If you execute certain techniques and betting styles, you can better your odds. One rule to follow is the 75/100 rule, meaning your wager should be between 75 to 100 percent of what the pot holds. Of course, you should also know the odds of getting each hand when playing online poker, here’s our chart to help explain.

How to Bet in Poker Tournaments: A Guide to Sizing Your Bets

Not knowing how to size your bets properly is one of the most atrocious mistakes you can ever make in a poker tournament. Make your opponents think that you don't know how to bet in a poker tournament, and they will (figuratively speaking, I hope) eat you alive.

Place a wrong bet and you will suddenly turn yourself into the easiest target at the table. That's because sizing your bets in the correct way is a crucial element of building a solid image at the table.

If you are planning to head to a casino to play your first poker event against total strangers, and you are not sure about how to size your bets either before or after the flop, have a look at this quick guide that we have prepared for you.

How to Bet in Poker Tournaments: Preflop

Isa and eisa expansion slots. The 2x Bet. A 2x open preflop or a min-raise is popular among top pros for a variety of reasons, but opening for the minimum can invite problems, too, including

1. it does not put that many chips in the pot for you to win when you flop a good hand;
2. it leaves you liable to being reraised.

Min-raising preflop with marginal hands that you can't call a three-bet with is a major leak in my game, which is why I tend to stick with larger opens.

The 3x Bet. This used to be the standard opening raise size, and in fact still frequently works well during the early stages of a tournament. Often during the first few levels your stack is so large in relation to the blinds in play that it really isn't worth opening for any less.

It sometimes seems attractive to play looser in the opening stages, and to call lots of bets preflop in the hope of building a monster pot to win at the river, but playing tight and opening a decent range with at least a 3x raise guarantees that you aren't ignoring the early blind levels. As the tournament progresses, however, and you gravitate towards the 25-35 big blind level, it may not be possible to open every hand with a 3x raise, which is why poker players tend to shift down a gear.

The 2.2x-2.5x Bets. If you are trying to learn how to bet in poker like pros do in the most prestigious poker series, have a look at this. Normally these opens are between 2.2x and 2.5x, although this sizing usually depends on the player.

Towards the middle to late stages of tournaments, there will be all sorts of stack sizes seated at your table — the big stack who has enough chips to last well into the next level; the short stack looking for a double-up to get back into the game; and those in the middle who are comfortable, at least for now.

Read also: When the Minimum Raise is Maximally Wrong

The shorter stacks (those who aren't moving all-in preflop) don't have enough chips to open for 3x and fold, but they may still want to open with a raise. Similarly, larger stacks want to make it appealing for opponents to call an open without scaring them off. This bet-sizing of between 2.2 and 2.5 times the big blind is perfect for both stack sizes.

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How to Bet in Poker Tournaments: Postflop

A poker hand often falls into certain patterns, the steps from the deal to the showdown together often appearing like a familiar series poker presents time and time again. But don't be fooled — in fact, when it comes to postflop play there are an infinite number of bet sizes for you to choose from. I've tried to stick to the three main sizings, with examples for each of them.

Small bets (~1/4 pot). The small postflop bet invites the same problems min-raises before the flop do — you simply don't put enough money into the pot to give yourself a chance to fold out opponents. But that doesn't mean there aren't times to use small postflop bets effectively.

Against certain players who you are aiming to check-raise, providing they are aggressive enough and/or view a small bet as weak, you could do so to induce a slightly bigger raise out of your opponent.

Example:

It is the middle stage of a multi-table tournament. You are in the small blind on an average sized stack and a player in early position opens for 2.5x. You look down at and you elect to call. A tight-aggresive player in the big blind who has been playing a lot of hands aggressively three-bets. The initial raiser gets out of the way and you call.

The flop is . You've flopped the nuts. You know your opponent's three-betting range is going to include a lot of overpairs to the board, other pocket pairs, and high Broadway cards. Therefore, instead of donk-betting or check-raising, put out a small bet of around 20% of the pot.

If your poker brain was correct, the aggressive player should raise and you can move on with the hand from there.

Against aggressive players who like to continuation bet and raise players out of pots, try and get the maximum out of them when you flop strong-to-nutted hands like this one. Be careful of your own table image, however. If you appear to be a competent player, a small bet such as this could appear suspicious to your opponent.

Medium bets (~1/2 pot to 3/4 pot). I like to refer to this bet-sizing as the Goldilocks sizing — not too big, not too small, jusssst right. Your holdings and the board texture will dictate exactly how strongly you want to bet, but a bet of this sizing should do enough to dissuade drawing hands from calling given they are not getting the right pot odds, and also reap rewards from weaker hands who would still call.

Example:

This advice about bet sizing applies whether you are playing in some of the biggest series, games, tournaments, or other formats, although you always want to be aware the exact situation you are in when making decisions about how much to bet.

Let's say it is the early stages of a tournament and everyone still has around the starting stack. A player opens from early position and you look down at on the button. Because you have such a large chip stack relative to the blinds at this early stage you decide to call.

The flop comes and your opponent checks. You continuation bet for around half the pot and your opponent calls. The is dealt on the turn and again your opponent checks. Again, you slide out a half-pot sized bet and your opponent calls once more.

The river is the and your opponent checks for a third time. At this stage, you are behind both and , but surely would four-bet preflop. A straight is possible as well, although that would require your opponent raising preflop from early position with either or , also unlikely.

You bet 2/3 pot, trying to get a call from top pair. Your opponent obliges, calling and turning over for top pair, and you win with your set.

Overbets (pot-sized bets or larger). It can often be profitable to bet the pot or even more than the pot, especially on turns and rivers. However, be warned that most players know that an overbet is extremely polarizing, suggesting you either have the nuts or nothing.

Use this to your advantage against players you have identified as weak and who perhaps tend towards the cautious side of things when facing a decision for a large quantity of their chips.

Example:

A weaker player opens from the button and you call in the big blind with in the big blind. The flop comes . You check and your opponent continuation bets for slightly less than half-pot. You decide to call. Your opponent's range includes , club flush draws, and perhaps some smaller pocket pairs.

The turn is the and it goes check-check. The river then brings the . At this point, you could slide out a bet slightly over the size of the pot. The weaker player goes into the tank for a while before calling with .

Facing a bet of this sizing, a weaker player is going to know that it is immensely polarising, and might even find a call like this with some hands, or equally try and hero call with ace-high.

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In our last tip covering '5 Common Poker Tells to Look For' we ended with a reminder to new players not to concern themselves too much with looking for tells, as it's usually better to focus on betting patterns than what opponents are saying or doing.

By betting patterns we mean both when players tend to bet and how much they bet. Watching both closely — and keeping in mind patterns being exhibited — can help you a great deal when trying to narrow down the possible hands a player might have. In live poker, especially, players often give away a lot about the strength of their hands simply by the size of their bets.

How to Describe Bet Sizes

Below we'll get into some of the important distinctions and factors that affect bet sizing, but first let's briefly cover how to talk about bet sizing — or at least how the topic is normally discussed.

When discussing preflop bets, we typically speak of betting amounts relative to the size of the big blind. For example, in a $1/$2 cash game (where the BB is $2), a player opens with a raise to $8. From a strategic standpoint, what matters here is the size of the raise being four times the big blind, or '4x' the BB.

The next reraise might also be spoken of in terms of the number of big blinds it represents, or (more commonly) it will be described as it relates to the original raise. For instance, after that $8 raise, a player reraises to $23. You could say the reraise is 11.5x the BB, or more likely you'll say the reraise is nearly 3x the initial raise.

When talking about postflop betting, amounts are often spoken of instead in terms of how they compare to the size of the pot (and not in BBs).

Let's say after that $23 reraise it folds back around and the original raiser calls, making the pot $49 total. On the flop, the first player checks and his opponent bets $25. The bet size is described as 'half-pot.' If he'd bet $35, that be referred to as a bet of 'three-quarter pot'; if he bet $50, that be about a 'pot-sized' bet; and so on.

The reason why postflop bets are referred to according to their relation to the pot is it helps with calculating pot odds. You can even begin to memorize common postflop situations to make figuring pot odds easier — e.g., a half-pot bet always yields 3-to-1 pot odds to call. (See 'Pot Odds Basics' for more.) https://luckyrate.netlify.app/texas-holdem-grand-rapids-mi.html.

Preflop Bet Sizing

In no-limit hold'em cash games, you'll often find players making larger preflop opening raises than happens in NLHE tournaments. A preflop raise that is 3x the big blind in a cash game is often on the small side, while in tournaments such a raise is relatively speaking going to be bigger than most.

In low-limit live cash games, in fact, you'll frequently see opening raises of 5x or more as players try to cut down on callers. This happens in online poker as well, particularly at the lowest stakes (including the 'micros').

Whether in a cash game or a tournament (or live or online), pay attention to what a 'normal' or average preflop open seems to be at your table, then make note whenever anyone deviates significantly from that 'standard.' If a 5x open seems to be the norm in a live cash game, make note when a player opens for 8x or 10x, or decides to make a relatively small open for 2x or 3x. Then look at what hands these players end up showing (if they do), as that will provide useful information when evaluating their preflop opens going forward.

There are a few factors you want to consider when evaluating an opponent's bet size when open-raising before the flop:

• the player's position
• the player's stack size
• the player's style and betting patterns

Opening raises from early position are often going to be larger than middle or late position raises. Someone under the gun usually wants to discourage people calling behind them, as they'll have to play out of position against them postflop. (See 'The Importance of Position.') Meanwhile players in later positions aren't as concerned about postflop position — e.g., the button knows when open-raising before the flop that he'll be playing from position after the flop.

When a player bets before the flop, it's also worth noting how much that player has behind. Say in a $1/$2 cash game a player opens for $12 from middle position and it folds to you on the button. Before you decide what to do, you take a look and see the player only has $40 left after making the raise. It's likely a player with such a short stack may be eager to get the rest of it in the middle soon after the flop, which means a call of $12 may soon lead to committing $40 more yourself. If your hand is strong enough, you might want to reraise and force a decision on the opponent before the flop. Or if you are thinking of set mining with a small pocket pair, you should realize your opponent's stack isn't deep enough to warrant this play. (See 'The Fundamentals of Set Mining.')

Finally, a player's style and betting patterns provide important context when evaluating the size of a preflop raise. Is the player loose and aggressive, having made lots of opens before? Is the player a nit who almost never open-raises? When raising before, did the player usually make it 4x the BB, and now has chosen 6x? Answering these questions can help you decide more accurately what the player's raise in this particular instance might indicate about hand strength.

Postflop Bet Sizing

When we move to postflop betting, distinctions between live and online poker and between cash games and tournaments tend to be less dramatic. Some live games will play much more loosely than some online games (and vice-versa); also, some cash games will be very tight and some tournaments full of loose, aggressive players. The point again is to get a sense of the apparent 'standard' when it comes to postflop bet sizing and make special note when players deviate from it markedly.

That said, we can make a few generalizations about postflop bet sizing that tend to apply across different NLHE game types and settings.

On the flop, continuation bets are commonly made by preflop raisers. Big 'c-bets' — say, 3/4 pot and above — often signal both strength and potential vulnerability. A player holding pocket jacks on a flop doesn't want opponents to see a turn card cheaply, and so makes a big flop bet to try to win the pot right there. Small flop 'c-bets' — say, less than 1/2 the pot — are more ambiguous. A player making such a bet on that same flop could have king-high or a set of nines.

On the turn, bet sizing becomes even more meaningful, and in many cases more telling. When evaluating bet sizing on the turn, you'll again want to consider the player's relative position (acting first or last?), stack size (is the player pot committed, or nearly so?), and style and betting patterns (is the player aggressive or passive postflop?), as well as the board texture. A player betting $30 into a $120 pot on a board might be semi-bluffing or making a defensive 'blocking bet.' A player betting $90 into a $120 pot on such a board might have completed a draw and be going for value while also protecting a hand that could be outdrawn on the river.

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On the river, big bets (three-quarter pot or more) often indicate either extreme strength or a bluff — they are 'polarizing,' forcing an opponent to answer the question 'Does he have it or not?' The board reads and a player fires $150 into a $180 pot. Should you fold your two pair, or can you call with what is essentially a 'bluff catcher'? Small bets (e.g., a third of the pot) might also be bluffs, but lean toward being value bets. A player betting $55 into $180 on that same board might have a flush and figures that size to be optimal to get a two-pair hand or straight to call.

How Should You Size Your Bets?

So how should you be sizing your bets, both preflop and postflop? A complete answer to such a question would require a separate series of articles, but as a general rule try if you can to balance your bet sizing and avoid being too obvious with patterns of betting.

By 'balancing' we mean (for example) don't always make the same big bets with strong hands and the same small ones with weak hands. Don't always make the same size bet when bluffing, or the same size bet when betting for value. Attentive opponents pick up on those patterns quickly, and suddenly you'll find no one is calling you when you have strong hands and everyone keeps calling when you don't.

Also, size your bets with an awareness of the pot odds you're giving your opponent(s) to call. A small bet or raise yields inviting pot odds, while a big bet gives poor pot odds. It may be that you want callers with draws and medium-strength hands to stick around, say, when you hold the unbeatable nuts. Or you might want to drive out players by giving them a bad price to call you down when you're hand is currently best but vulnerable.

Whatever you do, size your bets with purpose, and try to choose the best betting amounts to help achieve the goal you are aiming for by making the bet. Want a call? Want a fold? Want to try to induce a raise? Do the math, and make your best bet.

Also in this series..

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