3 Advantages of Betting Big in Flop Poker

Over the past 15 years, Xgtiger Casino No Limit Hold’em Poker Flop has gone through a drastic change. So much has changed about the way people play and think about the game that it’s hard to know where to start.

But what stands out the most in my mind is how different strategies have been used to increase c-bet in the past.

Looking back at the Tom Dwan Era

I remember watching episodes of High Stakes Poker back in the day when pot-size flop c-bets were common.

If an opponent frequently uses small bet sizes, this is an almost sure indicator that they do not know what they are doing.

But if you follow the developments of popular poker strategies, you know that this is no longer the case.

Today, small bets (especially ⅓ pot-sized bets) have become the new norm in many situations, and for good reason:

• Small bet sizing techniques are generally easy to understand and execute
• They make money in a ton of situations with very little risk

But poker, like all great games, is based on great players who have to adapt and reinvent themselves to continually maintain or increase their win rate.

With that in mind, it’s worth considering the question: when should you bet big?

To answer that question, you must first consider the advantages of betting big. That’s the scope of the rest of this article, with a focus on flop play as a preflop raiser.

3 Advantages of Betting Big (Versus Betting Small) on the Flop

In his latest Xgtiger Casino module How to Use Big Flop Bets, Xgtiger Casino Coach Ryan Riske discusses some of the often overlooked benefits of knowing if how and when to go big on the flop. In this article, we will discuss more than 3 advantages why a big flop bet strategy is worth implementing in your arsenal.

Advantage #1: Big Flop Bets are Hard to Play

One of the main advantages of small bet sizing strategies is their ease of implementation. However, small bet sizes are often quite easy for our opponents to play.

Coach Ryan explains that one of the most underappreciated advantages of a big flop sizing strategy is that it forces our opponents to make more difficult decisions.

For example, if our opponent is faced with a standard ⅓ flop c-bet on a board like A♠ K♥ 6♣ , it’s very difficult for him to make any big mistakes. Even the average recreational player knows that when faced with a small bet on this board, they can call all pairs and gutshot straight draws.

But now consider if our opponent were to face a pot-sized bet (or even a 150% pot-sized bet) on A♠ K♥ 6♣ . Facing a big flop bet in this situation is almost certainly not a situation our opponent gets into very often. And, in response, he probably had to do some thinking on his feet to try to come up with an appropriate response.

Ryan explains that with a big raising strategy, our opponents will make more mistakes (and for larger amounts of big blinds) than they would if we bet small.

Advantage #2: Big Bets Win More Money In Certain Situations (Contrary to What Solvers May Say)

Most of the dramatic changes in the techniques of raising good players in recent years can be attributed to the widespread use of poker solvers such as PioSolver or Monker. Using these programs, players were able to model theoretically sound sizing strategies, and trends began to emerge among players betting smaller.

The reason for this is that in a large number of poker scenarios, simplifying our betting range to a small scale is the simplest and most effective way to get the most theoretical expected value (EV).

This simplification is often reinforced when we compare the total EV of different sizing strategies in solvers. What often happens in these comparisons is that the overall EV of an exclusively small bet strategy or exclusively big bet strategy is about equal.

When the EVs of two different sizing strategies are equal, it’s often thought that we just pick whatever size we want.

However, as Ryan explained in his module, the EV outputs of solver solutions do not necessarily apply in the real world. This is because the solver’s EV calculations are performed against an ideal GTO opponent. So, while the solver may think that the two strategies are roughly equal, big bets are significantly better in practice in some situations.

In the real world, there is potentially an untold amount of extra EV to gain when we open the door for our opponent to make unbalanced decisions.

Advantage #3: Creative Scaling Strategies Give Us an Advantage Over Advanced Players

Let’s say you’re in the Big Blind, I’m in the Cutoff, and the flop is A♠ K♥ 6♣. Check me on the flop and I c-bet a 150% pot.

• Let me ask you a few questions about this place:
• How many of your King-X hands should you call?
• Do you always call him Ace-Two?
• What about Queen-Jack with a backdoor flush draw?
• What hands (if any) should you raise?

Even some advanced players don’t know the answers to some of these questions when faced with huge bet sizes. This indicates that there may be something to capitalize on.

Final Thoughts

As poker continues to evolve in being creative, yet still balanced, augmentation strategies will likely be among the best ways to stay ahead of the curve.

In Ryan’s 3-hour How to Use Big Flop Bets Poker lesson, he shows us how to build these strategies from scratch, and also teaches us how to play them. Join the Lab today to check it out.

As always, we hope you found this content useful. And if you haven’t already, check out more at Xgtiger Casino!

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