Know all the General Rules of Poker Cash Game like what happens to Dealer button in case players leave, All in Rules (and Side Pot), Corner case rules, Time Out Rules and Leave Seat Rules, by reading this section. Dealer button in case players leave - The dealer button moves 1 position clockwise after every game - only occupied seats are considered. This strategy “rule” is a key concept in NL holdem preflop play. It was originally published by Bob Ciaffone in Pot Limit & No Limit Poker.The rule is as follows: Any time you’re considering calling a preflop bet on the basis of a combination of implied odds and position, the size of the bet relative to the effective stack size is the primary factor in whether or not you call.

Understanding how to correctly use bet sizes to influence and manipulate the action is what separates skilled poker players from absolute beginners. Without a doubt, improper bet sizing is a very common mistake among beginners to poker and such errors are a tell-tale sign of a player’s inexperience. Beginners often raise or bet at the extremes – betting either too little or too much.

When playing poker it’s really important that you think about the result you hope to achieve before you make a bet. In our previous lesson we discussed some of the main reasons to bet in poker and provided some clear objectives that you should always consider before firing out a bet. In this lesson we’re not going to discuss why you should bet, because you should know already. Instead, this lesson is all about how much you should bet – and we’ll be focusing on basic bet sizing before and after the flop.

Bet Sizing before the Flop

A good tip for beginners is to raise three times (3x) the big blind, plus one big blind for every limper in the pot. If it folds to you, raising three times the big blind is often enough to ensure the field of players doesn’t grow too large. For example, using this forumla in a cash game with blinds of $0.25 / $0.50, your standard raise would be to $1.50 (3 x $0.50), but with two callers you should raise to around $2.50 (that’s 3 x $0.50 + 2 x $0.50 for the limpers).

Beginners often make the mistake of raising the same amount regardless of whether several players have already entered the pot. Remember, it’s much easier to play poker against fewer opponents and if you don’t increase the size of your bet when limpers are involved then you’re effectively inviting a whole heap of trouble after the flop.

For many years now the 3x + 1 for each limper has arguably been the standard pre-flop bet size favoured by the majority of skilled poker players. These days it’s equally common to see raises of 2.5x + 1. For example, in a poker tournament with blinds of 300/600 your standard opening raise would be 1,500 and not the 1,800 it would be if you were betting 3x. Many players favour 2.5x because they believe it has the same end result as a 3x raise, but fewer chips are put at risk.

It’s also fairly common to see tournament poker players mix up their pre-flop bets based on the stage of the tournament or their stack size. For example, a player might choose to start with 3x for the early levels but may switch to 2.5x when they’re deeper into the tournament.

Betting Too Much

While many beginners are guilty of not betting enough pre-flop, another typical beginner mistake is betting too much. An example would be raising 5x-6x the size of the blinds when you are first to enter a hand in a game where the standard raise is 3x. Sure, everyone might fold and you pick up the blinds – and if that was your goal then it worked, but what if your intention was to maximize your winnings with a solid starting hand? Your failure was likely the result of improper bet sizing.

Adjusting Your Bets

Be sure to base your bet sizing on the tendencies of the poker players at the table and other situational factors. Make sure you adjust If you find yourself in a game where the 3x (or 2.5x) betting formula does not accomplish your goals. Different games play differently. Maybe you’re in a game that requires 4x to 6x the big blind to consistently accomplish your objectives.

Bet Sizing after the Flop

Miss-sizing of bets also occurs after the flop. So, how much should you bet? While your bet size should depend on the situation, a general rule of thumb is to bet between ½ the pot and the size of the pot. This will usually give draws incorrect odds to call, get worse hands to call and often times get better hands to fold.

The size of your post-flop bets should be related to the amount in the pot. For example, let’s suppose you’re playing in a no-limit cash game and the pot contains $20 after the flop. A respectable bet size would be $15. However on the next hand the pot might be smaller, let’s say it’s just $12. If you’re sticking with the same bet size then, based on the pot, your bet should be $9. This is of course assuming you’re betting 3/4 of the pot.

What about betting the turn? Well if you bet the flop and get called then obviously there’ll be more money in the pot. You have various options on the turn, but if you decide to place another wager then it should again be based on the size of the pot – so your bet on the turn will be more than the flop. Many beginners fail to adjust the size of their bets to the amount in the pot – avoid this mistake.

Giving Draws the Incorrect Odds

There will be many post-flop situations where you’re playing against an opponent who has a drawing hand. One key to successful poker is to charge your adversaries for the opportunity to draw out on you. In a fixed-limit game you can only charge them as much as the betting limits allow, but in a no-limit game you can bet enough so that the cost for them to draw exceeds their chances of completing their straight or flush. When that’s the case, the long run supports bets of that nature.

Here are some typical bet amounts relative to the pot and the odds offered to your opponent:

• If you bet 1/4 of the pot you’re offering 5-to-1 odds.
• If you bet 1/2 of the pot you’re offering 3-to-1 odds.
• If you bet 3/4 of the pot you’re offering 2.33-to-1 odds.
• If you bet the the full pot you’re offering 2-to-1 odds.

No Limits 1 Download

As you can see, if you only bet 1/4 of the pot then you might be giving decent drawing odds to your opponent. Whereas a decent bet of 3/4 the pot against a single opponent would rule out common draws such as straights and flushes. Even if your opponent gets lucky, he’ll lose in the long run when he’s drawing to longer odds than are offered by the payoff.

While it’s generally better to wager more rather than less, don’t fall into the trap of over betting to “protect” your hand. Ideally, in poker you want to bet an amount that maximizes how much you can win and minimizes how much you can lose. When you structure your no-limit bet so that the pot is offering even money on a call, but the odds against your opponent completing his hand are 2-to-1, you’ll win in the long run. And that’s what poker is all about. Make ‘em pay to get there, and charge ‘em what you think the traffic will bear.

Varied vs. Consistent Bet Sizes

Since the size of your bet tells a story to the other players, it’s important that you do not give off patterns in your play – both pre-flop and after the flop. A common pattern for beginners is to bet more with a strong hand and less with a weak hand. This can eventually become predictable and thereby exploitable – making it easy for opponents.

In order to prevent being readable, there are two schools of thought: randomly vary the size of your bet or keep betting the same increment every time. The reason why you would vary your bet sizes is to throw off your opponent and keep them guessing. At the same time, that is also the goal of staying consistent. If you bet the same amount whether you have a hand or are bluffing, your bluffs are more believable and your opponents cannot pick up patterns in your play.

I believe you should be consistent in how you bet regardless of your holding so as to make it more difficult for observant opponents to put you on a hand accurately. If you always raise 3x the big blind plus one additional bet for every limper in front of you and always bet 3/4 of the pot post-flop then no one can get a read on your play.

Conclusion

To summarize, here’s a recap of some of the bet sizing strategy tips we’ve discussed in this lesson:

• Betting around 3x the big blind + 1 for every limper when raising pre-flop is a solid formula to stick with.
• Adjust your bet sizing depending on situational factors.
• Post-flop bets should always be based on the size of the pot and betting around 3/4 of the pot is a good benchmark.
• Be consistent with your bet sizing, regardless of your cards.

Take onboard what you’ve learned in this lesson regarding bet sizing. Remember that every game and situation is different so remain alert and flexible in your thinking for greatest results.

By Donovan Panone

Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.

1 2 No Limit Strategy

Preflop raising decisions can be very complex. What stakes are we playing? Is it a live game or online? How strong is our hand? Which limpers will call? Will we be in position postflop?

Sometimes our decision is obvious: 'I have aces, so I'm going to raise for value here.' Sometimes it's subjective: 'I think I can force the limper to fold here.' But we should also consider what a mathematical analysis of preflop raising can teach us. When is a raise our most profitable action for the moment? When might it be the most profitable action for the hand?

Las Vegas $1/$2 NLH Stats

In order to calculate the expected value for our preflop actions accurately, we need to know certain key frequencies that are typical for our game.

Figure 1 below contains some of the most useful stats for these EV calculations for both online NL100 and $1/$2 NL live games in Las Vegas, most of them published here for the first time. (Check out Donkey Poker Volume 2: Postflop, Section 7.5 to see how these stats were generated.)

Here I define 'EP/MP' as the first four seats after the big blind on a nine-seat table. Since the vast majority of Vegas $1/$2 players are position-dumb, we can combine the results from these seats into a single stat in order to make the stat more reliable. The hijack and cutoff stats are similar to the EP/MP stats.

VPIP and PFR are the primary stats useful to determine an opponent's playing style. '35/6' means that the average Vegas player voluntarily invests in 35 percent of his dealt hands, while raising only 6 percent of them. This player would be considered a 'loose-passive' player in an online game, but he is average in a Vegas $1/$2 game.

Calling a Preflop Raise (CPFR) is a statistic that applies only when a player calls a raise after having already invested in the pot, which applies to limp-callers as well as to the blinds. This is not the same thing as Cold Calling Preflop (CCPF).

Compared to an online game, a Vegas preflop raise is fraught with more risk. Not only is our average raise size larger, our Vegas opponents are more likely to call it. Although their calling range is weaker, we often face multiple callers, which is rare online. Consequently, it is extremely important to have a solid idea of how these stats influence the profitability of our preflop action.

A Simple Example: A Big Blind Hero vs. a Single EP/MP Limper

Let's consider a situation which is relatively easy to calculate. Suppose an average player limps from one of the EP/MP positions. It folds around to Hero in the big blind who can check his option or raise.

Figure 1 indicates that that Mr. Average has a range of 35 percent, but he normally raises with 6.1 percent of this range. So we can assign his limping range as [6.1–35]. The specific card combos within his range depend on the ranking system we use. Although there is no single ranking system that is always correct, I will use the Flopzilla NLHE ranking in this column, since it is easy for anyone to access.

Suppose Hero has and decides to check. We can estimate Hero's 'Momentary Expected Value' (MEV) as...

MEV_Check = Pot₀ × EWC = $5 × 0.474 = $2.37

...where Pot₀ = $5 and EWC (Showdown Equity When Called) is 47.4 percent for Hero's pocket deuces when facing Villain's range. I call this his 'momentary' EV since it applies only at the moment he checks.

Suppose Hero decides to raise to $10 with the same . Figure 1 shows that an average villain will call a preflop raise after limping in EP/MP about 56 percent of the time (Row 8). This would be a Flopzilla range of [6.1–22.7].

Hero's Fold Equity is FE = (1 - 0.564) = 0.436. His showdown Equity-When-Called is EWC = 0.454. Notice that even though the villain has folded nearly half of his range, Hero's EWC is only slightly worse than when he checks. This suggests that the villain's actual limping and calling ranges are not critical in establishing Hero's MEV.

After deciding to raise, we can calculate Hero's MEV as...

MEV_Raise-$8 = (FE × Pot₀) + ((1-FE) × (EWC × Pot₁ - Raise)) = $2.27 + $0.28 = $2.55

The first term is just the average amount earned when the villain folds. The second term is the amount earned when the villain calls. ' Pot₁' is the size of the pot after he calls, minus the rake. 'Raise' is the size of our raise ($8 in this case). Since three-betting is so rare in Vegas $1/$2, and limp-three-betting is even rarer, we can ignore it for this calculation. Again, we consider this our momentary EV since it only applies at the end of the preflop action.

So Hero's raise appears to be more profitable (by $0.18) than checking. It gains nearly all of its profitability from fold equity and a just little from showdown equity. This is generally the case for heads-up battles.

However, there is a serious issue with these estimates. MEV uses showdown equity, which essentially assumes that the hand will be checked down postflop. This rarely happens in a real game, which makes its usefulness imperfect. We haven't considered such factors as skill and position, which can increase or decrease our expected profit in the hand. Hero's inferior position in this scenario suggests that his actual 'Hand EV' (HEV) will be lower than his calculated MEV. Even Hero's superior skill will not likely overcome his inferior position.

Since Hero's inferior postflop position makes it difficult to realize the full MEV of either action, it's difficult to say which action would have the higher HEV. Hero's best decision could depend on whether the villain appears more or less likely than the average villain to fold to Hero's raise. We might also consider that if both actions result in a similar HEV, the check does so with less risk.

Figure 2 shows the results of these calculations applied to some of the hands listed in the Donkey Poker starting hands chart. The solid symbols represent Hero's MEV when raising to $10, which is positive for each of these combos. 'JTs-' denotes 'suited connectors JTs and smaller.' Meanwhile the '+' symbols represent the difference in MEV between raising and checking.

When MEV is positive, raising is more profitable than checking, which is true for a range including approximately 22+, A2+, KT+, and QJ (i.e., any pocket pair, any ace-x hand, any two Broadway cards). This represents 27.6 percent of all starting hands.

Since we are out of position in the scenario, our HEV is probably lower than these values, so checking is probably preferable when the Delta MEV is close to zero.

Button Hero vs. One Limper

The previous scenario is rare in Vegas $1/$2 games, but it serves to illustrate the principals used for our analytical EV calculations. A more common and useful example is when the Hero is on the button with and facing a single EP/MP limper. In this case Hero can fold, limp, or raise, where folding has an EV_fold = 0.

This calculation has additional complexity because we have the blinds behind us, which means we must consider their propensity to check behind or complete and their propensity to call a raise. (We will ignore their negligible three-betting frequency here.)

Suppose Hero limps and the two blinds raise 4.8 percent and 3.4 percent of the time, respectively. If the small blind completes with [4.8-50] and the big blind has a range of [3.4-100], we will have a four-way pot about 92 percent of the time.

Let's suppose the other 8 percent of the time Hero limp-folds after one of the blinds raises. (This is plausible for those hands with which Hero would actually limp.) We can also assume that the EP/MP limper has a range of [6.1-35.7]. All of these values are based on the actual Vegas stats listed in Figure 1.

We then have...

MEV_Limp = 0.92 × (Pot₀ × EWC-Limp) - (0.08 × Limp) = 0.92 × ($8 × 0.222 - $2) - (0.08 × $2) = -$0.38

In other words, limping on the button with is not immediately profitable.

Suppose we raise to $10 with on the button. Using the above frequencies, everyone will fold 23.1 percent of the time. A single villain will call 47.0 percent of the time, two villains will call 25.7 percent of the time, and everyone will call 4.2 percent of the time.

It turns out our EWC is nearly the same no matter which villain calls, so we can treat each villain as interchangeable. Thus, Hero's MEV is approximately...

MEV_Raise = (0.231 × Pot₀) + (0.47 × (EWC₁ × Pot₁ - Raise)) + (0.257 × (EWC₂ × Pot₂ - Raise)) + (0.042 × (EWC₃ × Pot₃ - Raise)) = $0.63

...where the various values depend on how many players called our raise. We can see that raising with our pocket deuces is much more immediately profitable than limping with them. Furthermore, our Hand EV should be better than this since we have superior position and skill and since we can leverage our profit when we flop a set.

Note that when the blinds are tight and/or passive, they are less likely to call our raise and less likely to three-bet. (Pre-loading tells are very important here.) In these situations, raising a single limper from the button is even more +MEV. And our HEV is even more enhanced since we are less likely to face multiple villains in a raised pot. (It's generally easier to outplay a single villain than three of them.)

Figure 3 depicts the MEV results for various hand types. The symbols represent the MEV for raising to $10 in a Vegas $1/$2 game. Each series represents a descending hand grouping. For example, 'T9s-' denotes 'suited connectors T9s and smaller.'

Bottom line: in low-stakes cash games such as the $1/$2 NL games in Vegas, raising is nearly always more profitable than limping (except for 63s, 53s, 65o and 54o). In fact, 33 percent of all starting combos are immediately profitable. And some of the negative-MEV combos are probably profitable for the hand due to our superior position.

Since most Vegas $1/$2 players are position-dumb, they generally limp and call with a similar frequency from the hijack and cutoff positions. So our very wide button raising range is valid for any single-limper situation when we are on the button.

Button Hero vs. Multiple Limpers

The previous single-limper scenario occurs only a small fraction of the time in Vegas $1/$2 games. We can readily extend this to multiple-limper scenarios, which are much more common. This calculation is even more complex and we are less likely to fold everyone out with a $10 button raise. This time I will spare you the gory math and show you the results below in Figure 4.

Here the top four curves represent the MEV for raising to $10 facing one, two, three, and four limpers. The smooth line represents the average MEV of limping. These curves show that our 'immediately profitable' raising range is 33.6 percent when facing a single limper, and that our range decreases to 13.4 percent when facing four limpers.

We can make several conclusions here:

• The more limpers we face, the tighter our raising range should be from the button.
• When facing one or two limpers, we should generally either raise or fold, since once raising becomes unprofitable, limping is even more unprofitable.
• When facing three or more limpers, limping is generally more profitable than raising once raising becomes unprofitable. So we now have both raising and limping ranges.
• When both raising and limping have MEVs near zero, limping may be preferable since we risk less for the same reward.
• Our slightly negative-MEV combos may still have slightly positive-EV for the hand. Our superior skill and position, coupled with our ability to leverage our big flops should increase our profit for the hand. This is combo-dependent since some combos are more likely to flop big. (22 is stronger than 54o.)
• Another way to state this is that some -MEV combos may have sufficient implied odds play. For instance, we can play a -$0.50 MEV combo if we believe our implied EV for the hand is worth more than this.

The Effect of Raise Size

A typical rule of thumb for these Vegas $1/$2 games is to raise to about 4x BB plus one additional BB for each limper. Thus we would raise to $10, $12, $14, or $16 as the number of limpers increases. The previous analysis kept the raise size constant to see the influence of the number of limpers.

A key question we would like answered is how the villains will respond to reasonable variations in raise size. Unfortunately, that data does not exist for these Vegas games. My general feeling, however, is that most Vegas $1/$2 players are not very sensitive to our raise size as long as we keep it within the table norm. So, to a first approximation, we can assume that the Figure 1 stats do not change very much when we increase our raise size incrementally.

Figure 5 shows what happens to MEV_Raise as we increase the size of our raise when facing four limpers. We can see that that our raising range decreases slightly as we increase our raise size. This effect is fairly small and may be counterbalanced by a decreased likelihood that a villain will call a larger raise.

No Limit 2 Download

Here the symbols represent the MEV for raising to $10, $12, $14 or $16 in a Vegas $1/$2 game. These combos are sorted in order of MEV_Raise.

The important thing to notice in this graph is that we have a much larger MEV when we raise our best hands by the maximum amount that will not result in a villain adjustment. If we have aces and the villains will call a $16 bet as often as a $10 bet, we should bet $16.

On the other hand, we should consider betting smaller with our borderline raising hands. Of course, this sets up the possibility that we could be telegraphing our hand strength. But most Vegas $1/$2 players are not paying much attention to our bet size unless the size is unusual for the table. Here we can make adjustments based on our knowledge of the players at our table.

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Hero is in the Cutoff

Putting the Hero in the cutoff makes the analysis even more complex. Making some reasonable approximations, I can make a few generalizations:

• All players, including the button, are very unlikely to three-bet, so we should generally ignore this possibility when deciding to raise. (If our particular button opponent likes to three-bet, we should consider changing seats.)
• The button is less likely to cold call our cutoff raise than an EP/MP player is to call after a limp.
• Being in the cutoff facing three limpers is similar to being on the button facing four limpers. This is equivalent to the button replacing the fourth limper.
• The average button will call our cutoff raise about 22 percent of the time. We will then not have a postflop position advantage on every villain. This means that our average HEV will not be as enhanced from the cutoff as it would be from the button, and thus our cutoff raising range should be somewhat tighter that it would be from the button with one additional limper.
• If we have a tell that suggests that the button intends to fold, we can play the cutoff exactly as we would normally play the button.

Conclusions

We can't yet decide on a specific hand range for each scenario since we have not yet determined just how valuable our superior position and skill is. Nevertheless, it is clear that the more limpers we face, the tighter our raising raise should be.

Also, our raising range should be much wider than the typical Vegas player. We can also play from the cutoff facing X limpers with a similar range as from the button when facing X+1 limpers.

And of course, we should always adjust our ranges depending on the tendencies of the specific villains we face and based on specific tells we observe.

Steve Selbrede has been playing poker for 20 years and writing about it since 2012. He is the author of five books, The Statistics of Poker, Beat the Donks, Donkey Poker Volume 1: Preflop, Donkey Poker Volume 2: Postflop, and Donkey Poker Volume 3: Hand Reading.

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