Why do people bet the minimum?

[jmremote]

I know thats a general question that has many answers depending on the situation. But I want to know what % of the time is it to see a cheap card vs inducing a raise?

whats is the best play when this happens. the majority of the time (no matter what the situation is) I will raise no matter what, draw, big hand, nothing. is that the right play?

[ocdscale]

It really varies among players and the street.
Post flop:
I've noticed some people min bet (even in position) on flush draws (OOP, trying to see cheap card. In position, to build pot? Deception?).
Others do it with weak made hands like bottom/mid pair.
On something like a 99K flop, min bet is more often a 9 than a K in my experience.

A microstakes, preflop play usually stinks. Min raise can be anything from suited connectors in position to AA OOP.

Though what it means varies among players, I've found (over admittedly small sample sizes) that it usually means the same thing every time a player does it.

[Sigurd]

Treat a min bet as a check. If you would raise if he had checked, you should raise. If you would have checked behind, you should call.

However, like everything else, it is player dependant what a min bet means, just like it is player dependant what a preflop raise means. When Mr. Nit raises preflop, it means that he has a good hand, when Mr. Lagtard raises preflop, it means that he has two cards.

[Better Than U]

[ QUOTE ]
Treat a min bet as a check. If you would have BET if he had checked, you should raise. If you would have checked behind, you should call.

[/ QUOTE ]Geeze, that annoys the [censored] out of me.

[Genz]

Knowing what people minbet with is almost just a good read as knowing what they donkbet with. Most people just don't know anything about betting etc., though, so that they just hit that funny button and feel like they are applying pressure and making you sweat.

[Bowlboy]

This is something I take notes on right away. You dont see the min bet in position very often, though you see the min donk a lot. It is usually a draw, top pair weak kicker, or some other pair like bottom, mid or a smaller pp. Find out what he mindonks with on what types of boards. I like this better than a check because you'll rarely see the mindonk raise line and the mindonk gives you more info as to what sort of hand villain could have.

It's actually a useful play at micro stakes though against passive players, which I think is why so many people use it - lots of passives in the micros means lots of getting away with pricing your peek at the turn card for 1BB. So if you happen to flop a flush draw against a guy who raised preflop with stats of 65/1/1.00 you figure he's got a great starting hand that he'll very likely stack off with. He's so passive that even if he raises the min donk it's frequently a minraise anyway giving you great odds to chase that flush and bust him.

Another good use for it is to get tags to 2nd barrell you so you can put in a big raise on the turn.

All in all it's a donkish play but using it could help you manipulate the fish and disguise you as a donk to some tag that just sat down 2orbits ago.

[HANABI]

IF we talk about minraises, its important to understand that it is generally a bad play, as it doesn't serve as good a purpose as bigger bet would in most cases. So its safe to assume whoever is doing it s a bad player, and that they percieve this raise entirely different as a good player would. They would do it wither either 1) a hand they like, which could be anything form a draw to a top pair weak kicker to a set or 2) bluff/semibluff with underpairs and such. Even when 10 tabling i would always try to pay attention to minraises and make notes on people right away on what type of hands they tend to do them with, and then play accordingly.