Poker School

When to bet in Texas Hold'em refers to deciding how many chips to throw into the pot based not only on winning but improving expectation of your existing hand. The answer to when to bet also depends up on the reliability of your hand, your opponents and the pot limit variation of the game. If you are not able to bet due to non-reliability of your hand, you simply fold.

 

1:   Know what your bet represents.

 

Every time you voluntarily lay money on the table in poker, you should have a very good reason to do so. If you are not sure you should be betting, you need to take a moment and consider what your bet represents. No matter what cards you have, the cards your opponents have are much more important. If you never see your own cards, but you could see the hand of your opponent, you would be very wealthy. Thus, your bet is made to represent the image of your hand you wish to portray.

 

2:  Determine the strength of your hole cards prior to betting Pre-flop.

 

The basic consideration in betting before the flop in Texas Hold'em is based on the strength of your hole cards.

 

• Do you have a speculative hand? Then you are probably betting to get to the flop inexpensively while keeping several players in the pot.

 

• If you have a strong wired pair, especially Jacks or better, you should be betting to thin the field. Your pair will stand up against a single lesser hand at a very high rate, so you want to take only one opponent (or possibly two) to the flop with you.

 

3:  Learn the several ways by which you can decide on when to bet in Texas hold'em poker:

 

• You can place a medium bet in a way that others will contribute to the growing pot.

 

• Place a very high bet in a way to make it more difficult or less likely for others to move to the flop, thereby cutting down the competition.

 

• Place a bet with a wrong hand without a scope to just confuse your opponent in regard to the quality of the hand they hold and to cut down competition.

 

4:  Study when to bet in Texas Hold'em poker for a favorable blind stealing.

 

Primarily, in a game where you happen to be a dealer and there is only the dealer and the blinds remaining to play, competing to steal such a pot is called blind stealing. With this game being positional, if you are a dealer you would be the last to act and you can take the pot of the blinds fold. A raise is going to make the blinds fold if they are in a medium position; however, if you are going to call, they may just check to see what comes up next. If you are in a dealer position and have a strong hand you can bet high and re-raise, contributing to some increase in the stakes. However, this is not a big way to get rich.

 

5:  Learn when to bet in Texas Hold'em poker for making the maximum out of your hand?

 

When you are having a good hand to play in a short-handed game, your focus against your opponent should be to limit their pot odds towards what they are trying to draw. Maybe they are targeting a straight or flush and you have a better hand than them, but if they are going to make it your hand may get beaten, in such cases you need to bet strong attempting to scare your opponents into folding.