I'll start this with a little background, largely because tonight is really the first time I've experimented with overbets.

If anyone watched the HU "rematch" on Stars between Farha and Moneymaker, they presumably noticed that Farha made a lot of overbets early, then kind of calmed down into standard play. I always wondered about this and have usually viewed overbets just as a mistake.

But earlier tonight I started reading Matt Lessinger's Book of Bluffs (very interesting, by the way) and thought I'd experiment around with some things. One remark he makes I found particularly interesting: Something about master players betting often even with nothing at all just to gain information about their opponents' hands. Idea: Can that hand handle a big bet.

So, when I went into some HU matches, I thought I'd just try making some big raises to start with. My initial intention was really to determine whether my opponent really wants to play for stack or not.

Well, this gave me some ideas. Basically, I started varying my SB raises a lot. If the big raise is looking bluffy, then I start doing it on premium hands only. If they're folding a lot, then I do that on really junky hands. The basic idea on this one is to get a caller in as big a pot as possible when I have a very strong hand. I was essentially raising every SB, just varying the quantity essentially contrary to perceived expectations.

If I felt they saw the meaning of a big raise as being a junk hand, then I started raising big hands big and junk hands the minimum. And vice-versa.

Also, I started off the games doubling the pot on any bet I would normally make. Then I'd switch that up.

I really liked this and did pretty well with it tonight (obviously not enough games to go on, however). The real idea that seemed to me to justify this kind of play was this:

They're generally not going to call a big bet without at least something--like a draw, perhaps even ace-high. But what you're really looking to do is not have to pull the trigger too many times on your opponent. You want to be able to end the match when they have something and you have something better.

So, once they get the hang of your overbets being bluffs, you can reserve them for TP or better and often get them into a huge pot where you have quite a strong hand--still may not be the best, but at least one with some serious potential for holding up against just a decent hand.

Then, also, if you can cripple them on one, and they see an enormously strong hand that you've overbet, you can switch it up again. Half-pot to pot-size now seems fairly small and potentially weak. So, you do THAT on your bigger hands now and overbet as bluff intermittently.

Anyhow, this does seem like a weapon that I haven't previously used and one that has a lot of potential.

I've also (as I'm sure others have) had too many of these HU games where I've gotten my opponent pretty far down only to let him come back and beat me. If you're doing a lot of overbetting, you have much better potential for finishing them off completely with an all-in if you think your hand is stronger in the given situation.