How much to bet in NL?

[Sandwich]

Obviously you want to vary your bet sizes, but I feel like I'm missing an integral strategic aspect to deciding how much to bet. I've been using "feel" and "intuition" thus far, and I need some input from more experienced NL players on this issue.

For example:

When is it correct to OVERBET the pot?
Intuition tells me that I should only do this when I have a monster hand where there is another "good made hand" out there that I am hoping to get called with. But is overbetting the pot ever a correct bluffing strategy?


When is it correct to bet 3 x BB?
This is sort of my standard bet preflop with a decent hand... not really sure why....


When is it correct to bet the minimum?
My intuition tells me that when you are slowplaying, and a cheap card is not likely to beat you, is the correct time to do this. Is that right?


Thanks!

[Jason Strasser]

NL is creative. You can't really just assign a type of hand to a bet. If you have a strong hand, there are tons of things you can do to extract money from your opponent. If you have a weak hand, there are bazillions of ways to bluff.

My favorite play with a strong hand is what I call the stutter step. Some call it a stop and go, but I liked using the stutter step in basketball, so there.

Anyhow, say you flop a set or other nice hand against an agressive opponent heads up, and you do not think he is on a draw, but has a second best hand. I love betting the flop STRONG, and then checking the turn if he calls. Many agressive opponents think "He has AK and he missed!" and can push with a wide variety of second best hands.

To sum it up, there are too many variables to answer your question, it all depends on your opponent, and the situation.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Obviously you want to vary your bet sizes

Preflop, this is exactly what you do not want to do. If you vary the size of your preflop bets based upon hand strength, you give away far too much information.

When is it correct to OVERBET the pot?

Post-flop, overbetting the pot is a means to deny chasers correct odds to call.

When is it correct to bet 3 x BB?

3-4x BB is a standard preflop raise. The logic is that 2x BB will not accomplish anything. For example, it's too easy to call a limit raise from the blinds. Remember, the only reason you only raise to 2x BB in limit is because it's all that is allowed.

This (3x BB) is sort of my standard bet preflop with a decent hand


It should be your standard preflop bet regardless of whether you're raising for value with AA or stealing with 72o.


When is it correct to bet the minimum?

Amost never. Good players will sniff out the trap.

[Beavis68]

I dont stick to the 3x rule through-out the game, early, if the blinds are really low in comparison to the chip stack, a 3x raise may not thin the field. Also, as the blinds go up, you may not need to bet as much to thin the field, or it might take too much of your stack so you just decide to go all-in.

Overbetting is a move to protect your hand. Say you you flop top pair good kicker with two connected suited cards on the board, you may want to over bet to keep people from chasing straights and flushes.