Bet Sizes

Does anybody out there vary their bet sizes in an effort to get more calls - or get people to fold?

e.g.

You have the nuts by the river and act before the villain, lets say he has $100 left in his stack which you have covered. From his play so far you think he'll fold to a push, will check if you do but might call a small raise - you're playing 1/2 and the pot is also at $100.
Up to now you've raised/called standard amounts...

instead of betting $20 what might happen if you bet $17.17 or $31.79.


This is a an odd thing to happen - and will certainly throw your opponent off balance for a second.

Will it cause villain to fold more than usual or call more than usual?

This is an odd play and does seem to elicit odd behavior from opponents. In my own experience, players who make such unusual bets tend to have winning hands so I am inclined to fold when I'm presented with and odd bet. Perhaps this strategy could be employed in such a manner when you put the opponent on middle or low pair or something. (trying to get the opponent to fold to a high-payoff, low but strange bet which thus far had only been made when you held the nuts.)

[EverettKings]

Anything that confuses people, in general, tends to make them more passive. They may have planned to raise or fold but *might* now just call to see wtf is up. Better players just round off your bet and interpret it, so if I see you bet $21.37 into me i'll consider it a $20 bet and act accordingly.

But I don't think this is has a strong enough effect to be something worth your time. For example, making a $20 value bet that he'll call 90% of the time or a $55 overbet that may make him suspect a bluff and call 40% of the time. I think Ed Miller wrote a nice article on this a month or two back.

Everett

[thomastem]

Nothing wrong with making a baby $10 bet here.

He folds remember how small of a River bluff can succeed.

He calls observant players may be bluffed later with a baby bet on river.

He pushes because he reads your baby bet as weakness.

Forget this bet with change on the end of it. Rather than confuse opponents where they may or may not do want you want train them to do what you want.

[thomastem]

One point I'd like to hit on a little more, the vallue of setting up future river bluffs.

Taking this $100 pot as an example, If normally we average betting a Quarter of the pot for a river bluff $25 we need to successfully bluff 1 out of 4 times. If we have shown the nuts in the past after making a %10 bet on the river we now only need 1 out of 10 to break even.

Here's another thought, next time you have nuts on the river (after showing above play) against an observant opponent bet half the pot. He may reason you are trying to steal because if you had the nuts you'd bet small.

The point is that there are more important considerations than making a $24.73 bet immidiately on the river.