Betting to extract maximum value

[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.

[GooperMC]

I think this is very opponent dependent. If I am your opponent I am not going to call a $40 bet unless I am willing to play for my stack. A $40 bet would leave me with $30ish left in a $240 pot!

If I was going to slow play and try to slowly pot commit the player I would bet $30ish or less. He has $67 and you have 2 rounds of betting to get his stack into the middle so bet less then 1/2 his stack now then a little more then 1/2 his stack on the river when the pot will be too big for him to fold.

I think that getting the max is also very board specific. On the example board there are very few draws that haven’t completed so I don’t mind slow playing a little. However if the board was more draw-tastic then I would push because you don’t want people drawing cheaply and nobody is bad enough to call a large river bet with a busted draw but they may call a large turn bet drawing very thin.

[Drizztdj]

I've had similar troubles finding a good number that the villian will bite on with no draws, or even with low draws.

I'd try an even smaller $20 bet and maybe he takes as a weakness and pops it for a re-raise.