Pot control section of core.

ROI RUINER

I think I’m about to answer my own question here but there’s a part in the video that discusses small bet sizing on the turn with marginal holdings as opposed to checking.

So if there is 12bbs in the pot and we make like a 1/6th-1/5th sized bet and do this consistently with A weak kicker for instance doesn’t this make us exploitable?

At 10nl I’m not too worried about it but as I move up and employ this players are going to be more observant. Eventually people are gonna start raising whatever hands be it air or strong hands. Then I’m gonna be required to counter and so on.

To balance I can see doing this with very strong hands that may not get action anyway without small bets but those don’t come along often. Marginal hands come around a lot.

So would a better balance strategy be to take the risk in some spots and call someone if they start raising and try to utilize information on their tendencies?

Never doing that vs a fish of course but vs a stronger player who is capable of making the read I am weak and trying to deny my equity.

Ironically there is a hand from Live at the Bike where a player used this exact strategy and it actually worked. He had to bluff catch with some weak hands and made some great decisions. If I can find the video I will post the link.

Red

Lagtard wrote: »

So would a better balance strategy be to take the risk in some spots and call someone if they start raising and try to utilize information on their tendencies?.

All ranges should be balanced. It's not because you're underbetting - with a wider range - that your range is unbalanced. That's your off-table work to insure that your range will be balanced - including bluffs and strong values hands too.

DoubleBarrel

Kudos to the OP for having a bad run, taking a break from the game, and then coming back studying stronger. I'm always doing the same thing now although I don't take any breaks anymore. It's better for me to just plow through the bad and take it in stride. It strengthens my mental game and resolve.

Jordan Power

Also the idea of sizing down with marginal hands allows you to get called by a wider range of your opponent's hands. He should naturally continue more often vs a 1/4 pot bet than a 2/3 pot bet, so using this smaller sizing might actually allow you in a hypothetical example of having a decent strength second pair to extract a potential second street of value from a worse second pair or perhaps even worse hands.

So while your question is really can this be exploited which @Red covered, I would also note that using a smaller sizing can turn what feels like a bluff into a thin value bet on the turn that then allows you to cheaply showdown when checked to on the river IP.

ROI RUINER

Right. Because if we get called to the river IP we don’t want to go for value by reopening up the betting round with a marginal hand. We go for thin value only OOP.

I was playing a SnG last night and really utilized this concept. I mixed up small bets, checks, and donk bets with really strong and really marginal hands when it got down to the final 3 ITM.

No one knew how to respond to my bets. I could be betting a set for 1/4 pot or a draw. I only got raised when they were confident with their hand and it allowed me to play perfectly against them.

DoubleBarrel

I'm finding it extremely difficult to control my pot during marathon poker sessions.