Postflop Betting Amounts

What amount should you be betting for different kinds of hands? Around these forums, I hear a lot of "bet the pot," but I can't really figure out which hands require betting the entire pot and what amount should be bet for lesser hands.

'standard' bets are 1/2 pot to pot size.
The amount of betting depends on the board (possible draws) ,number of people in the pot and your position and stack

2/3 to 3/4ish pot.

1/2 pot makes a good continuation but doesn't protect nor build pots well enough.

1/3-1/2 pot: rare, usually when I want to keep the pot under control, or a block bet on the river.

2/3-3/4 pot: my "standard" bet. Good to bet where you feel you should bet, and it masks your hand strength to keep this a bit consistent.

pot or more: Typical situation would be when I hit "something" on the flop in a limped pot. TP or better and I'll often fire a bet that goes over the pot. Basically three scenario's that come to mind where I bet over the pot: 1) I think I'm ahead and I think my opp will call anyway so why not bet as high as I can, 2) I really want to discourage draws, typically in a pot with a lot of people, 3) I'm using them to bully the table

Originally Posted by TLR

The amount of betting depends on the board (possible draws) ,number of people in the pot and your position and stack

Can you elaborate? I'm guessing that you'd want to bet more if you think your opp's on a draw, if there are more people in the pot, and in late position with a big stack?

And what's the "block bet on the river" that jackvance mentioned?

Originally Posted by pepsiholic

Originally Posted by TLR

The amount of betting depends on the board (possible draws) ,number of people in the pot and your position and stack

Can you elaborate? I'm guessing that you'd want to bet more if you think your opp's on a draw, if there are more people in the pot, and in late position with a big stack?

And what's the "block bet on the river" that jackvance mentioned?

Board: If the board has possible draws you want to bet an amount that will give the other players bad odds to draw. Lets say you hold AQc and the flop is QsJs6h. and there is one opponent. You have TPTK but there are str8 and flush draws, you want to bet at least 2/3 of the pot. If the pot is 180, you bet at least 120, their chance of completing (assuming they are drawing) in the next card is about 20%, and they have to call 120/300 >20% to chase.

Number of people in the pot: The more people in the pot the more you have to bet to scare the draws, since each person that calls give the others better odds to draw.

Stack: If a bet (lets say 2/3 of the pot) makes you pot committed then you are better off pushing or folding most of the time.