10 thoughts on “Poker Strategy: The Basics of Value Betting”

1. Just watched a video of your commentary during the Aussie millions a while ago. Nothing has changed, still an extremely knowledgable and insightful player. Keep it up Bart!

2. Vince Wilfork is my favorite Patriot ever

3. personally, i probably just check the river…villain just sounds like on of those passive guys that calls all the time…he didn't raise the flop for protection, the turn for value…and he didn't even raise the river??? how did all the money not go in here? yup, if you have spent much time playing with that guy, you just turn over your hand and hope its good.

4. Pretty weird that the Villain just called it down with top two. Not getting stacked in this situation actually mean, Hero won the battle, because he saved his last 90 $. I think, Hero played his hand totally fine, but I hate the Villains line.

5. Why does it matter if you only value bet on the river when your good 90% of the time? It's not like your playing against the same 8 opponents an entire session every day of the week.

6. 1/2 standard open is $10… 2/5 standard open is $20

7. I've wanted to work more thin value into my game, but it simply seems that top pair is, in most spots, a 2 street hand. If we stick in a 3rd bet on the riv, overwhelmingly the opponent simply folds or we're beat…or we could even expose ourselves to a check raise bluff that could be disastrous if we don't yet have a good read on the opponent. Rare is the guy who's gonna just call down 3 street with middle pair/top pair bad kicker, etc. What's our optimistic range for him? Same top pair with a kicker that was strong enough to call but not strong enough to 3-bet pre?

   It's hard to read the board at this level as well. Regardless that villain shouldn't have called pre with K9o, it was absolutely in many low stakes casual players calling range.

   To add a bit more deception into my game, I have begun underrepping my strong 1-pair hands by occasionally sticking a check in on an earlier street.

8. Iv'e seen one commonality one this channel and it's worse hands getting beat by better hands. This guy's thinking works part of the time and as we have seen a lot of the time possibly 60% or more on lower stakes it don't! I would have checked down the river a win is a win or save some chips an ak is just one pair here. It's a simple game on low stakes best hand wins the only time you want to decipher your opponents range on small stakes is when you flop top set and want him to improve to 2 pair and trips like -k-j-7-5-7. I like to c bet the flop with any pair, check the turn at times and sometimes let him make a fatal mistake on the river. In NL 1/3 or 2/5 there nothing wrong with checking down the river to trappers with just one pair then calling weird bets to weak flushes that don't make sense or running 22 that he has no piece of. If 30 to 40% of the time your getting max value and stacks by betting for value with a-k one pair and 60% your losing your stack and it is what it is, then that's taking a step forward then 2 steps back. This hand I would have c bet the flop 30% of the pot and if he checked the turn I would have followed. If he bet all in on the river a fold isn't bad and if it's him betting for value you just call. Forget the flush draw it's over you have what is called one pair. For me from experience on low stakes a hand like j7 flopped 4-j-7 can be c bet as usual,the value bet the turn,and if it's a blank bet for value on the river you have 2 pair so do it.

9. Low stakes and Pro holdem is way different. Pro's don't get in tough spots like k-j vs aj very often and if it happens from blind to button action and the flop rolls J-2-5 it's not going to be the same. If it's a tourney or deep stack cash game the small blind will c bet and the button may call,but usually raise with a fold so they cant get there. A good player will assume the blind has kj-10-j qj etc.. and don't want them to improve and are happy with the pot and the blinds. If they decide to gamble with bluff outs and it goes J-2-5-9 3 clubs or whatever then a mutual check bet/reraise should take down the pot. It's kind of good player vs good player. Now with low stakes players you cant think like this. It can be 350 vs 400 stacks you have QQ vs 9-10 of suit heads up and the flop goes 9-4-2.. Great flops for over-pairs,but most rec players will check call to any bet that's not all in. Say you raised even 7 x pre flop or 35 then it goes check into a 70 dollar pot and you bet a nice 58 right.. The guy will usually just call. Just do some experiments QQ is still just one pair so that 9-4-2-10 unknowingly brings the Hero into a drawing situation quite often and you lose 60% of your stack to a blank river reraise shove. People should try 3/6 limit and learn the power of the best hand and apply it to low NL it's not much different. If you could buy in for 2,500 and just crush the game different story you can raise 4x pre flop and get a-q top pair over bet the pot a bunch over and over again and build your stack with pressure and usually the best hand on the flop.

10. I always think to myself what’ worst is going to call and I think it cost me a lot of value. Today at 1/2 I was in the BB with 8-9 off flop came 8-8-5 guy bet 10 i called turn was a 5 he bet 20 i called river was a Q he checked and like an ass i checked back he had pocket 5-9.

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