Random bet amounts - sign of a weak/poor player? (low on content) [Archive]

View Full Version : Random bet amounts - sign of a weak/poor player? (low on content)

Benholio

11-05-2004, 02:12 PM

You've seen the type. Pre-flop raise of 157 chips. Bets 128 on the flop. They are so tired of being bad in the generic way, that they make terrible and seemingly random bets just to keep things interesting. Anytime I see someone doing this, I immediately think of them as a bad player, and possibly a maniac.

Well, my roommate notices that too, and suggested using a random bet as a ploy when you want some action on a good hand. He was watching me play the following hand:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed)

Hero (t800)
MP2 (t800)
MP3 (t800)
CO (t800)
Button (t765)
SB (t765)
BB (t800)
UTG (t800)
UTG+1 (t870)
UTG+2 (t800)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, A/images/graemlins/club.gif.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t15, 1 fold, Hero raises to t65, 1 fold, MP3 calls t65, 2 folds, SB calls t55, 1 fold, UTG+1 folds.

Flop: (t225) 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, K/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t150, MP3 folds, SB calls t150.

Turn: (t525) 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif (2 players)

At this point, I am already moving my bet slider east to try and get the rest of villain's money here. My roommate stops me though, and insists that I bet some weak random amount to induce a bet. So I did.

SB checks, Hero bets t227, SB raises to t475, Hero raises to t585 (All-In), SB calls t75 (All-In).

River: (t1660) 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t1660

Results in white below: 
SB has Tc Ah (one pair, sixes).
Hero has Ad Ac (two pair, aces and sixes).
Outcome: Hero wins t1660. 

Bingo! Villain immediately goes all-in against my suspicious bet with no pair and no draw.

Not really any good strategy to be found here, I'm sure.. but it was damn funny at the time!

rjb03

11-05-2004, 06:35 PM

I don't think you can say the odd bet was the only thing that inspired him to bluff; you'd have to try it many more times.

Hauser_III

11-05-2004, 07:05 PM

One possibility is that they're doing the odd bets, at least late in a tourney, to try to trick people that aren't paying attention into thinking that they've just gone all-in. Happened just the other night in a tourney I was in. BB of 300, two early limpers and then CO-1 raises to 1337 (or some such figure, with about 4000 in chips behind him. First limper folds, second one calls and then, when faced with a bet decision on the flop, types "WTF? I thought you were all-in."

EnderW27

11-05-2004, 07:46 PM

Another reason people make these bets is because the bet looks big, even when it isn't. Bet 99 chips instead of 100 and suddenly you have the tower of babel in front of your avatar. If someone isn't paying attention, they might fold rather than call your "large" bet.

rjb03

11-05-2004, 07:52 PM

The only thing I seem to notice is that they aren't that lazy as they abandon the slider only bets, but I do usually pay closer attention to someone who makes odd bets for some reason because it's not something I see too often.

parappa

11-05-2004, 08:11 PM

(veers wildly off topic)

I played a few games against a player called something like "the_seducer" a few months ago who always bet chips in "69" amounts (69, 169, 269, etc.)

La Brujita

11-05-2004, 08:56 PM

FWIW I am one of those odd numbered crazies. I do it for three main reasons:

1. I like to bet between 60-90% of the pot for most standard bets and if I move towards 80 rather than 90 for a reason people just think of me as the odd bet guy and don't consider why the bet amount is what it is.

2. People seem to give you more credit for hands when you do the odd bets (at least in my experience) and I like to steal alot in multis.

3. I figure why not.