an example of why you need to bet the pot

[Stelvask]

This hand illustrates exaclty why it becomes important to make *real* bets, rather than wimply little "please call me bets".


$100 nl table. i'm sitting on $120 utg +1 and get [3s]. it's at the end of my session and as the table pops up and i click the fold button i accidently hit call. oh well. MP ($140 - no reads) raises to $4. MP+1( $45. loose) callls, button ( $175, unsure) calls, and the SB ( $18, no reads) calls. since i'm now getting about 5:1 on the call, i opt to be loose and see a flop in my terrible position. don't question me on this, as i have no excuse or solid reasoning.

$20 pot. 5-way flop.

[4s][Jd].
SB and i check, MP bets $4. MP+1 raises to $10. Button calls, SB folds. Getting 4.5:1 on the call, i do too. MP now reraises another $10. MP and Button both cold call the bet. getting 9:1 on the same calll now, i figure i have to.

4 way turn. $100 pot.
alright, i've picked up an inside straight draw to boot.
i check. MP bets $27. MP +1 calls off his stack. i'm still getting roughly 6:1 on the call. i do too.

river: heads up + 1 all in. $177 pot.
. yahtzee.

I bet $50 and he folds after tanking. he claims he had AA. the all in had [Jh]

Anyhow, the point of this post isn't about me taking down a nice pot with a trash hand. the point of this post is to point out something that should have been dreadfully obvious to my opponent. assuming he actually had AA, he played this hand absolutely terribly. at no point did he attempt to raise me off my hand by giving me incorrect pot odds to call. while he berated me for calling a $27 turn bet with ace high, i had to refrain from reminding him that i was getting 6:1 on a call on a call that i only needed about 3.5:1 on.

If poker is about making long run plays, then yes, while making a $27 bet on a .5/1 table sounds like a lot, it's important to remember that in relation to the size of the pot, the bet is tiny - it's miniscule. this forum isn't called BTLA - or bet the large amount - it's called bet the pot, and for a damned good reason:

If you have a strong hand - in particular, if you believe you have the best hand and are up against a draw - you *must* bet the hand strong. Strong is defined in relation to the size of the pot. A $27 bet into a $30 pot would easily have gotten a fold out of me. Simiilarly, if he had bet the pot on the flop, or on the turn, or made any bet giving me worse than 3.5:1, i would have folded without much hesitation. but because his bet was so weak in this situation, it would have been a terrible mistake to fold to any of the bets post flop.

Was my call loose, terrible, and awful preflop? yes. However, my opponent was constantly asking me to outdraw him by making the bets he did.

If you have a hand. bet the pot - or at least something close to it. You want to get called by the person holding the nut flush draw when you bet the pot. But when you only bet 1/5, or 1/4 pot, you''re telling the entire table "please outdraw me". Don't make this mistake.

~Dustin

[kennyg]

NL is such a great game because you can distort the pot with huge bets to get known draws out of the hand. Nice example you calling station heh

[iceman5]

Are you sure this wasnt at Gaming Club? They love to raise to $8, get 4 callers making the pot $40 and then they bet $10 into the $40 pot.

[Tokenizer]