The Dart Maker Blog

One of the biggest challenges facing a pokern player is keeping people in when you’ve got the best hand-you’ve waited all night, played well, saved your chips, folded, folded and folded some more, and now you’ve got a full boat. Now you’ve got a new problem-how much do you bet?

You want to keep people in the hand, but you’re also looking to make a buck or two. Bet too much and everyone will fold, but if you bet too little and you’ll waste your awesome hand.

The key is to make any bet worthwhile to the other online poker players. Throwing all your chips in might work if you’ve got someone reckless enough or there are some other big hand possibilities, but if you want to suck in the two pairs and trip hands, you need to take several factors into account.

Look at what online poker hands are possible: Assuming that you’ve got the best hand, look at the board and see what might be out there. If there are some big hand possibilities (not as big as yours, of course), then you can put more on your bets. If there’s not much potential on the table, then keep your bets more minimal.

Look at the other player’s stacks: Try to keep your bet within practical range for the other players. You want them to feel that the risk is worth them calling your bet, so unless you think they’ll call, try to avoid putting them all in.

Finally, look at the players themselves. What are their tendencies? Figure out if they’re tight, loose, or somewhere in between. If you’ve got a sucker who calls everything, then go nuts. If everyone is conservative, put a conservative raise out there and hope they call.