Well Cloutier says to always bet the pot...and to never vary your betting pattern. I personally don't always bet the pot...but I hardly ever vary my betting pattern.

That's in NL championship Hold'em...though I'm not sure the book applies as much to standard ring games, geared more towards tourneys.

Thanks Kenny. I have read the book and like you I feel he is talking about Trns. I have no problem betting Trns or SnGs but for some reason I stuggle betting in cash games both live and online.

I have not put in enough time playing rings so maybe what I need to do is drop down and play the lower buy in's and pay my dues before moving up even though my bankroll covers the .50/100 game. I am not a losing player at this level but I am not gaining much ground either.

I expect you know about a lot of this stuff already, as you an accomplished tournament player, but here's my 2p.

The biggest mistake you can make is to slowplay a good hand, or undercharge drawing hands. This will get you drawn out on consistently, as you so rightly point out, and you cannot possibly turn a profit.

However, as you say, you don't want to bet so much or so predictably that people fold against your monsters.

The key really is in the odds, the EV. If you hold a good made hand on the flop (a set, say), but someone is drawing to a flush to beat you, then they are 4:1 to improve on the next card (which is all you should be thinking about, unless you're going all-in). If you charge them anything more than that then your bet is +EV for you and thus by calling they are making a mathematical mistake.

In the case of more than one opponent, you have to worry about what odds callers to your right will be getting when the action gets to them. For instance, you bet the pot and there are three people in the hand with you. If the other two call, the person closing the betting now has 4:1! In general, the bigger the bet, the less callers you will have, so number of opponents is a factor.

The type of player you are facing has an impact as well. A certified flush chaser will call potsizers regardless because they have 'a feeling' it will complete. This is great news for you, as over the long term you will make at least twice as much money than you will lose, but when they make their draw you have to be able to junk your good hand, e.g. a set. If you pay them off, then this will more than destroy the +EV overlay you are getting from them paying too much to chase.

I would also recommend being consistent with your bets against draws. Going all-in against an inveterate flush chaser is fine, but only if you do it EVERY TIME this situation occurs. Otherwise you are more susceptible to $ swings caused by them sucking out on the particular time you went all-in and not making their draws when you bet modestly.

In NL you should never never never ever ever ever give a free or very cheap card with what you think is the best hand unless your hand is more or less unbeatable (e.g. a full house on the flop, where you WANT to price most drawing hands in, but even then you have to be carefull you don't end up with an under-full and lose your stack against a high pocket pair making their two-outer which DOES happen), or you are willing to take the risk of being destroyed in return for a potentially massive payoff.

In aggressive games, betting less than about 2/3 of the pot looks pretty weak, and may be susceptible to you being blown off the pot by someone with a worse hand than yours. Say you have top pair top kicker. You have to bet strongly against strong opposition, otherwise someone might try to take it away from you with a second-best or nothing hand. Of course if your opponent is hyper-aggressive then you should occasionally weak-lead into them with a powerhouse, but this is considerably less risky than a pure slowplay and aginst aggressive opponents who cannot resist coming over the top, more profitable.

But you cannot always bet weak hands strongly and strong hands weakly, because this is too much of a pattern. So in general you have to add deception to your game by occasionally doing things like overbetting the pot with the nuts (making it look like you have a weak holding and are trying to bully people out of the pot), or acting abnormally weak when you actually weak, etc. Of course this is only for situations facing pretty good players as awful ones won't be tuning in to your signals and are therefore impervious to deception.

You also have to look at stack sizes. Bob Ciaffone and Stewart Reuben say in their book 'Pot and No Limit Poker' (which I thoroughly recommend, although the NL section is quite thin) "How deep you are determines your play", which is true. When you bet, you need to be aware of other people's stack sizes in relation to your own (which is probably second nature for you, being a tournament player). Same things to think about - short stacks will be tipped over the edge into gambling more (which is great, if they have called a raise to see a flop on short money, they will very often go all-in with top pair no kicker on the flop), confrontations with deep stacks are potentially more risky undertakings, and you have to worry about how much ammo you have left for later streets otherwise you may be digging a hole for yourself, etc.

At the end of the day, it's always better for you to overbet and win a small amount than underbet and lose a large amount. Waiting 100 hands for a set and then having 5 potential victims fold to a modest bet is just part of life, but you do HAVE to bet otherwise you run the risk of suckout and you are also negatively affecting the size of the pot you can win.

I am definitely no expert, but the amount to bet is determined by all these things and more.

Anyway, somewhere in the midst of my ramble there is the title of a book that I would recommend by Reuben and Ciaffone. Another one by Mr Reuben on his own is 'How Good is Your Pot Limit Hold'em', which is a very good and highly interactive read, and which has a lot of focus on bet size, stack size and opponent types.

Criticisms of my meanderings by the countless others more experienced than myself are more than welcome. I'm well aware I'm not an amazing player but I'm trying to post a bit more on the strategy front in order to get feedback and improve.

play low enough limits to get a feel for the aggression factor....then take it up as you see you can win...

cloutier says that in the section on PLHE not no limit, however when in doubt i i find about 3/4s to an entire pot sized bet usually cant be far off from correct. it always help if you have a good read on what he might have and then betting as much as he will call, without giving him the correct odds to call is certainly a winner.
gl
matty