Min-bets are the bane of my NL poker existence.

[Karak567]

Nothing confuses, angers, befuddles or otherwise screws me more than min-bets.

Whenever someone min-bets at me in any NL game (the obvious exception being where the min-bet is at huge blind levels OR if it is into a near worthless pot) I feel absolutely compelled to re-raise them, without fail. Any other player who knows me well enough could min-bet into me in order to garner a raise, unless I have a hunch this is what they are doing.

One situations where min-bets just PISS me off is the following: A player min bets the flop, I raise him a significant amount with a hand such as TPTK or top two. When the turn comes a blank, he min bets me again. What is he doing here? Is he just a moron? Does he want another raise? I find it's 50/50 between the two options often.

So what are min-bets? I don't see any position where a solid player should min-bet or min-raise. The only time I use these two is when I think I am against an agressive player, like myself, who will raise my min-bet. This is obviously done when I have a monster and am hoping for a re-raise. I also will min-raise on the button when the blinds are huge and the SB and BB are both weak/tight players.

Other than that, min-bets mess with me. I just don't know WHAT they mean and how to react to them.

[binions]

Many times, min bets mean the player is drawing, and wants to see a cheap card. Your instinct to raise is correct in this case, although you must know that as little as a straight draw is ~2:1 with 2 to come, so even betting the pot on the flop is not going to scare most decent draws off.

On the other hand, sometimes min bets are monsters wanting action.

[Ghazban]

While I don't get quite as irritated by them as you do, I can't stand people who do this, either. The worst is when you raise pot preflop, get a couple callers, and then someone minbets into you on the flop. Anybody calling the minbet is getting phenomenal odds (16:1 if there was a 4xBB preflop raise and 3 callers) to call with just about any two.

I find this is almost always somebody drawing (flushes more often than anything else) trying to see another card for a very small price so I'll usually raise it as well. If I get reraised, its either a maniac pushing on a draw or a flopped strong hand (usually a set, sometimes a flopped straight or flush); I've never seen it be anything else.

My bigger pet peeve is people who, in non-ridiculously-shortstacked games minraise preflop. I have yet to read or see anything that convinces me that this is ever a good play.

[Maulik]

I think it would be nice if you could post some hands so we can analyze the texture of the flops to get a better idea of when these are effective against you.

brilliant

[Beavis68]

I despise min raiser too. I used to get really upset by them, but know I use it to my advantage.

You know that they will let you draw cheaply, and usually pay you off when you hit, or fold when a scare card comes, so I play a lot more hands against them, and call a lot more when the flop misses me. I will even call a min flop bet with a back door flush draw because with implied odds, I usually have the odds.

It always cracks me up when somoene bets 100 chips into a 1400chip pot.

[johnc]

It's a limit mentality as I see it. I find them alot easier to push around but less likely to contribute significantly to my stack because they usually more likely to run away at 2/3 to pot size bets. This really sucks big time b/c oftentimes I'm left raking a little pot getting no value out of my bigger hands. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Publos Nemesis]

I think other players betting the min is great because they almost always get other people to fold and let you get a nice raise in on the flop if there is some trapped money. Often the player hit some piece of the flop but isn't too happy with their hand. Tricky players like me may min bet with a flopped flush to try and get another player to do the raising, but ussually it is top pair or middle pair with bad kicker. I think a good strategy is to call the flop bet and let the better hang himself on the turn.