[TGoldman]

Suppose the hero holds a very strong hand against a single opponent and is trying to extract the maximum value from his hand. The pot is large enough in relation to stack sizes where hero could simply push all of his chips into the pot and hope for a call. However, I think the 100 big blind buy-in structure of online pot-limit games creates an inflection point where a smaller bet on the turn is more likely to be called than an all-in bet, but will have the same effect by pot-committing the villain to the hand.

Here's an example taken mostly from my previous post but modifying a few things...

$100 PL Omaha Hi/Lo
Hero ($100)
Villain ($100) (Villain is a solid player)

Hero is in CO with A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
3 limpers, hero raises $3, button folds, SB calls, BB calls, all remaining limers call.

Flop: 8 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (Pot $18, 6 players)
Villain bets $6, 4 folds, Hero raises $30, villain calls.

Turn: K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (Pot $78, 2 players)

Hero (~ $67)
Villain (~ $67)

villain checks, Hero bets $...

Hero could simply shove the rest of his chips into the pot and hope for a call. However, because the villain is a solid player, this bet is very unlikely to get called. What's the right amount to bet here? I'd like to encourage a call while getting maximum value for my hand. I think betting about 1/2 the pot or $40 is right. This may encourage a call while more or less acheiving the same purpose by commiting the villain to the pot.