Poker: Understanding Betting Techiques.

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Player Betting Srategies: 

Your competitors' game play is not revealed solely through their body-language, it is also revealed in their betting techniques. You will learn as much about them through the value and frequency of the bets they place, as through their comportment. Indeed, the value of the bets, e.g. raises, is central to poker. The reasons for, and amount of betting, varies according to the player and his understanding and aim of the game. In general you find the following patterns among players:

Beginners:

This player does not yet understand the different betting levels and scenarios, he will have a tendency to minimise his raises and bets. He is likely to be an extremely ‘tight' player or an extremely ‘loose' player (see link above- understanding your opponents).

Intermediates:

This player is very precise in his game play, and will scrupulously analyse his hand. If he holds a moderately good pair before the flop he will raise, on average, two or three times higher than the ‘big blind'. If he feels he has a very strong hand, he could raise as much as five times the ‘big blind' (see above link- ‘how to play poker' to understand the terms used here).

Advanced:

This player plays like the intermediate player, but adds to this an additional betting technique that is as follows; he will play hard with weak hands, but less aggressively with good hands, in order to unnerve his opponents. He is trying to stop players second-guessing his motives and subsequent moves, looking to change the pace and manner of the game in order to confuse weaker players.

Betting Levels at the Pre-Flop and Flop:

Let us take the example of an experienced player, who for this purpose is your typical opponent and your own player profile. Be wary when fellow experienced players raise large amounts, if the raise is within a reasonable limit. Somebody who raises four times the blind before the flop either has a pair or cards of the type Ace-King, Ace-Queen and occasionally even King-Queen, Ace-Jack, King-Jack. This allows the player to do his homework on his fellow opponents' cards and judge the degree of their involvement in the game from the start. If, following such a raise pre-flop, the cards that fall on the table are low value cards or un-matched cards, you can deduce, with strong logic that your opponent possesses a pair (either a high pair or three-of-a- kind) or he did not find anything at the flop. If he does not follow his initial bet and continues play with only a small raise, there is a very strong possibility that he did not find the cards he was hoping for. Do not hesitate to triple his raise in order to make his game harder. Most often, he will throw his cards on the table.

For yourself, if you are playing in this type of situation you should use the binary technique: your pre-flop raise is followed by one or more players, and the flop does not bring you any good cards, thus rendering your hand useless. Either you can opt for the ‘continuation bet', and place a logical bet. Or you check, without paying. An average bet is a pure loss; you are drawing attention to the weakness of your hand, and do not put in enough force to convince the other players to follow you. In professional circles, the above remark is not always viable, some players will play as if they have a weak hand and raise small amounts in order to entice other players to bet large amounts, and to make a bluff appear believable.

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