We always see it regardless of tournaments or cash games, the best Pros in the game betting very small on the flop… but why is this?
When should we Bet Small?
There are certain times that are perfect for betting small, Dry boards are the best boards to be sizing down our bets on.
A dry board is where the community cards on the flop don’t give any draws…
so a perfect example of a board like this would be:
Q♠ 7♥ 2♦
If we have a hand like Q♣ J♣ here we have little reason to bet large, we want to keep worse pairs than our top pair in the pot, there are no draws to protect from and if we are beaten by a hand like a set, two pair or a better one pair than our Queen, say by a hand like K♦ Q♦ then we want to keep the pot small so we don’t lose a huge pot too!
“But when I go to the casino there will be players betting nearly pot-sized on every board they play, so why do the Pros not do this?”
There are a few benefits to betting small… the first and most important one is that you will allow your opponents to make mistakes.
We want them to call when they are behind in the hand and fold when they have good equity against our hands.
By betting small we allow ourselves more manoeuvrability in pots, so we can allow worse hands to continue when we have strong hands as well as bluff for a cheap price when we have nothing.
If we only ever bet big when we have a good hand we are allowing our opponents a good chance at playing perfectly because they will only continue when they have a good hand themselves and be able to fold all their hands that we have in poor shape.
So if we are betting on the larger side we will miss value from worse hands that could continue for a smaller size
Looking at this example from Live at the Bike where Nick bets $4,000 into a pot of $12,500 with the flopped nut flush.
Other players would consider checking this board and others may bet large if they were looking to build a big pot, but let’s think about why we want to bet small on this board where Nick has a monster with 64% equity…
- We want our opponents to draw to a worse flush so that we can win more money if they hit their hand
- We will bet for protection against any hands that have equity against us like Garrett’s exact hand in this pot which is a flopped set of Tens.
- We are balancing our range by betting small with our very strong hands on this board which will allow us to bluff with small sizings in other pots.
Should we ever differ from this plan?
We are going to be able to bet much larger for value on wet boards with draws on.
This is because we can apply more pressure with our semi-bluffs with a larger sizing on these boards as well as get more value with our value hands against other players draws on boards like this.
Let’s look at an example:
In this hand, Prahalad has Q♦ Q♣ on a board of J♠ 4♣ 3♣ 9♣
A pretty strong holding… Andy his opponent in the hand has K♣ Q♠ giving him 32% equity with his flush and straight draw… this is a spot where he chooses to bet $8,000 in to a pot of $13,300
This is a classic spot where Andy has little reason to bet small, he wants to apply maximum pressure here with his bluffs and get good value for when he has a huge hand, so betting larger accomplishes both these things depending on his holding.
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