Bet sizing

[seven-deuce]

Is there any real value in paying attention to bet sizes at 0.02 NL? Everybody seems to bet roughly the same amount and if a villain usually bets .08 on flop and then bets .10 is that really giving you any information about his holding? I usually bet the same it doesn't matter if im bluffing, semi bluffing or value betting. Is this good or bad?

[SSDavid]

It's not bad per se at these stakes, but it can make you lazy and is not a good habit for when you want to eventually move up, where players will be taking more notice of what you are doing.

[d0zer]

Often, exploitable play (such as bluffing smaller and vbetting bigger) is ideal, and yeilds the maximum expectation. It just becomes bad when your opponents are good enough to exploit this exploitable play. At the microstakes, there are few players good enough to exploit you, so you can get away with it more, but you shouldn't avoid it or embrace it blindly -- think about every situation and how capable your opponents are, and decide what you can get away with.

Practice that kind of nuanced thinking, and you'll be preparing yourself for tougher games while playing +EV.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I 2nd d0zer's post.

Different bet sizes accomplish different goals. Do you want Villain to call or fold? Do you want to induce Villain to bluff? Are you trying to extract value on a weak flopped set? Do you want to build up a pot for an all-in shove?

Bet sizing is largely dictated by your opponents' hands, not your own. Until you develop the ability to quickly put your opponents on a range, you're essentially betting blind. You need to be able to accurately guess what they have and you need to know what you want them to do / think when you bet a certain amount.

Whether to play or fold is based on your strength or perceived opponents' weakness. How much to bet is based on opponents holdings and what you want them to do.

[daven]

pay attention to YOUR bet sizing, you are out to maximise ev of your bets. Sizing obviously plays a monster role in this

[Fnord]

Against fish, I bet whatever amount of money I think will make me the most money and don't worry so much about how they read me. I'll even play games with bet sizes if I think I'm more likely to get a call/fold I want or get the pot really big fast.

Against stronger players, I usually bet the board texture or fail that, keep things to around 2/3 to 3/4 pot depending on how the game is playing to control information leakage.