subject: What are the top reasons behind betting [print this page] What are the top reasons behind betting What are the top reasons behind betting
Whilst betting for value is extremely important, there are a number of different scenarios where you should bet for both protection and deception.
Betting for value is easy and the most common reason for placing a bet. When dealt a premium hand the instantplay pokeronline players tend to do is to make a bet or raise any bets in front of them. This is because their hand is almost certainly going to be the best right now and they want to build a big pot with their strong hand, something you should always be looking to do in most forms of online poker.
The better players amongst us will also be raising and betting our premium hands for protection as well as value. Some will argue that they want callers when they have Aces or Kings so they limp in but although you do want to be paid off when you have such a strong hand preflop, you also need to realise how poorly these big pairs perform in multi-way pots against multiple opponents. Aces versus a small pair in a heads-up pot is an 85% favourite but if you add in a smaller pair, and two players holding suited connectors then your Aces now only have 58% equity, not to mention they will more likely be facing difficult decisions post-flop. Betting preflop should force out some of the hands that would have limped along with you, therefore protecting your hand. Multiway pots are far more common in onlinepoker than live so always raise those big pairs.
Another great reason to raise or bet is for deception, either as a fully blown bluff or a semi-bluff. Good, playable cards do not come along very often so you need to make the occasional bluff to keep the chips coming in and to keep your opponents on their toes. Semi-bluffs can be very powerful bets when you have a flush or straight draw. By playing them fast and betting or raising them, you stand a greater chance of being paid off when you do hit one of your outs as your opponents will not give you much credit for this type of hand with the way you played it.
