet. In the main, you will need a small pot and a marginal hand that you don't want to take to the showdown, where you would be afraid of a bet from your opponent.
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 lead with a bet. You would probably fold to most raises in this situation so this bet could qualify as a bluff. 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. You should definitely bet if you see the possibility of taking the pot, or being paid 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 with a bet yourself.
A position bet is very similar to a probe bet, but there are two fundamental differences.
As the name indicates, you place it in position, which means you are usually the last to act. The bet can also be played 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.
If you have a hand without any showdown value; a hand with which you will win few to no pots making it impossible to call a bet on any later street, just bet. In this case, a position bet is in fact a bluff bet, dependant mostly on fold equity.
However, if you happen to be sitting on a monster hand, 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 to have 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 are in position, hitting means you can play the following streets in position and have enough possibility to be paid. 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 therefore 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, to 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 want to protect the hand. But against strong resistance you are probably likely to find out that you only hold the second best hand, and not that you're up against a draw.
In this case, conflicting reasons for betting 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 with a good hand on the flop and turn to protect it and get paid by a worse hand, you often find yourself on the river wondering whether you should make another value bet. In case a draw hits on the river, you don't want to pay it off. If you 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. In this way you 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 of the pot size. Your opponent will usually only raise with very strong hands and you will usually be beaten, so you find an easy fold here. 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 is therefore a slight 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 suggest. The pre-flop aggressor, for instance, has a theoretical claim to the first action on the flop. However, if a player is out of position and bets first, he breaks this unwritten rule and the game logic.
This course of action is of course absolutely legitimate and may have a variety of valid motives. You can, for example, play donk bet/fold on a missed flop as a pure bluff. You might also play donk bet/fold to see where you're at. In this case, it would be close to an information bet, meaning you might start doubting the point of it, because weak hands will fold and won't give you value; strong hands will raise, again giving you no value; you would open the door to a bluff-raise and 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 and then give up the hand to any action. Use this to "balance" your behaviour, so your opponent can't tell whether you have a strong hand and want to extract value or whether you are trying to bluff.
Summary
You have seen a few betting types and the purpose they serve. However, these are merely some basic thoughts so you can see the possibilities you have at your disposal.
As you can see, a bet hardly ever serves 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 from 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.
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