Barry Greenstein on probe betting Live at the Bike

[bruce]

Barry,

I truely enjoyed your commentary last night. I think you
did a terrific job and you're a real natural. Your commentary was both thought provoking and insightful. My
wife, a recreational player at best, commented how articulate and sharp you project yourself. Great job!! We
would love to hear from you on this forum in the future. Thanks.

Bruce

[barryg1]

[ QUOTE ]
Barry,

I truely enjoyed your commentary last night. I think you
did a terrific job and you're a real natural. Your commentary was both thought provoking and insightful. My
wife, a recreational player at best, commented how articulate and sharp you project yourself. Great job!! We
would love to hear from you on this forum in the future. Thanks.

Bruce

[/ QUOTE ]

Bruce,

I thank you, your wife, and many others for all the supportive comments. It was more tiring to do four hours of live poker than I thought. You guys should cut Dave and Bart some slack.

I will try to do at least one more show: a 400-800 limit hold'em game. I had some comments about the betting patterns in limit poker at the 400-800 level and above, that I wasn't able to get to in my short stint a week ago.

Outside of giving some expert commentary for people to hear, I also had an underhanded reason to do a couple of shows. I have occasionally criticized other announcers, so I wanted to put myself in their shoes to see how I would fare.

Barry

[illegit]

[ QUOTE ]


1. When you play no-limit, you have to read players and interpret their bets. Like everyone else, I make mistakes, but I often am able to deduce whether someone is making a defensive bet on the flop, turn, or river. I don't call with a small pair or fold with nothing -- I raise and put my opponents to the test.

[/ QUOTE ]
Understood, but this is coming from the perspective of how to react to a defensive/probe/feeler bet, it doesn't really argue against using them in your own arsenal it only argues against using them against extremely talented players.

What I'm wondering is will you not frequently make these type of bets yourself against other players (specifically weak-tight ones) as they are most likely not going to raise you with nothing and will give up frequently if their hand missed a flop? We know they don't work well against you, but do they work well for you?

[barryg1]

[ QUOTE ]

I'm wondering is will you not frequently make these type of bets yourself against other players (specifically weak-tight ones) as they are most likely not going to raise you with nothing and will give up frequently if their hand missed a flop? We know they don't work well against you, but do they work well for you?

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I'm not sure. I have a system of playing no-limit that works with my aggressive style. I check-raise with draws, with one pair where others might have made a probe bet, and I may also check-raise with a set. I get free cards from players who are afraid to bet. I also pick up pots with the worst hand, where I would have gotten called and probably check it out if I had made a probing bet.

One other think that works for me when I have a few players check to me who frequently bet out with middle pair of above, is I steal multiway pots more frequently because I don't think they have enough to chance a call. Players who check-raise more cause me to check behind them.

I only like making bets (probing or defensive) if it is logical that I might have bet the same way with a set.

Barry