Your Small Bets Are Hurting You

By now, you know that Poker Punx is all about eliminating errors first. But one of those errors might seem counterintuitive, betting small.

You think small bets protect you. But they’re actually a leak you need to fix, now!

At $1/$2 tables, timid bets show weakness, invite callers, and don’t punish players calling too wide.

You’re risking small and winning even smaller. While you squeak out $10 pots, you watch other players scoop $50 ones. You’re timidness is being overtaken and outplayed.

Instead of growth, your bankroll stagnates — all because you are afraid to size your bets properly. Embrace larger bets or drown in the shallow end.

Bigger Bets Crush Weak Hands

Weak hands hate pressure. Weak players hate tough decisions.

Opening small invites calls from wide ranges, creating multi-way pots. By betting small, you have built a smaller pot that is harder to win since it is multi-way. Not the best scenario for big wins and building bankrolls.

Imagine you are at a passive $2/$5 table, you open 9♠9♣ to $10 from middle position and 4 callers. There is $50 in the pot, and you go 5-ways to a flop of Q♦7♥4♥. With so many players in the pot, it is a tough spot to navigate.

Now imagine you are at that same passive $2/$5 table, you open 9♠9♣ to $25 from middle position after an UTG limp, it folds around to the limper who calls. There is $57 in the pot, and you go heads up to a flop of Q♦7♥4♥. The limper checks to you. Now you are in an ideal situation, heads up against a passive player with second pair and the betting lead.

Many times, a c-bet here will win the pot, and even if they cal,l there are still plenty of hands you are ahead of that will pay you off. If you feel the opponent might have a Queen, you can play pot control and limit your downside.

Sunk Cost Clouds Judgment

It can be tough sometimes to keep your composure at the table. A few missed draws or bad river cards, and all of a sudden, you question what you are doing.

“They keep sucking out”, “They don’t respect my bets”, “How can they always get there?”

These thoughts are normal in low-stakes games. Some nights, you will just run smack dab into the bad side of variance.

A lot of times, the instinct is to start sizing smaller to hedge the losses. This is actually the opposite of what you should do. Going smaller will invite more variance because it makes the price to continue less and weaker players will decide to come along, who might have folded to a larger bet.

This is precisely the time to size UP not down. If you see players calling too wide when you raise to $15 in a $1/$3 game, then go to $20 or even $25. You want to find the point at which you get 1-2 callers who you will have dominated, not the size that make pots 5-7 ways.

By going bigger, you do two important things. You thin the field, giving yourself a better chance to win the pot, and the pots you build will often be bigger than the ones you would have with the smaller bets.

Don’t let short-term variance influence your long-term plan.

Fear Obscures Opportunity

Fear is a powerful emotion, especially in poker.

Mastering that fear can be your biggest weapon. By learning to ignore that fear and play through it will explode your win rate.

Learning to put in the thin value bet on the river or fold without regret when you know you are beat is what separates the good players from the recreational players.

You have to learn that it is ok to value own yourself sometimes. This is actually a sign that you are extracting maximum value when you do have the best hand.

Likewise, it is perfectly ok to fold the winner when the opponent’s line screamed value only to have them windmill the bluff in your face.

These aren’t bad plays; they are actually a sign that your game is improving and it should be reflected in a much higher win rate.