Tip 22: Value bet your losing hand

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Usually when people under bet the river it’s because they want to see you call. You can hear the player saying, “Please call! It will only cost you a tiny bit!”, with their small river bets.

Here’s an idea, why not bluff at the pot by throwing in a value bet on the river? You’ll trick your opponents into folding, by making it look like you’re begging for a call. If your value bets are 1/5th of the pot, you’d only need to win 1/4 of the time to show a profit with this play.

3 Responses to “Tip 22: Value bet your losing hand”

  1. Steve

    I think this is wrong:
    If your value bets are 1/5th of the pot, you’d only need to win 1/4 of the time to show a profit with this play.
    Depends on the size of the pots! If you get called on the big pots and only win the small ones you’re at a loss even if it works more than 1/4 of the time…It’d be different if you said “throw in a minraise”

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  2. Vincent

    This doesn’t make any sense at all. How can you make a “value bet” if you are trying to make the opponent fold. Other from that it’s still not a good tip because it is very board- player- and image dependant.

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  3. adioking

    As a professional $10/$20NL+ poker player here in Las Vegas, I agree with the article. I feel that value betting your losing hand has a very high value in many cases. Yes, these are situational and subjective times, but when those times do come you must make the bet. I know from experience that it may be both a more efficient use of chips when you lose and a more valuable play when you win than if you were to bet more chips. In the event that you’re being sandbagged, you will lose less chips. In the event that the other player has missed a draw or lost confidence in his hand, he will realize that your bet is indeed a value bet and fold. Most players at my level of play are smart enough to recognize a good value bet, but many miss the fact that not all value bets are made to suck them for another bet.

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