25% Pot Bet Size Example 1: A New Strategy for Over Cards

You are out of position with a medium hand. There is a good chance that you are holding the best hand, but your hand is vulnerable to over cards. Clearly, this is a situation where you don't want to bet big. The old and the new AI agree that for the bet sizes 50%, 100% and 200% pot, the best strategy is to check.

The new AI, however, has a new degree of freedom and strongly advises to bet 25% pot!

If you think about it, that play has several advantages:

• First of all, you protect your hand by making hands like KdQd or Ac6c fold, which could easily outdraw you on the river. You would be happy to collect the pot right away.
• Secondly, you'll collect EV from high card calling hands. You make your opponent call with his inferior hands instead of giving him a free card.
• At the same time, your bet works like a blocking bet, where you, not your opponent, set the bet size. If he holds an over-pair, for example, he will call your bet. If you had checked instead, he would bet and you would have to call anyway. In this case, you would give him the choice of the bet size, and if he bets 50% pot you would still call and put a higher amount into the pot with your inferior hand.

This is a nice example, where the new bet size allows for a new strategic betting pattern.

In the next post we'll look at another example of PokerSnowie's use of the new 25% pot bet size.