Saturday, March 22, 2008
Value Bets, PostFlop Play
Value bets
There's nothing mysterious or deceptive about a value bet. It is what it appears to be. You started out with two good cards before the flop. The flop helped you in some way, and now you have a hand which appears to be best, such as top pair. How should you proceed?There's no need to be particularly clever here. Unless you've flopped a monster, you don't generally want to slowplay. Just lead out with a hand like top pair and hope that someone with the second-best hand comes along for the ride and pays you for the privilege. I like to vary my bets in this situation between half the pot and the whole pot. If I've assessed the situation accurately, I'd make more money with the larger bet. But, as I've emphasized before, you need to pursue a balanced strategy so your opponents can't read you easily. Betting just half the pot blends in with the continuation bets and the probe bets (discussed below) and serves as a good way to disguise strength while still getting money in the pot.
How strong a hand do I need to slowplay? Trips can be slowplayed, but I wouldn't slowplay any weaker hand except in unusual circumstances. You hate giving someone a free card that beats you, so I believe in just betting top pair or two pair.
If you watch a lot of final-table action on television, you may get the impression that players always check a good hand after the flop. This isn't really the case. On television you're seeing people at the final table, where the field is small, the blinds are large, and many of the players are desperate to keep accumulating chips to stay in the game. Under these circumstances, it's very rare for a hand to be checked around after the flop. If you're the first to act, and you have a good hand, and you check, the second player will almost always bet to win the pot that's out there. He's aware that you may be checking a good hand, but he probably doesn't have time to wait around for a better situation. So in these circumstances, checking top pair with the idea of raising later is a high-percentage move. But early in the tournament, your opponents won't
be so desperate to go after the pot, so betting out for value is generally more profitable.
There's nothing mysterious or deceptive about a value bet. It is what it appears to be. You started out with two good cards before the flop. The flop helped you in some way, and now you have a hand which appears to be best, such as top pair. How should you proceed?There's no need to be particularly clever here. Unless you've flopped a monster, you don't generally want to slowplay. Just lead out with a hand like top pair and hope that someone with the second-best hand comes along for the ride and pays you for the privilege. I like to vary my bets in this situation between half the pot and the whole pot. If I've assessed the situation accurately, I'd make more money with the larger bet. But, as I've emphasized before, you need to pursue a balanced strategy so your opponents can't read you easily. Betting just half the pot blends in with the continuation bets and the probe bets (discussed below) and serves as a good way to disguise strength while still getting money in the pot.
How strong a hand do I need to slowplay? Trips can be slowplayed, but I wouldn't slowplay any weaker hand except in unusual circumstances. You hate giving someone a free card that beats you, so I believe in just betting top pair or two pair.
If you watch a lot of final-table action on television, you may get the impression that players always check a good hand after the flop. This isn't really the case. On television you're seeing people at the final table, where the field is small, the blinds are large, and many of the players are desperate to keep accumulating chips to stay in the game. Under these circumstances, it's very rare for a hand to be checked around after the flop. If you're the first to act, and you have a good hand, and you check, the second player will almost always bet to win the pot that's out there. He's aware that you may be checking a good hand, but he probably doesn't have time to wait around for a better situation. So in these circumstances, checking top pair with the idea of raising later is a high-percentage move. But early in the tournament, your opponents won't
be so desperate to go after the pot, so betting out for value is generally more profitable.
# posted by bonycamel @ 1:59 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]