[DJA]

My thought process is like this:

1. Do I think I have the best hand? If I do, what is my opponent on? I then try to get my opponent to make a mistake. For instance if I think he is on a 9 outer in NLHE, I will bet so that he is making a mistake to call me. Now you should know how good your opponenent is playing and try to get him to make the biggest mistake possible. For instance if your opponent is playing like a mental midget, overbet the pot by 10X he may call. If your opponent is playing well this obviously will not work.

2. If I don't have the best hand, what are my chances of improving to the best hand and what are my chances of moving my opponent off the best hand? For instance if my opponent raised 4X the blind from UTG and he is a rock, and I have a pair of 7's or something I may call and try to spike hoping he will pay me off with his overpair. If the board comes 9d 9s 2c I may try and move him off his hand because I know he will not like the paired board, as he plays scared. Now I bet enough to move him off his hand, for instance a pot sized bet or raise. I don't try to move opponents off hands with huge overbets. This back fires way too often.

I really don't think there is a formula you can follow for betting. If you want to follow a pattern use the pot sized bet thing, but I don't like doing that. The better my opponents are though, the closer I come to this format.

Just My Thoughts,