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Old 09-01-2007, 08:49 PM
6471849653 6471849653 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Finland
Posts: 471
Default Re: Min bets slow me down...

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How do you guys handle the min bets? What do they mean? I know, by goin to showdown, they dont = monsters all the time. Do you just re-raise? Especially when you just check out of position...You cant just fold.

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It's easier to put an opponent on a style playing limit, but if one has a general line of that opponent, e.g. one sees how he plays, then look from the memory (that type of players, that place, limit), figuring out what his minimum bet means. It means a lot of different things. Including the flop type and the situation.

Based on that read, one should already know what line is the best. The options are all the possible, e.g. one can look at the odds and act accordingly.

One computes his likely actions on the turn and the river and compares that (when one just calls on the flop - or folds on the flop) to making a move on the flop (if he is not usually strong). He might bet small on the flop and then bigger on the turn or the river and what that means, I don't know till I get a better line of how that player plays.

His turn bet might mean anything while the bigger river bet might mean that he improved, what looks maybe like a two pair to me - isn't it that often when one does the right calls along the way, the opponent improves, and if he doesn't, he is happy to check it down if he expects to win some of the time at least. If he has nothing to start with, why didn't he try to bluff it on the flop, betting a bit more at least? And why is he still betting about small on the turn if he has nothing? It looks more like he has something he wants to both protect and get value from, and it could be like a weaker top pair, a middle pair, while the turn bet may look already like a no-bottom pair except if he uses his position to check it down on the river and doesn't put you on a better hand on the turn. There's a chance to steal the pot in that case but one should be at least 40% (your raise gets those pot odds that he is instantly folding) or so sure about it and not be against someone who can't fold a weak hand. Vs. fish one should not do those big bluffs at all as they might call or/and have anything.

When making a move on the flop or later as the first or the second, it helps that the opponent bets small as one risks less then. One could raise on the flop with like two overcards (preferably with an ace), like "completing" his bet (pot size bet), or as Brunson says on his book that when he sees such a small bet (and thinks it's weak), he will call with little (or even with nothing) and come out (donk) betting a "large" bet on the turn (against a tight player). That's of course no good if the opponent tends to be strong then; a fish might be strong then, and a highly aggressive player may be strong then (as he might be when he checks when you would expect a bet). If the opponent is constantly betting small, then it's like limit holdem as far as the bet on the flop goes.

When one has the position and the opponent comes out betting small as a donk bet or not (you raised or didn't raise preflop), its meaning also depends. But there's nothing to worry about it as basically one can ignore it and continue like there has been no bet, but when there is a (donk) bet, one gets extra information and should like it (of course one also gets information when one bets - there was no donk bet - and one gets called or (check-)raised).

If it's a multiway pot and there is a small lead bet and you "raise" and he comes over the top, it looks like a big hand (a set perhaps) or a draw, and one has to figure that out but on average one is either a big dog or a smaller favorite. For that reason, if one smells it, one either just calls to see what happens (he gets a cheap card) or raises (maybe a smaller amount, maybe not - there are the other players too to consider if they haven't folded yet, and that is again one more factor) and gets out of the hand if he reraises (one doesn't expect him to do that with a draw as often or one would not have raised on the flop. The details go something like: If he bets bigger on the turn, if one just called on the flop, one has no escape but one still must make a tough call or a fold - if he can as likely have a draw too on the turn, that's the spot to call or raise rather than the flop now that the possible draw(s) have missed. And if the draw(s) get there it should be enough and one folds against a bigger bet. One needs to look for the flop type and do some math too).
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