Hey all,

I've played poker on and off for several years but in the last few months have made my first real concerted effort to learn "the correct" way to play. I have found that I am having to "unlearn" some of my old habits but that the required mathematics I had to learn for my degree have served me well. Many of the statistical strategies were things that I knew or could have derived if I had actually thought of them that way, but getting beyond the "gut feeling" has really been my hardest habit to break.

Part of that "gut feeling" extended to how I bet. I didn't have a set betting pattern, if I thought I should bet a lot I just threw out what felt like "a lot". I know this can lead to predictability so I often tried to change it up to sew confusion. However, I've been reading up (both in print and on the web) on proper NL and Limit hold`em strategies and think I may have a point of confusion regarding betting.

I've seen in some posts people referencing betting #xBB as their betting method, in others I've seen 1/2 pot, pot, over pot etc, and I've also seen betting stack percentages. I was looking for some clarification on these, not when to do which, but what each related to?

#xBB I'm assuming is referring to Limit where you're just betting based on the big blind, however it sounded like this was also being applied in some NL games as well.

The 1/2 pot, pot, overpot seems much more abstract as this could crank up to phenomenal levels at the turn and river (and obviously only applies to NL).

The stack percentages makes sense, but seems unrelated to the game at hand other than from the standpoint of either "I only want to bet X% of my stack on this hand based on my confidence" or "I want to bet X% of HIS stack to force him all-in on a later street".

If someone could confirm or clarify my observations it would be really appreciated. Finally, in normal NL hold`em what method do you use? (elaboration on said method is more than welcome)

Thanks,

-Shaun

PS: fantastic site, best I've been to and I am excited to stick around.