Hey Steemy Poker Peeps! Here’s another post from me, 
If I were a betting woman (which I am) I would wager that there are quite a number of you who don’t give much thought to how much you bet when you bet. I know, I know, I’m kinda like a mind reader to have figured that out all by myself!! So read carefully!
Opening Bet Sizes
Step 1: Standardize!
'Standardize your bet size' means to decide, before you even start a tournament, how you will open your bets. For instance, I tend to open my betting (open betting is when you are the first one to bet at the table) with a 3x BB, three times the big blind. Let's say the big blind is 100$, I will open with 300$, no matter what cards I have in the hole or where I am on the table.
Standardizing your opening bet sizes matters more as the tournament progresses. You have to pay attention to how many BB (big blinds) you and your opponents have. The number of big blinds in play and the amount of the BB should both weigh in on what you decide your opening bet size will be. Generally speaking, you want to open your betting with 3-5 big blinds early in a tournament and 2-3 big blinds later when the blinds get bigger, relative to personal chip stacks.
Don’t Forget about Position!
Early position opening bets are usually larger and mean your hole cards are strong, while later open betting can be smaller due to positional advantage. A common mistake amateurs make is to over-bet big hands and limp their middling hands, which totally tips off the table as to what you’re holding. Balancing your opening bet size by standardizing your bets will avoid this! For example many players will attempt to “protect” their middle pairs like 10-10 or J-J with an over bet. This will eliminate the value and tip off your cards to your opponents.
Post-Flop Bet Sizing and Pot Control (Not-Weed)
After the flop, your betting should be expressed in percentages of the pot. It’s important to manipulate the pot size throughout the betting rounds. Ideally, you want to keep the pots smaller when you are out of position and larger when you’re in position.
Bet Size
Your bet size should be smaller when you’re on a draw and bigger when you have a made hand. It’s important to understand that the smaller your bet size, the better pot odds you are offering your opponent. The larger your bet size, the worse odds you are offering for a call. The idea is to make your opponents pay for their draws while you are getting yours for as cheap as possible. The more you’re able to control the size of the pot, the better odds you’ll have than your opponent and totally have a better chance of winning the tournament! Woot!
The Cut off and the Continuation
Sometimes betting can actually keep the pot smaller. A cut off bet of 50% the pot may keep your opponent from betting 75% the pot. By taking the lead in betting the pot, you get to set the price. When you set the price of betting you are able to control the pot size and gain an advantage over your opponents.
Hope this helps you in your tournament play! If you would like to play some online poker and earn SBD’s, come check us out in our Discord chat and register at Lucksacks. Lucksacks has already paid more than 6,000 SBD’s to players, and it’s totally fun, too. Come play!
Check out this article about poker. And this other ten holdem tips for more info.
chip images from Pixabay, table graphic by