The Three Reasons for Betting

Playing poker postflop is, in essence, very simple. With an aggressive strategy, like the one we are using, you will be betting postflop very often. But the real question we should be asking ourselves when betting is this: Why are we betting? There are three reasons, which we will outline below.

Betting for Value

Using our tight aggressive strategy, this is the reason for betting we will use the most. Value betting is simply betting to get called by a worse hand than us, therefore getting value from our good hand.

An example of this type of value betting would be when we hold a hand like AK on an AT3 flop, and we bet. Our goal here is to get worse hands such as lower Ace hands, gutshot straight draws (like KQ and QJ), and Ten hands to call, therefore getting value with our Top Pair.

Betting As a Bluff

Betting as a bluff should be used sparingly at the lower limits, as players call far too often. Betting as a bluff is defined simply as a bet that aims to get better hands to fold.

An example of this would be betting a hand like JT on a flop of A59 against a tight player. With this bet we aim to get hands like King high, and pairs of 9s or 5s to fold, therefore making a better hand fold.

Betting To Collect Dead Money

This reason for betting is used a lot more often than most players realise. This reason comes into play largely when we continuation bet. Betting to collect dead money occurs when we bet, but no better hand will fold and no worse hand will call, but we don’t want to give our opponent a chance to improve their hand.

An example of this would be continuation betting a hand like KQ on a flop of A74 rainbow, against a loose passive player. When we make this bet we can’t expect a worse hand like QJ to call, or a 7 or an Ace to fold. But we also don’t have a very good hand, and we don’t want to give our opponent the chance to hit a pair on later streets, so we continuation bet to pick up the dead money that is currently in the pot.

Side Effects of Betting

Many people use these side effects of betting as their reasons for betting. Protection is one of these side effects, where we bet to make it expensive for opponents to hit their draw, but the real reason for betting here is value (why would you protect something that isn’t value?)

Betting to collect information on the strength of our opponents hand is another reason commonly used but is actually a bet to collect dead money, and the information we get is just a side effect.

Summary

• Whenever we make a bet, we must have a good reason for doing so, otherwise the bet is aimless
• There are three reasons for making a bet: For value, as a bluff, or to collect dead money
• Betting for value is simply betting in order to get a worse hand to call
• Betting as a bluff is betting in order to make a better hand fold
• Betting to collect dead money is when we can’t get a better hand to fold or a worse hand to call, but we don’t want to give our opponent the chance to improve for free, so we bet to collect the money currently in the pot