Strategic significance of the number of betting rounds

[staunchdog]

I was thinking about this today...

How would NL holdem differ if there were, say, 6 betting rounds or 2 betting rounds (or 1) instead of 4? Which hands would become stronger? Which would become weaker?

I wonder if anything has been written on this topic.

[mannika]

My first thought would be that if there were fewer betting rounds, then it would be less costly to draw at hands. So, for example, if there are only 3 betting rounds, (no turn betting), on the flop you would have better pot odds to chase a 4-flush, etc.

[Nick_Foxx]

but you also have worse implied odds with fewer betting rounds... for example in a limit draw game (2 betting rounds), it's tough to get the correct odds to draw to a flush or an open-end straight (exception would be if you have the bug and a straight draw)

on the other hand in 7-card stud games, you often will be getting the right odds to chase hands even if you know for a fact that you are behind

mike

[staunchdog]

I'm not sure its that simple. Suppose there were only one betting round preflop. You'd need a multiway pot to get the odds for a drawing hand. My guess is that more often than not, the guy with the majority play hand would raise these hands out of the pot and either take it down or isolate another majority play hand.

On the other hand, if there were a betting round prior to the exposure of each community card, I don't think you could play too many draws, either. And, if you did, you'd probably have to bet them early on to disguise your hand and hope to secure some free cards.

[ricdaman]

This post refers to NL, not limit. All of the responses so far have been limit based.

I'm not entirely sure of the answer, but I would think that almost no hand would be worth chasing in a 7 bet structure. (Imagine a NL Stud game. I've never seen one, but image what it would be like. Same difference.)

Now, for the 2 bets. A lot more would be worth chasing. Imagine if there were only 2 bets, one pre-flop, and one on the flop. Assume one person holds 23s, and another AKo, and the flop comes A79 giving our 23s a 4-card flush draw. What ods would the 23s have to have to call our AK's bet? In normal 4 bet hold'em, it's rarely correct to chase assuming AK will screw up the pot ods. The reason is because you can expect AK to bet again on the turn, which is really giving 23s about a 1/5 chance on the flop and 1/5 on the turn (chance of hitting, not pot ods). BUT... if the flop was the last bet, then our 23s would have 1/3 chance of hitting. So, to make the correct call, pot ods as it stands now, would have to be better than 1/5 assuming AK makes another bet on the turn. Whereas in the 2 bet situation, pot ods only need to be better than 1/3. This makes chasing more common.

[DBowling]

I think more betting rounds would be better played pot limit, that way drawing hands would have better implied odds.
Either way, PL or NL, i think that the most important aspect would be stack sizes in relation to the blinds. Lets say you have typical party poker stack sizes (50bb) and you had betting rounds preflop and after ever card is turned. All of the money would be in the pot by the second or third card. Now if the stacks were 300bb+, things would be more interesting. Big hands trying to push drawing hands out early, wouldnt win very much, while once the drawing hands hit, there would be plenty of money behind to make it worth their time.
I also think an interesting variation for limit play, assuming 6 betting rounds would be $1-$2-$3-$4-$5-$6. Im not sure that would be the most appropriate structure, but again, it would insure proper implied odds for drawing hands. Another possibility would be $1-$1-$2-$2-$3-$3 or $1/$2/$4