No Limit Poker Bet Sizing

One of the required skills to become a good No Limit Texas Hold’em poker player is betting or raising the correct amount of money for each given situation. Most beginners struggle with correct bet sizing when they are learning to play and thus they are unable to get the most out of the game. This article will teach you how to maximize your earnings and minimize your losses, as well as how to manipulate your opponents by giving them the wrong odds to call when they try to complete a drawing hand and so on.

The current amount of money in the pot should always be taken into account before betting or raising because the size of your bet will define what odds your opponents are getting, and this will lead them to calling with the correct odds or calling with the wrong odds. When your opponent calls with the wrong odds, you will make a profit because they are making a big mistake, so it’s fundamental to make correct size bets to lead your opponents into calling incorrect odds.

Bet Sizing in No Limit Poker
If you think you have the best hand, then you should bet at least 3/4 the size of the pot. For example, if you’re playing No Limit Texas Hold’em poker game and the size of the pot is $40, then you should bet around $30 to $40. Doing so will prevent other players from making a correct call if they have a drawing hand, because they’ll have incorrect pot odds. It will also reduce the number of opponents as most weaker hands will fold, giving you more chances to win and reducing the risk of being outdrawn.

Also, by making a strong bet and letting other players know that you have a good hand, their play will give you precious information about the strength of their hand. If your opponents call a hard bet, they probably have a decent hand and you can use that information for the next betting round. If you have a decent but not very strong hand and your opponent called a hard bet, you might bet less on the next round but if you feel you’re still on top, then you can continue to bet hard to get the most money out of the pot by taking advantage of your pot equity.

The rule mentioned above should be followed as often as possible. We see lots of beginners making the mistake of making minimum bets when it’s their turn to play. If you make bets that are less than half the size of the pot, the value of your hands will be lost, as your opponents will have the right odds to call and outdraw your hand. The only instance where you should put up a bet that is less than half the size of the pot is when you have a premium hand and you want to trick your opponents into thinking you have a weak hand, hoping that they will raise. But most of the time, you should make a hard bet instead of a weak bet.

Pre-flop Bet Sizing
The same rule applies when you want to raise before the flop. If you make a weak bet, then you’ll see lots of players limping in because they’ll have good odds to see the flop with any cards they hold. Also, if you make a weak raise against opponents that bet into you, they’ll have to correct odds to try to outdraw your hand. It should also be added that a weak bet or raise won’t give you enough information about your opponents’ hand, as they will call you with whatever hand they hold.

So what’s the size of the raise you should make before the flop? In general, you should make a raise that’s around 3 or 4 times the big blind amount, but if other players limped in before you and you still want to raise, then you should bet an extra in addition to the 3 or 4 times big blind raise so that other players will call you with wrong odds. Let’s say you are playing a $2/$4 cash game and there are two limpers before you. In that situation, a $20 or $24 raise would be perfect. If an oppenant has made a bet and you want to raise, then you should put up around 3 times the amount of their bet in the pot to reduce their chances of calling with correct pot odds.

Use this table to know how much you should raise before the flop in relation to the number of limpers:

Players	PF Raise (BBs)	e.g in $1/$2 NL
0	4	$16
1	5	$20
2	6	$24
3	7	$14
4	8	$32
5	9	$36

Final Thoughts
If you want to make a bet or raise, always take the pot size into consideration before making your move. Correct bet sizing will help you maximize profits and reduce the chances of being outdrawn by your opponents. If you play passively and make weak bets, your opponents will always take advantage of you. So be sure to make strong bets if you have a good hand to preserve its value. Your opponents will respect you, and even better, they will be scared of you.

Ready to make a bet? Test your skills at the best online poker room!

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How To Beat Online Micro Limit Poker

Micro limit poker games typically range from 1c/2c to 10c/20c blind structure. You will often find loose players at the low limit tables. However, you’ll sometimes find experienced players hunting for the fish in the hopes of making some easy money. While many people claim that the micro limits are unbeatable due to the fact most beginners rely too much on luck, this is not totally true. If you only play your best hands, learn to read your opponents correctly, and pay attention to your position, you can be a consistent winner.

Here are some useful tips that will help you beat the micro limits:

Tip #1: Only play your best hands, don’t try to bluff
This tip might seem obvious, but I’ve seen too many players trying to outplay or bluff their opponents at micro stakes games. Micro limits are populated by weak players and this is precisely the reason why you should only play your best hands. Beginners are not familiar with pot odds and they are likely to call anything so if you bet hard into them with an average hand or if you try to bluff, there’s a good chance they will put money in the pot until they see the showdown. So don’t take too much risk and don’t be concerned about your image. Just bet your best hands and fold your bad hands.

Tip #2: Sit down with the maximum buy-in
As mentioned above, people playing at the micro limits are often weak and they are more likely to call all-ins with any kind of made hands and draws. If you buy into the table with the maximum buy-in amount and go all-in with the best possible hand, you give yourself the best chance to make the most money from the game. You can’t always be the favorite on the flop, so if you have the best of it and have a comfortable bankroll, don’t be afraid to throw your whole buy-in into the pot as it will always pay off in the long run.

Tip #3: Beware of pre-flop raises
When playing at micro limits, most players won’t raise pre flop if they don’t have a very strong hand. All they want is to see as many flops they can, hit a big hand, and then bet and raise to squeeze as much money as they can from the pot. Your opponents will pay for the strength of their hand; they won’t think about what hand you might hold. So if a player raises pre flop and then on every street, they nearly always have a huge hand. At the micro limits, there are many more happy callers than compulsive raisers, so beware of pre-flop raising.

Tip #4: Don’t give away tips to your opponents
The bad beats frequency is likely to be higher at micro limit games than at higher stakes because as we noted before, bad players will play almost anything and sometimes they will go away with it. You might get nervous and want to tell them how much they suck for calling a particular hand, but you should refrain from doing that. Stay away from the chat box, and let your opponent make the same bad move again; you’ll be ready to crush him next time.

Tip #5: Choose your poker room carefully
To increase your chances of making good profits from micro limit poker, you should play at the poker rooms that feature the best micro limit games. Our favorites are PokerStars and Titan Poker, which offer insanely easy to beat micro limit cash games starting from 1c/2c.

Evaluation
As you have noticed, there are some differences between playing at the micro limits and playing at higher stakes. Firstly, you sould stay away from bluffing and secondly, you shouldn’t be too concerned about giving yourself a loose image. Just focus on getting the most out of your best hands, beware of pre-flop raises, don’t give tips to your opponents, and you should be able to beat the micro limits rather easily.

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Top Online Poker Tells

When playing online poker, it’s more difficult to tell whether your opponents are bluffing or they actually got a premium hand because you can’t see their physical expressions. Nonetheless, there are other useful tells which you can use when playing online.

So what are the most common online poker tells?
The speed of play of your opponents is a fundamental factor when it comes to online poker tells. As a general rule, a quick bet can be interpreted as a sign of weakness, and a delayed action can be a sign of strength, as your opponent is thinking about the best way to act with what he considers to be a premium hand. Pay attention to the amount of time it takes your opponents to make their move, and store that information in a corner of your mind. If you are able to see their cards at showdown, you will the chance to determine with what kind of hand they “slow bet” and what kind of hand they “quick bet.”

You should also think about your own way of playing to hide these tells. The best strategy consists in taking the same amount of time for every action you take, so that your opponents won’t be able to pick up tells from your speed of play.

So let’s have a look at the most common online poker tells:

A delay followed by a check
Most players who take a longer time than normal and then check want you to believe they have a strong hand and that they are thinking about betting. In most cases, they have a weak hand and don’t want you to raise so they can see another card for free.

A delay followed by a bet
Players who wait a longer time than normal and then bet often have a strong hand. They want you to believe they have a weak hand to lure you into calling/raising.

An insta-call after you bet
The opponents who call your bet instantly often have a weak hand. These players want you to believe they have a good hand and are hoping you will not raise again.

An insta-check, or a check/raise
Players who use the check/fold button are ready to fold to any bet, thus meaning that they have a weak hand. In addition, they might be playing at many tables at the same time so they are not paying much attention to the game. It’s easy tell when a player uses a check box as his action comes within a blink of the eye of the previous player. However, you might bump into a player who will check quickly and then raise. You have to be very careful in this case because he wants to indicate weakness to make you bet into his strong hand. Also, if your opponent has checked the “raise any” button, it’s obvious that he has a premium hand.

A bet into on the turn
If a player calls and checks on the flop and then bets on the turn, it often indicates he has a weak hand. Those kind of bets often mean that they picked up a draw or that they are semi-bluffing with a draw they got on the flop. You should consider a raise even if you might be bluffing yourself.

An insta-bet/raise on the river
This move usually indicates that the player has a very strong hand. If they raise or bet so fast, they want you to believe they are bluffing. This move is also often used on the turn and in most cases (less frequent that a bet on the river) it denotes a strong hand.

Watching the chat box
An easy way to pick up tells is by paying close attention to the chat box. Usually, if a player who has a big mouth suddenly gets quiet, you can be sure he’s playing a strong hand and he’s concentrating to get the most out of the pot. However, if a quiet player suddenly becomes a bit too talkative in the chat box, he’s probably trying to bluff with a weak hand or he’s on “tilt,” thus emotionally unable to play good poker until he calms down.

Fold/Call/Raise percentage
This is another easy way to pick up tells. Watch your opponents to get a sense of what their fold/call/raise percentage might be. You’ll spot tight players easily because they rarely play if they don’t have a good starting hand. When they bet, you can be sure they have a premium hand. In addition, paying attention the way your opponents are playing should also give you an edge over the “calling stations,” players who nearly always pay to see the flop and thus have poor starting hand selection.

Waiting for the Big Blind
When you sit down to play a Texas Holdem game online, you’ll often have the possibility to “wait for the big blind,” or you can put up a matching big blind to start playing instantly. This tells you if an online player is patient or not. If he doesn’t want to wait for the big blind to get to him, he may not be patient enough to wait for a good starting hand and he’s probably a loose player.

Beginners’ tells
New poker players might be difficult to pick up tells on. They often play erratically you can’t figure out anything about their game. For example, most beginners (or some sharks, see later) act on their hand exactly the opposite of its strength, meaning they place bets for their weak hands and check for their strong hands. If you can see their cards on showdown, you’ll be able to tell if a player is playing like that, and mark him as a beginner. But don’t get confused by a shark who might be using the check-raise move!

Ready to pick up tells? Test your skills at the best online poker room!

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Texas Holdem Poker Rules

Texas Holdem Poker is very easy to learn and it is without doubt the reason why it has become the most popular version of poker played online and in casinos. The game is simple and complex at the same time so once you know the rules, which take less than 15 minutes to learn, it will keep you entertained for years to come. This article, aimed at beginners, will help you understand and master the basic rules of Texas Holdem Poker.

Introduction
Texas Holdem Poker is played with a standard 52-card deck, poker chips, and as many as 10 players at the table. There are two kind of games: cash games and tournaments. In cash games, each hand is played with real money and there is no time limit. In tournament games, the players begin with the same amount of chips, and the winner is the player who gets all the chips. Tournaments can also be played with real cash buy-ins where the winner takes all or a fraction of his opponents’ money.

The Shuffle, the Deal and the Blinds
The game starts with the dealer shuffling the 52-card deck. If there’s no specific dealer, the cards are self-dealt by each player each hand in a clockwise direction. The “Dealer Button,” a button that says dealer on it, is passed around the table from player to player after each hand to indicate which player is the dealer.

The two players sitting to the left of the dealer put up a fixed sum of money into the pot before the cards are dealt to guarantee there’s always some money to compete for on each hand. That’s called “posting the blinds.” The “Small Blind,” which is the player sitting next to the dealer, usually pays half the minimum bet. The “Big Blind” pays the full minimum bet.

Then each person is dealt one card and then a second card. Both cards are face down. Those are called the “Hole Cards.” This is where the fun begins.

The Preflop
The first round of betting takes place, starting with the player to the left of the “Small Blind” and the “Big Blind.” The first player to speak has three possibilities: call, raise, or fold. Calling means putting the same amount of money as the big blind. Raising means adding an additional sum of money. Note that in No Limit games, this amount is limited only by the quantity of chips the player has. Folding means getting out of the hand and forfeiting any bets made. This shouldn’t be done because at this stage, it’s still free for the first player who speaks to see the flop, as no other bets have been made.

The other players have the same three possibilities, plus the possibility to reraise. A reraise has to be at least equal to the size of the previous raise.

After the preflop, a total of five community cards will be dealt face up on the table in three distinct stages described below.

The Flop
When the first round of betting is over, the dealer discards, or “burns,” the top card of the deck. Burning the card is done to prevent cheating in case someone accidentally saw it.

Then the dealer turns over three community cards from the deck and place them on the table. This is called “the flop.”

After the flop has been dealt, another round of betting occurs, always beginning with the player to the left of the dealer (the button). During this round and all upcoming rounds of betting, players will have the possibility to check, call, raise, or fold when it’s their turn to play.

The Turn (or “Fourth Street”)
The dealer burns a card of the deck again and then deals one more card face up onto the table. The fourth community card is sometimes called the “Fourth Street.”

Then the player on the left of the dealer (the button) initiates the third betting round.

The River (or “Fifth Street”)
The dealer burns yet another card before placing the fifth and final card face up on the table. This card is the “river,” or “Fifth Street.” Players can now use any combination of seven cards (the five cards on the table and the two hole cards known only to them) to form the best possible five-card poker hand.

The fourth and last betting round starts with the player to the left of the dealer (the button).

The Showdown
The players who are still in the hand reveal their cards, starting with the player who made the initial bet. The player who has the best hand wins. If two or more players have the same hand, the next highest card in each player’s hand (the Kicker) is used to pick up the winner. If there is no kicker card, the pot is split between them.

After the showdown, the button to the next player clockwise, and a new hand is dealt.

Bankroll Management

If you want to become a good poker player, you need to learn bankroll management. Even the best poker players can go broke without proper bankroll management skills because no matter how good you are, you will run into variance and lose money in the process. Variance is the term that describes the ups and downs of poker, where you can have good runs of cards but also bad runs, which leads to varying profits and losses.

Bankroll management is knowing at which limits to play and when to move up or drop down in stakes. If you plan to play poker for a long time to come, there will be days where you will continually lose money, not because you’re playing badly, but because the cards will not fall your way. That’s why bankroll management is vital. If you play within your bankroll, you will be able to absorb the downswing of variance and you’ll never go broke.

What’s your poker bankroll?
Your poker bankroll is the total amount of money you’ve set aside for playing poker. If doesn’t matter if you have $500 spread across 3 poker rooms or $500 in one room, you always have to look at it as a whole. The bankroll must be managed on a daily basis as it will help you find out at what stakes you can play without risking to lose too much money.

Basic rules of bankroll management
For No Limit or Pot Limit cash games, your bankroll should be 20 times the full buy-in of the table you want to sit at. So if you want to have the best opportunity of making money at a 25c/50c table where the maximum buy-in is $25, you should have a bankroll of minimum $500. You can also apply bankroll management by only putting 5% of your bankroll on the table at any given time, which matches the 20 times full buy-in rule.

For tournament games, the best method for bankroll management is 40 buy-ins for the table you wish to play at. So if you want to play at a $5+$0.5 Sit&Go, you should have a bankroll of $220.

NL Holdem			Limit Holdem			Sit&Go’s
Blinds	Bankroll		Blinds	Bankroll		Stakes	Bankroll
5c/10c	$200		5c/10c	$30		$1+$0.1	$44
10c/20c	$400		10c/20c	$60		$2+$0.2	$88
25c/50c	$1,000		25c/50c	$150		$5+$0.5	$220
$0.5/$1	$2,000		$0.5/$1	$300		$10+$1	$440
$1/$2	$4,000		$1/$2	$600		$20+$2	$880
$2/$4	$8,000		$2/$4	$1,200		$30+$3	$1,320
$5/$10	$20,000		$5/$10	$3,000		$50+$5	$2,200
$10$/20	$40,000		$10$/20	$6,000		$100+$10	$4,400
$25/$50	$100,000		$25/$50	$15,000		$200+$20	$8,800
$50/$100	$200,000		$50/$100	$30,000		$500+$50	$22,000

Conservative vs. agressive bankroll management
The basic rules above should give you the best chances of making money playing poker, but depending on your style of play, there are two other bankroll management methods that can work effectively.

• The conservative bankroll method - 40 cash games and 80 tournament buy-ins
  This is for long-term players who want to avoid variance and intend to make a living playing poker. A deep bankroll will help you withstand downswings.
• The Aggressive bankroll - 10 cash games and 20 tournament buy-ins
  If you want to move up quick and see instant results, the aggressive poker bankroll method is for you. However, you have to understand you’ll run into variance and you should be ready to drop down in stakes when you lose a few buy-ins because losses will have more impact on your bankroll.

Dropping down and moving up in stakes
As I said earlier, variance will always come into play in poker and there will be days where you’ll have good runs of cards and bad runs of cards. So your bankroll will alternatively be too small or too big for the stakes you’re playing at. Keep in mind that if your bankroll drops below the 20 buy-ins limit, you should also drop down a level to continue playing within your bankroll. Then, when your bankroll gets larger, you can switch back to the next level. Also, if your bankroll allows you to comfortably play at the next limit up, then you can move up to that limit.

Sometimes you might be tempted to move up a level just to test your skills and to see if you can beat a more competitive game. Taking a shot is doable as long as you continue to manage your bankroll wisely and you don’t get carried away by the big wins you get at higher levels. When taking a shot at the next level up, you should not buy in for the maximum amount so you won’t be putting too much of your bankroll into the game. Stick with the 5% rule and you should not run the risk of going broke.

Build your bankroll at the best online poker room!

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