When making a bet, we need to ask ourselves two very important questions, the first being, “Am I betting for value or as a bluff?” Once we have the first answer, we must then ask ourselves one of two other questions: “If I am betting for value, what worse hands can I get to call?” and “If I am betting as a bluff, what better hands can I get to fold?“

Asking these questions greatly improves the reasons behind our actions. And if you ask me, the biggest difference between good players and great players is the reasons behind their actions. To be a solid thinking poker player, we must practice thinking; asking ourselves these questions is the first step.

Lots of our bets in poker seem very standard. We get an opening hand, so we open. Since we’ve opened, if no one raised, we generally c-bet most flops. Usually, whether we hit the flop or not, we do about the same thing. We are the aggressor, and the aggressive action will work a decent percentage of the time. But for the times we smack the flop or when we get board textures that we know smack a villain’s range, we should ask these questions and come up with an appropriate plan of action.

Let me give a couple of examples. Let’s say we have Td-Tc and the flop comes Th-6c-2s. Sometimes with these dry boards that should miss the villain’s calling range often, we should check instead of c-bet. We are trying to let the villain catch up. We know that if we bet, we would be betting for value, but we also know by asking ourselves, “What worse hands can call” that it is hard for the villain to continue when we have most of the tens and there are not many sensible draws.

Check/calling this flop with a plan to either make a delayed c-bet on the turn or possibly check once more and bet the river will allow your opponent room to catch up or bluff. When holding top set on a dry board, allowing the villain to catch up or bluff may be the only way to extract value.

Here is another example. Let’s say we have As-Kh, we open, and one player flats. The flop comes 9h-Ts-Js. Here, we have a wet connected board that will hit a flatter’s range often. I think in this situation with two overs, a gutshot straight draw, and a backdoor runner-runner flush draw, if we bet and get raised, we will be in an awkward spot trying to decide if we have enough equity to continue.

I think some players will c-bet here even with this board texture expecting the c-bet to work often enough to be profitable, but it will be stack and villain dependent. Sometimes in spots like this, I will check/call on the flop instead of making a standard c-bet.

My hand has value and I do not want to be forced to fold. I also don’t want to have to make a decision for my whole stack with overs and draws. So, in order to avoid this tricky spot, we ask ourselves, “If I c-bet, which would be a bluff unless we were willing to stack off, what better hands will fold?”

On this type of board, I don’t think many hands that connect with it will fold. Most flush and straight draws will be continuing and possibly trying to get stacks in on the flop. One option would be to check/call. If we check/call, we can get to the turn for about the same price as if we would have c-bet and we don’t lose the value of our hand. This is what I mean by so much of poker can be standard, but when we are facing tough spots, we need to be able to think through the situation by asking ourselves the right questions to help us come up with an optimal decision.

Now, I would like to talk about a common mistake I see every day: when players bet the river when only hands that have them beat can call. I know we have all been in that spot and after we bet and the villain raises, we are like, “Doh.” If we were to ask, “Am I betting for value or as a bluff,” and then follow that with the either “If I am betting for value, what worse hands can I get to call” or “If I am betting as a bluff, what better hands can I get to fold” before we bet the river, we can determine if we need to bet.

Once we have determined if we are betting, we should have a plan. There is no reason to bet, get raised, and then be confused. Before making any bet, we should have a plan for all players left in the hand.

In this spot, facing one villain on the river, we should determine if we have showdown value. If we have showdown value, but don’t want to call a raise, we should check/call. If we have no showdown value, we need to decide if we should bluff or not. When deciding whether to bluff, we simply ask ourselves if any better hands will fold and then make our decision. There will be some times when just check/folding is the best option, but whatever we decide, we should have reasons behind our actions.

To expand on having a plan, I would like to add a few points. If it is folded to us and we are deciding whether to open, we should look at these things. First, we look to see if any of the villains have a shove stack. If any of them do, we simply decide if we would call if they shoved over our open. If any of the villains has a large stack, we need to decide how we would react to a 3bet over our open.

Now, make sure when you make these plans, know they are not set in stone. We are more setting an outline for the events that we think could take place. If we are thrown a curveball, then we need to make sure to take the new information into consideration and adjust our plan accordingly.

For example, say we had a plan to call the shove stacks after opening because of their size, but we were going to fold to any 3bets by the bigger stacks. Then, we bet, a big stack flats, and then two short stacks shove. Obviously, a lot more happened than originally anticipated, so we take the new information into account and make an appropriate decision. It’s not often we would continue to call the short stacks’ shoves when two of them shoved and there is still a big stack with a decision left. Often in this spot, I think we will be finding a fold.

Poker is a game of skill and requires lots of thinking. The better we get at applying the right questions to the right situations, the better we will be playing. We should be asking ourselves these questions every time we bet until they become second nature. Let’s all strive to be solid thinking players and see how far this game can take us.

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