Made Hand v. Opponent Drawing for a Flush -- Proper Bet Size

[bgpoker2]

I would welcome comments on this.

I was playing in a live cash game recently. It is micro stakes (.17-.34) because I play at a local card room in Serbia and the buy-in is max $25. I was heads up against one opponent and we both had large stacks, probably 6 times the buy-in. I had a set and knew my opponent was drawing to a flush. The pot was pretty large even for this game, so I wanted to protect it. After the turn card did not fill the flush, I put in a 80% pot-sized bet. My opponent, who understands the math of the game, knows me well enough that I have the goods and decided the bet was too much to make the call. He was correct.

My question though is, what is my goal here? To protect a large pot or to induce a bad call? Since my opponent was only 4 to 1 to the flush, I could have bet 50% and he might have called. I scare off a lot of customers in these types of situations, so I was wondering if I should play these types of pots differently.

Thanks.

[Lawman]

The idea is to make your opponent make the biggest mistake possible. You can't really do much here if he is 100% sure you have the set and you are 100% sure he is on the draw. If you don't give him the correct pot odds to call he must fold because he has no additional implied odds since you will fold if the flush comes in. Equally you cannot give him the correct odds to call because a call by him is then the correct play and you haven't induced a mistake. If the flush comes in you have then lost a pot you would otherwise have won.

[ama0330]

Found a pic of the club:




LOLOLOL


Your goal in this hand is to find the medium between getting the maximum value from your hand and forcing your opponent to make the biggest mistake possible. With a very small bet size, you give him too good odds, and with a very big bet size, you force him out. The bottom line is this: you should bet as much as you think he will call, without offering him the correct odds. How much he will call is basically something which only you can decide, based on your reads on this player.

As a general guide, I think that your 80% bet is perfect. It is attractive enough a bet that he will be compelled to call, and at the same time, clearly denies him the odds he needs.

It sounds as though you had quite a good read on your opponent. If this is the case, and you feel like you have little trouble putting your villains on a hand, you should start exploiting this by bluffing more in spots where you feel like you can represent strength and fold them out. Im sure you are disappointed that he folded, but imagine if you made this play with 72o?

[pho75]

If you think he's capable of loosing a lot of chips or going broke when he makes a flush with a river cards that pairs the board or makes you quads, then I think a bet of about 1/3 - 1/2 pot size needs to be considered. He may THINK he has 9 outs to make his hand, but you know better. As long as you are capable of throwing away your hand if that flush card fall, you can give him those better odds and yourself a chance to stack him.