[jcm4ccc]

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Clearly if you're betting some absurd amount like 600 chips into a 4000 pot when you make your hand on the river, you're leaving money on the table.

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This is not necessarily true. Everything is situational dependent. Sometimes it is so obvious by the betting patterns that someone is working on a flush. Nobody is fooled, nobody is trying to fool anybody. Then the flush card hits. Sometimes a min-bet is all you're going to get paid off--a bet twice the size could actually cause some pain, and may get folded way more often than a min-bet. That is why it is usually a mistake to consider implied odds when going for a flush.

Today I had a situation where the BB was 100, and I was dealt AQ in EP. I raise to 300. Only the BB calls. Then the flop comes--AAQ. Whoops. How am I going to get anything for this--as Harrington says, I've sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

There were 2 flush cards on the board. So I checked the flop and checked the turn, hoping that the third flush card would hit and possibly make his hand. The river comes without the flush card. BB checks again. I bet 100. He calls with King high, and I get an extra 100 chips. That was all I was going to get. If I raised to 200, I think he folds probably 75-80% of the time, given his range. The only way he was going to call a substantial bet was if he had the other Ace, and given that three were already accounted for and he was in the BB, that seemed a very remote possibility (especially since he had checked the hand 3 times).

Now let's say that UTG limped or the button called and the exact same thing happened. I might make a weak bet on the flop, hoping that he had the other ace (hoping and praying that he has AK or AJ). Or I might wait until the turn.

The main difficulty I have with value bets, I think, is being afraid to bet the river when it's checked to me for fear of being trapped. But when I do decide to make a value bet on the river, I'm not looking to get paid off 100% of the time. I make a bet based on the cards that I think he has and what I think he would be willing to pay. Sometimes that is an absurdly small number, and on occasion it's more than the pot.

I think your article is good, but I don't think you need to make blanket statements like "betting 600 into a 4000 pot is absurd."