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September 15 —You can sometimes trick less advanced players through small bet sizing, especially in reraised pots.

One of the things that you can quickly notice at the mid and low levels of live no-limit is players usually bet size based upon their hand strength. If someone has a really big hand like top set, they may slow-play or bet small, but usually with strong one-pair hands, they want to size their bets larger to “protect” and not get sucked out on. You can really use this to your advantage and feign weakness by doing the opposite.

Let’s take a look at a couple of hands from a recent $5-$10 no-limit hold’em game. With effective stacks of $1,800, I found myself in the big blind with A-A. A player from the cutoff raised to $35 and I reraised to $110, heads up.  My opponent thought about it for a while and four-bet me to $280. I had never played with this particular opponent before and did not know if he was capable of making a move at me. Sometimes in this spot, I might just flat the four-bet, but I thought that with these stack sizes, “clicking it back” (min-raising) would give him a great price in the hand and he would never fold.

Also, occasionally a player might think that you are playing a game of chicken with them and the small sizing may induce him to bluff more preflop. So, I raised him back $170, making it $450 total. At this point, he got very good immediate odds, as the pot was $735, $170 to call.

Making this small raise sizing is definitely a higher variance play, but I have confidence in my post-flop ability and wanted to give my opponent the opportunity to make mistakes post-flop. There is also no hand that he can profitably call with getting only about 12 times the odds on my stack-size raise. I also thought that there was a much bigger upside for allowing him to stay in the pot, especially when five-betting ranges are rather defined at this level. Anyway, he muttered something about, “not knowing what that raise means,” and called. The board came out 10 8 6. At this point, I had about one and a half pot-sized bets left. There really was no way I was folding on this flop, so the only decision I had to make was my bet sizing. I thought that if I bet really small, it might induce him to call with inferior hands or make a play at the pot. This goes back to the concept of most players bombing the flop to protect. I wanted to do the exact opposite so that he thought that I was weak. I decided to bet $250, an amount that would easily allow me to get my stack in by the end. He thought for a second and pushed all-in. Obviously I snap-called and won a large pot against 9-9. 

You can see that, if I had made my sizing larger preflop or perhaps on the flop, I very well may have let my opponent off the hook. It is absolutely paramount for you to pay attention to stack sizes in bloated pots preflop. You can make some extremely small bets on the flop and turn that leads to an enticing price on the river. 

Another hand I played, also from $5-$10, dealt with much shorter stacks. In this spot, my opponent only started the hand with $1,000. A few people limped in, and he raised to $55 on the button. Again, I woke up with A-A in the big blind and three-bet to $135. Both the limpers folded and he called. The board ran out 5-5-2 rainbow and, with $295 in the pot, I bet out $100. I thought that this might entice him to call with some ace-high hands along with with any pair. He indeed made the call. The turn was a beautiful 7 and, this time, I bet $200, trying to have him tag along, which he did. Now, with the pot $895 and him having $565 left in his stack, I set up a nice sizing for a river shove. Fifth street brought the 9 and I moved all-in. He tanked for a long time and finally called. He never showed his hand, but I doubt that he was all that strong.

September 20 — Pay attention to your opponents’ bet sizing, as oftentimes it is a very good indication of their hand strength.

Going along with what was discussed above, a lot of players telegraph the strength of their hands based upon their bet sizing. The more draw-y the board, the more players want to protect against a bad beat.  One of the most consistent patterns I see is when players have two pair on connected boards, they blast the pot, especially on the turn. Many cards can counterfeit them or hurt their hand, so they just want to end the situation and win the pot right there.

So how can we use this information to our advantage? Well, it is pretty simple ­— we should bluff or semi-bluff less often. When someone sizes their bet very large, they are strong. And players have problems folding strong hands at the mid-stakes and low levels. 
A great example of this came from another hand that I played at $5-$10 last week. Three people limped in and the button made it $55. The small blind called and I looked down at J 10 in the big blind. Now, I try very hard to not play hands like this from out of position, but since everyone was deep and there were some big fish in the pot, I expected everyone to call, so I decided to come along. As expected, the limpers called and we saw the pot six ways. The flop came out A Q 5 and everyone checked to the raiser, who also checked. The turn was the 7, giving me a backdoor flush draw. This is a spot where I may lead on the turn with my big draw or go for a check-raise to maximize my fold equity against the field versus a one pair ace hand. However, much to my surprise, the small blind, a clear recreational player, led out for $400, an overbet more than the size of the pot. If he had made a more modest bet of, say, $200, I seriously would have considered raising him on the come, as I put a ton of pressure on one pair hands he could easily be betting with. However, his sizing indicated to me that he must be strong and that he was trying to protect. I thought it would be very spewy to try and get him off a holding such as that. Also, he started the hand with more than $2,000, so I had some very good implied odds if I hit my backdoor flush or the straight. So, I decided to call.

Everyone behind me folded. The river brought the 3 and the small blind checked. At this point, I was actually upset with myself because I thought maybe he was not as strong as I had originally thought. However, to bluff here would be suicide, so I decided to check it back. The small blind sheepishly turned over A-Q and said, “good check.” I immediately thought better of my call on the turn, because there was absolutely no way he was ever folding. I was also lucky that he did not make a more standard bet sizing on the turn because he very well may have induced me to raise and he would have made more money. ♠

Follow Bart for daily strategy tips on Twitter @CrushLivePoker and @BartHanson. Check out his poker training site exclusively made for live cash game play at CrushLivePoker.com where he produces weekly podcasts and live training videos.