NL CASH: article by me in 2+2 magazine

[creedofhubris]

I welcome feedback about my article in this month's 2+2 magazine. I hope those of you who think I write entirely in lowercase and without punctuation will be pleasantly surprised.

There's a discussion thread going on the magazine forum.

--Fred Bush

[People_Mover]

I think it's a great article and very well written, however I don't completely agree with #5 as small or minbets throw opponents off and the opponent will raise to find out where he's at, then the opponent will 3 bet. It's a different tactic used to get your opponent to raise (if he's aggro)

[hra146]

Its very basic, but yeah. As you say; not much has been written, so I guess its useful to some.

[creedofhubris]

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I think it's a great article and very well written, however I don't completely agree with #5 as small or minbets throw opponents off and the opponent will raise to find out where he's at, then the opponent will 3 bet. It's a different tactic used to get your opponent to raise (if he's aggro)

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In an unraised pot there's certainly a place for a minbet; that represents a little over 50% of the pot so it's a reasonable size for a bet.

In a raised pot -- your play is interesting, but it's not really any different from a checkraise, is it? Do you find that people fold to minbets in raised pots much before the river?

[xSCWx]

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I think it's a great article and very well written, however I don't completely agree with #5 as small or minbets throw opponents off and the opponent will raise to find out where he's at, then the opponent will 3 bet. It's a different tactic used to get your opponent to raise (if he's aggro)

[/ QUOTE ]

In an unraised pot there's certainly a place for a minbet; that represents a little over 50% of the pot so it's a reasonable size for a bet.

In a raised pot -- your play is interesting, but it's not really any different from a checkraise, is it? Do you find that people fold to minbets in raised pots much before the river?

[/ QUOTE ]

I use minbets (1/2 psb) in limped pots, I don't really find that it has much value anywhere else.

The only use a minbet really has in raised pots is as an expensive check or as a psychological advantage. You may face an opponent who is prone to betting when you check but does not like to come over the top, so the min bet may confuse him a little bit although it is not much different than a check. As far as an expensive check goes, that is pretty much it. Against a smart player who will consider this to be nothing more than a bluffy check, he will come over this often. In this case, it can be used as a pot builder because he will probably end up putting more in with his raise than he would normally bet if you checked. However, if you are not doing this with your weaker hands as well a smart player should recognize that your min bet often represents stronger hands. If done correctly I think it is =EV to what we would consider standard, but in my experience almost all villains who do this are clueless and very -EV.

[People_Mover]

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I think it's a great article and very well written, however I don't completely agree with #5 as small or minbets throw opponents off and the opponent will raise to find out where he's at, then the opponent will 3 bet. It's a different tactic used to get your opponent to raise (if he's aggro)

[/ QUOTE ]

In an unraised pot there's certainly a place for a minbet; that represents a little over 50% of the pot so it's a reasonable size for a bet.

In a raised pot -- your play is interesting, but it's not really any different from a checkraise, is it? Do you find that people fold to minbets in raised pots much before the river?

[/ QUOTE ]

I use minbets (1/2 psb) in limped pots, I don't really find that it has much value anywhere else.

The only use a minbet really has in raised pots is as an expensive check or as a psychological advantage. You may face an opponent who is prone to betting when you check but does not like to come over the top, so the min bet may confuse him a little bit although it is not much different than a check. As far as an expensive check goes, that is pretty much it. Against a smart player who will consider this to be nothing more than a bluffy check, he will come over this often. In this case, it can be used as a pot builder because he will probably end up putting more in with his raise than he would normally bet if you checked. However, if you are not doing this with your weaker hands as well a smart player should recognize that your min bet often represents stronger hands. If done correctly I think it is =EV to what we would consider standard, but in my experience almost all villains who do this are clueless and very -EV.

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this is what i was trying to say. I've seen minbets used as halfassed blocks trying to either 1) hit a draw cheap or 2) get raised by an aggro to 3 bet
essentially putting more money into the pot than a regular bet if checked to like xSCWx is saying above.

[TNixon]

I dunno if this is really a good idea or not, but I pop a minbet in raised pots for 2/3 pot to pot very frequently, no matter what my cards are or what the board looks like, and my opponent almost always folds.

Of course, if they call or reraise, then it comes back to what I think they have vs what I have (I run into so few opponents that are thinking about more than their own hand that going deeper than that is almost never worthwhile), but certainly at $50 and less, and for most of the $100 opponents I've played, a minbet seems to be extreme weakness much more often than not.

And for what it's worth, I don't think I've ever minbet either (I don't consider a minbet in an unraised pot as a minbet really, it's a 1/2 pot bet). If I've got a strong hand with an aggro on the other side of the table, 1/2 pot is usually my "sucker" bet, because most semi-thinking aggro players are going to instafold if I repop his raise after minbetting, but 1/2 pot makes his raise big enough for many players to fight over.

[cwar]

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I think it's a great article and very well written, however I don't completely agree with #5 as small or minbets throw opponents off and the opponent will raise to find out where he's at, then the opponent will 3 bet. It's a different tactic used to get your opponent to raise (if he's aggro)

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Really? I was gonna let someone else tear you apart but since no one did... I have never once used a min bet except in a limped pot playing HU cash.

[derosnec]

good article. i'm in the "i don't limp in the sb" camp so i liked that part of your aticle. i'm surprised how many winning playrs in HU SNGs limp the vast majority of the time in the sb and it confuses me and makes me think i'm doing something wrong by never limping. so this article makes me feel better.

edit: didn't realize at first that this is a cash game article.

[cwar]

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good article. i'm in the "i don't limp in the sb" camp so i liked that part of your aticle. i'm surprised how many winning playrs in HU SNGs limp the vast majority of the time in the sb and it confuses me and makes me think i'm doing something wrong by never limping. so this article makes me feel better.

edit: didn't realize at first that this is a cash game article.

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Limping a lot in HU SNG is very viable.