Obsessed With Value
As you improve along your poker journey, one of the first things you notice is that players bet huge, everyone folds & they proudly show aces. Nobody gonna run me down & crack those babies. They get no value.
If I can get more value from my winning hands than everyone else, they can’t beat me. The bad beats don’t derail me, because I make more when I win.
So I’m trying to let the aggressive guy bet and putting the money in for the passive player. I’m trying to find that magic maximum bet-size that villain will call.
I can’t tell you how grateful & happy I would be if you have any ideas or valuable info on getting the most value from situations. I know it’s player specific, but what do you do to exploit villain? Any discussion is welcome
I grapple with the idea that villain folded, but would have called a slightly smaller bet. Or villain called 100, but when he turns over his hand I see that with his strength, he would have called 700.
2 Replies
The "would he have called 700" regret is real but you can use it as data rather than just pain. I started keeping rough mental notes on specific villain types at my stakes, and most calling stations at lower buy-ins will call pot-sized bets on the river way more than you'd think, especially with two pair or worse. The bigger leak I see is people sizing down on the river against weak players out of fear when those players have already committed 40% of their stack and are basically pot-committed mentally. What stakes and formats are you playing? That changes the answer a lot.
O, I should have included that information:
Play mostly 1/3 cash live and a couple of WSOP events when the circuit comes around
Not looking for anything earth shattering - just thought some of you might share your approach or thoughts about getting maximum value. I’m already pretty good at recognizing lines, but always looking for an edge.
Bluffing is fun, but nothing is more important than superior value-betting.
