[Gigabet]

Alot of what you are asking is fairly basic, betting size, what they will call and won't call, comes down to finding which level of thinking that player is on. The reverse reverse psychology dance. The first level of betting psychology would obviously be....bet small if you want a caller, and bet large if you don't want a caller. Second level reverses that, so on and so forth. "I know, that he knows, that I know, that he knows, that I know......"

The reading of bet sizes comes into play when you can isolate the level of thinking that each player is on at your table; and then you know what a small bet for each player means, and what a large bet means....unless of course they know that you know that.

The bets that you describe me making add another dimension to the call or fold, is he bluffing or not dilemma the players face. Because it is a higher level of play, I can trust that the other players understand(even if only intuitively, from the many games they have played) what gamblers ruin is. Basically, gamblers ruin states that, even if you are offered +ev odds, you should still not take the gamble if the negative side of the coin brings you to zero. Because you cannot recover from zero, the + side of the coin will rarely be worth the risk necessary to take the chance. Most of my bets are obvious bluffs, but with gamblers ruin staring them in the face, it is rarely worth it to take the chance that they are wrong at any given time, because they have all seen me turn over two Aces after someone called one of those early position open pushes.

Gigabet