Bet Sizing

Because it’s No Limit Texas Hold’em, there is literally no limit to the amount you can bet (other than the maximum chips you start with of course) which means you can be flexible and creative in the way you play the game. Use your chips as a tool and structure your bet sizing to do what you want them to do. At the same time, the betting patterns of another player can tell you a lot about their hand.

The biggest mistake new players make and it’s often a tell tale sign that they are new, is to always bet or raise the minimum. If the blinds are 50/100 then they will raise pre-flop to 200, or if an opponent bets 300 on the flop they will re-raise to 600 when they have a good hand. Min raises do have a function, but most of the time you want to bet bigger for a number of reasons. First of all, a minimum raise almost always gives someone enticing odds to stay in the hand. For example with blinds at 50/100 if you are the small blind and raise to 200 into the big blind, it only costs them 100 to win a pot of 300, so they are getting three to one odds to call and most of the time they will not think they are a three to one underdog.

Another reason to bet more is simply because it will do more for you. If you are bluffing, the bigger you bet the more likely they are to fold because they won’t want to lose their chips. In a similar but contrasting way, when you have a big hand then you want to bet big to win more money. Yes, we just said a bigger bet makes people fold but it’s a delicate balancing act and we recommend you experiment mixing up your bet sizing to see what works and also to keep your opponents guessing.

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