Are You a Good or a Great Poker Player?

What is it that separates a good Poker player from a great Poker player? Well, you can find many answers to this inquiry, and without a doubt, one of the major answers you will hear is the value bet.

Being afraid to miss value bets is what keeps many good players from taking the next step towards becoming a great Poker player. This is really just common sense when you think about it. If you have the best possible hand, then naturally you will bet, but getting the full value out of less dominant hands is harder to do, the secret is having a healthy bank roll.

Value betting is situational like many of the more advanced concepts in Poker. You will decide how to play value bet based on the actual situation and your opponent, but even that said there are some general facts that good players know when talking about value betting.

In Limit Holdem, for instance, you really have to be very aggressive with betting. Because the bets are bound at levels that make them so small in relation to the pot, people will often regard your value bets as extremely weak hands. The typical mindset is, most of the time, that because the bets are so small, might as well be sure the guy is not bluffing you. This is actually a fish mindset, and it is this way that you get the pot built up to pay you off when you hit that monster hand.

It goes without saying that value betting in No Limit Holdem much trickier. First, you have to make certain on what the other player has, and then from there, you must be courageous to act on it. If you have a third pair, and you know that the player has something like A-Q and missed completely, are you willing to re-raise strong on a pair of fives? Well, putting an opponent on his cards is not only required to understand whether or not you have taken him down, it will also help you know how much you should bet by having a hand of “hidden value” such as a straight that is not obvious.

In addition to that, a value bet that is good considers what particular type of player you are up against. A regular player tends to call bets that have the same strength as his hand, meaning he won't consider a large bet with pocket threes. So if you think a player has a weak hand, make certain that the bet is not huge since you want a call. But if your opponent is a tough one, who may try reading you, then you can bet stronger and extract even more chips if not all of them out of that wrong read.

If you think value betting is complex, then you are right. It is so complicated that it can never really be taught. Poker players learn it as they go along. They see to it that they analyze their play and other's play. As you continue to play while studying the game, you will begin to gradually know how to value bet and how to maximize your money by employing it.