NL bet amounts

[mgb123]

How do you determine how much to bet in NL? I hear phrases like "raise the blinds three-and-one-half the big blind" and "standard bet" and "value bet." What does all this mean and is there a protocol for betting the correct amounts?

Thanks.

[Skribbles]

It depends.

No two hands you play will ever be played the same way. Thus, you betting should be different everytime.


Most people say that 3-4xBB the standard bet. But you really have to take a look at the table you're at. If you raise 4xBB and you get 6 callers, next time raise it up 8xBB.


Also, before you raise, think about what you want your bet to accomplish. If you have a big pair, you want to be against only 1 or 2 players... if you decide to raise with low pockets or suited connectors, generally you want to keep more players in the pot so you wouldn't raise as much.


But as always with poker.... it depends.

[Gunslinger]

Also, all talk of bets being 3X the big blind or 4X the big blind refer to pre-flop raises.

All bets made after the flop (or turn or river) are usually refered to relative to the size of the pot. i.e., a bet of half the pot after the flop.

[jimmer]

Also, just think about changing the amount you raise preflop, from time-to-time.

For example, if you always raise 4xBB with large pocket pairs and 3xBB with small pocket pairs, players will soon learn your "system". Every now and then raise a different amount.

After the flop my "basic rule" is to raise the pot if i have top pair, and limp in if i have middle pair, but having said that, there are 101 factors that could change this thought, so don't take it as concrete.

[72o]

I agree to Skribbles. The preflop bet is a matter of "table convention" in the first place. On a tight table even 2xBB may be enough to drive out the blinds. On other tables a bet of 4xBB gets five callers. Especially in SNGs this may result in complete chaos. In the first few hands everybody is betting 20 chips preflop and at least half the table is seeing the flop. Then somebody is annoyed about the loose play and bets 5xBB with AJ and gets four callers because everybody thinks he wants to steal...

The objective is to end up heads-on after the flop as inexpensively as possible. The usual preflop bet is 2xBB to 4xBB.

After the flop the bets usually mean:
min bet or repeating the preflop bet: you hit something
half the pot or pot size bet: you hit at least top pair
all-in: you got the nuts or you are nuts

Another, less common but in my opinion better, way to determine the size of the bet is to measure it relatively to the bet of the previous betting round. After the flop you bet the same as preflop if you think your hand is still good or you bet twice the preflop bet if your hand improved (hit top pair etc).

If you hit top pair you may also check-raise. That way your opponents learn to respect your checks and not just pot-bet when you checked. Another move when you have hit something big is to make a donk-bet. That is, a minimum bet when the pot is big. Your opponent might take that as a sign of weakness and bet the pot to steal it. Then you reraise or go all-in! A perfect way to punish overly aggressive players or notorious bluffers.

Of course, if your opponent bets the pot to tell you that he got top pair doesn't necessarily mean that it is the truth....

[shorn7]

Sizing your bets in NL is a very important skill. What you want to do when sizing is to maximize your expectation on the hand. So, what you need to do is to make the bet size where your opponents make the biggest mistakes. Obviously, this is very situation dependent so you shouldn't follow any one pattern. You need to pay attention to your stack as well as the stacks of the others at the table.

Also, you need to know what your goal is with each bet and what your response will be to a raise BEFORE you pull the trigger. The ultimate goal is to make your betting pattern quite random so you are very difficult to read.

Hope this helps.

[crack]

I have always gone along with the same standard I started with.

I will usually bet the table standard (3x or 4x the bb) and then one bb for every limper already in if there are a few.

I will do this with any raise I make. I think this makes it difficult for players to put me on a definitive hand preflop. I do not like to vary my raises and think it's incorrect to do so dependent on the hands.

I prefer to raise depending on the table type and then with the rule I have used ever since I started playing NL.