Most successful poker players understand the importance of betting for value. In fact, value betting is an absolutely essential skill to learn, if you are to grow your bankroll.
Betting for the value is the art of putting your opponent on a precise hand (when you are ahead, but not necessarily with a strong hand) and sizing your bets in such a way that your opponent will be willing to call.
If by the time the river card has fallen you are holding the nuts or close to it, you should obviously be looking to get paid off, but even if you have a weaker hand, if you genuinely think you are ahead, you need to be cashing in. A decent poker player will be able to work out what sort of hand his or her opponent is holding and using all of the information available on that player, calculate roughly the size of bet they would be willing to call.
There is a slight problem with the strategy, however. A skilled opponent at the poker table will understand what you are doing. They will see through a lot of value bets, as they understand them and use them regularly themselves and they will be aiming to disappoint you when you bet for value.
Against fish, obvious value bets still have a place and are definitely worth trying, but when you have been sat at a poker table for some time, or when your opponents are experienced and skilled poker players, it is important to mix up your value bets.
The best way to do this, is to think like a statistician and work to an average. Once you have settled on what you feel is the perfect value bet in a certain poker scenario, bet a little extra, perhaps a quarter of the bet. Next time you find yourself in the same situation, subtract a quarter of the bet and bet too little. In the long run, you will make exactly as much as if you had thrown out two identically sized bets, but by mixing up the size of the value bet, they become harder to identify.
In fixed limit poker, value betting is just as important to long term success, but due to its very nature, there is no need to worry about your value bets being obvious. You should bet for value less often with marginal hands in limit games and when you feel you are ahead after the river card, you should value bet one hundred percent of the time.
Best of luck at the tables and keep betting for value.
Betsson Poker is a great poker room and offers 40% cash back Note that US players can not play here | |
| Advert | Read more » |
Poker Tips
| Related Articles
|
Submit a Comment