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Old 10-03-2007, 09:06 AM
PantsOnFire PantsOnFire is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,409
Default Re: Opponent bets small - I have a semi-marginal hand.

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First of all, from most players, a minbet doesn't mean anything. I think that a lot of players hear, "you have to mix up your play" and then they look at minbetting on 50% of the flops they see (and these players usually see a lot of flops) as a way to mix it up. With some players, you may be able to pick up a pattern, but IMO, with the majority of chronic minbetters, their minbets just don't have much meaning. And to be honest, against weak-tight players who panic anytime anything non-standard happens, it may not even be that awful of a strategy (though there are certainly much better strategies).

I think it's silly to think that you must raise or fold with a hand like TPWK. I often just call them down like you would in limit. There's no sense in blowing him out of the pot if he's got nothing, when you could instead control the pot with a call and maybe keep him minbetting with his 3rd pair or whatever. By raising you risk too much for not enough gain, IMO. If he's got a big hand, he's probably going to fire a big bet later on when he realizes that he got so caught up in his fancy play that he forgot to build the pot. Then you can make your decision there, and for a lot less chips than if you raised earlier in the hand.

I do agree though that you can chase a lot of weak draws, but remember to have half-decent pot odds, because a lot of times he'll have nothing and you won't get much implied odds.

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While a bad player's min bet may not mean anything specific, it usually means something in general. Unless a player is so bad he is just playing randomly, usually players have patterns, especially ones that are novices with a few hands under their belt.

As far as raising with TPWK, consider this. Villain min bets with second pair and you call. You are effectively betting the best hand with a min bet yourself giving villain odds to try to improve his second pair. If he re-raises, you can be sure you are beat and if he calls, you need to figure out how loose he is. That's the time I might be for a cheap showdown. Remember who we're dealing with here.

Finally, if you have a weak draw like a gutshot and villain has nothing, then you can either take the pot away or pairing one of your hole cards may give you the best hand. So if you have good high cards (like you should as a tight player) then you can sometimes have up to 10 outs and don't need implied odds.
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