The PokerSnowie Video Quiz series aims to answer the question: "what is the right play?" It is a set of poker coaching videos presented by French professional poker player Sharp. In each video, Sharp sets up an interesting hand in the "Scenarios" tool of PokerSnowie and explains how to analyse the situation and learn from PokerSnowie's advice, based on the Game Theory Optimal model.

Understanding PokerSnowie's bet size and frequency

May 29, 2014 | Posted by PokerSnowie

PokerSnowie has learnt GTO using three different bet sizes: half pot, pot and twice the pot. It is not necessarily enough to cover all the spectrum of No Limit situations, but we can already learn a lot by studying in which situation PokerSnowie suggests to bet small (1/2 pot), bet big (pot) and over bet (2 pot)

Let’s contemplate some scenarios.

Hero opened under the gun at a 6-max table and is contemplating a continuation bet on the A94 flop.

In the first Scenario he is against the button. Villain’s calling range pre flop shouldn’t be wide. He is not closing the action, and can face a squeeze from the blinds or have to play in a multi-way pot. It is more profitable for him to 3bet and isolate hero with most of his range.

What ranges does PreflopAdvisor consider for the button versus an open from UTG?

	Call	3bet
If UTG had opened pot	3.27%	7.04%
If UTG had opened for half pot	6.56%	8.68%

On the flop, blowing the pot out of position is risky. Hero is facing a strong range and villain can float him. Therefore he should not Cbet often. PokerSnowie suggests to Cbet with only 18% of his preflop range if hero opened pot and 28% if he had opened for ½ pot pre flop.

Since hero doesn’t bet often, his value range is very strong. It consists of sets, combos of two pairs and AK. Therefore hero should bet big and PokerSnowie advocates a pot size bet.

In the second scenario villain is seated in the big blind. In this situation villain would have a much wider range since he was closing the action and hence got a discount pre flop. Being out of position he couldn’t 3bet profitably as often as if he was on the button.

Let’s look at the ranges according to PreflopAdvisor:

	Call	3bet
If UTG had opened pot	7.48%	5.67%
If UTG had opened for half pot	23.14%	5.07%

Now hero wants to Cbet very often with a very wide range:

He is facing a weaker range
Villain is out of position and cant float or raise hero’s Cbet profitably

On that flop PokerSnowie would bet almost all his range: 93% if hero had opened pot and 88% if he had opened for ½ pot pre flop.

Consequently hero should bet small. He doesn’t want to value cut himself when he goes for thin value and he wants to loose the minimum when he bluffs. And PokerSnowie agrees, advising to half bet pot.

We can state the general rule: the less often we bet, the bigger our bet size should be.

Let see some more examples and applications of that rule

Hero is in position but this is one of the worst flop textures for his range. He should not bet very often and when he does he should bet pot.

Hero is out of position and the board texture is well coordinated. But hero did 3bet pre flop, his range is strong and impacts reasonably that flop. Therefore he wants to bet often and for only half pot.

Hero’s value range is strong enough to be able to bluff with 66.

And to finish off, here are a couple of examples on the river

Hero had opened UTG, Cbet flop and turn. On the river he cannot value bet worst than the Q of clubs. Since he won’t bet a wide range, he should go for a big size and bet pot.

Same board, but very different action post flop. On the river, hero wants to get a street of value with all his flushes. There are a lot of combos and he should bet only half pot.

As mentioned, although PokerSnowie has some design limitations in the bet sizes it uses, its approach is still extremely useful to understand and learn to apply the principles of the right level of bet sizing and perhaps even more importantly, their frequency.

Sharp

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Understanding PokerSnowie's bet size and frequency

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