Bet Sizing And You!

[SpaceLord]

So, there are two apparently conflicting ways to size one's bets to disguise the power of one's hand.

1. Vary your bets.
2. Never vary your bets.

Which one do you use, and why?

It seems that most authors tend to believe that varying your bets randomly will keep opponents guessing. Being random is hard to do.

But what of the player that always bets 2.5-3x the BB? How on earth can you tell what he has? As I have recently finished Negreanu's new book, I've been raising 2.5BB from mid position with more hands. I'd like to see someone guess a Small Ball player's holding from the size of the bet.

Thoughts?

[Radford]

I never change my bet size. I'll raise the exact same PF if i had aces or if i had 72. If i'm making a continuation bet on the flop with the nuts and also as a bluff, i'll make the exact same bet size. I like the idea of this because your opponents have no idea when you have something or are bluffing if your bet sizes are exactly the same.

[Damien]

Never varying accomplishes the same thing and is much, much easier don't you think?

[SpaceLord]

[emmapeel]

Using different bet sizes accomplishes different things and one bet size can have more value than another depending on the hand and the situation. It makes sense that using doing the above will have more value than keeping the same bet size for all situations. The downside is that you give away your hand; therefore you have to vary the bet sizes a bit from what is actually best. This will decrease the value of the idea but I'm not sure that it will make things worse than if you kept the same bet size for everything.

It is hard to say whether one idea is better than the other and it may be a style thing.

I usually keep to the same bet size to keep the pot small pre-flop, but I do sometimes vary the bet size on occasion. I can't really vote therefore

EP

[taz115]

I keep my bet sizes the same primarily... but it is generally based on the situation.

Preflop I typically raise 3x before the antes and 2.5x to 3x after the ante (depending on my stack size and the stack sizes of others).

Sometimes stack sizes dictate the amount you should raise. If your a big stack OTB and the blinds have 5-8BB left in their stack you may want to push your entire range their so that they know your comitting them or mini raise hoping that they'll push with a weaker hand.

Postflop, ChrisJP had picked up a tell on me where I bet a larger % of the pot when I wanted a fold than when I wanted a call (not everytime but in general). Over the past year I have worked to vary that a bit more.

I'm not sure if this discussion is meant to cover postflop topics but you shouldn't always bet the same % of the pot postflop because you bet sizes should vary based on the board as well as the stack sizes of all the players in the hand.

[cowboyfan]

For me, pre-flop is almost always the exact same. 3X early and 2.5X later in the tournament. Post flop changes based on a lot of factors (stack size, pot size, my read on villain, etc.), but pre-flop is very predictable and not exploitable.

[lwolf123]

pre-flop it's 3x until the antes kick in.

Once the antes kick in it's mostly 3x because there's no option to click on a 2.5x bet, and I don't always have the keyboard handy (or I'm too lazy to type in an amount).

[janeg]

I rarely vary them first-in PF, if I do it's either because the table is folding for less than the standard 3x or 2.5x bet or if I think a bigger raise will tempt a particular player behind me into coming over top of me

Post flop I try keep my CB's roughly the same size relative to the pot.

[Taardvark]

I keep my opening raises the same. I do generally raise a larger amount (3.5 to 4) earlier on than later.

I will vary my reraises based on a number of factors.

I think there is some merit to varying your raise sizes but I personally think you have to remember to much to when you do it so that you don't fall into patterns that become exploitable. I know Bloch and others make raise sizes based on opening position.

[Martio8]

I vote for a standard raise size, but am out-of-step with fashionable small raise sizes.
I prefer to raise about 3.25 to 3.5 BB and here's why:

1. I don't bother playing a lot of medium strength hands (Ex: KTs from MP etc.)
2. It's either real strength (AK, JJ etc.) or any two cards from late position
3. As such, I am either trying to protect a big hand, or trying to steal
4. Bigger raises work best for both of these purposes.

Another benefit is increasing the chances of getting heads up.
I absolutely HATE taking a flop out of position with AK or JJ vs. 3 opponents.