No Limit Texas Hold'em Poker -The Art of Betting by Nina Hultman

Very few Texas No-Limit Hold’em poker players will tell you, "I have a really good understanding of the rules of poker, but I’m not so great at betting." Betting is poker. Without it, there’s no game, it’s just dealing out cards to a showdown. If you’ve mastered the art of betting, you’ve mastered poker strategy. With Texas No-Limit Hold’em in particular, where you can make a bet of any size at any time, poker betting is elevated to its highest art form. Here are a few types of bets you’ll be making and how you’ll be making them in a Texas hold’em game.

Value Bet

This is probably the most underrated type of Texas No-Limit Hold’em betting. A value bet is a bet you make hoping to get called because you think you have the best hand. Many players throw in chip after chip chasing a flush draw, then hit it and push in all their chips, making a bet their opponents can’t call. It’s usually a mistake to assume that your opponents will think you are on a bluff when you push all your chips in. They may just think you’re greedy, or they may not have the guts to call even if they put you on a bluff. The perfect bet when you have a winner is one chip less than the amount your opponent doesn’t feel comfortable calling to satisfy their curiosity. If you really think you have the best of it, it’s better to err on the side of getting called for a few less chips than you could have gotten, rather than inducing a fold.

The Bluff

This is the opposite of a value bet. Here, you don’t want to get called. Again, an all-in overbet is tricky, since players may assume you would bet less in order to induce a call if you had a big hand. Even if you believe this, it’s tough to call off all your chips based on such a belief. In general, your best bluff bet is one chip greater than your perfect value bet. Again, err on the side of putting in a few too many chips in order to get that fold rather than getting called with fewer chips.

The Semi-Bluff

Here’s a bet where you have a big draw, but you haven’t gotten there yet, so you don’t mind getting called. Here it’s better to err on the side of inducing a fold, since you haven’t made your hand yet.

Control Bet

This bet is made to control the size of the pot. Larger bets build big pots faster; smaller ones keep the pot small. If you’ve got a strong but vulnerable hand, like a top pair, you may want to try to keep the pot small so you don’t get put to too tough a decision on the river. Similarly, if you have a big draw, you may want to put in a small bet so that if you hit you can build a big pot, but you don’t want it to get too big too quickly so that someone can force you off your draw with an all in. On the other hand, if you flop something like a set, you want that pot to grow, but be careful, betting too much right away could kill all your action.

Defensive Bet

Also called a blocking bet, this is a small bet you make when you don’t like the flop, but want to remain the aggressor in the hand. The hope is that your bet will be large enough that opponents will be discouraged from bluffing, and you will get to see additional cards. If you face a big raise after one of these bets, it’s usually safe to release your hand.

Final note: If your bet sizes are the same relative to the type of bet you are making every time, savvy opponents may catch on. Make sure to vary your bet sizes from time to time to prevent observant opponents from picking up a read on you.