[taylormaas]

I hate that saying. I always change it up when I talk about things. And honestly, its what I would consider a complex topic when you break it down so I probably won’t go further than this. But I consider the reasons to bet to be: To realize equity and to deny equity.

Betting for protection is something that sounds wrong whenever I hear it. Whatever reason it may be, I just don’t like how it sits with me. Betting to deny equity is a much better reason in my opinion. It encompasses that same type of thought process but gives it a more real purpose.

[rabman50]

This is from Modern Poker Theory by Michael Acevedo.

Betting as a “bluff”, “for value”, etc. are results of betting not the reasons to bet. If you bet and your opponent calls with worse, you made a value-bet. If they fold a better hand than yours, you made a successful bluff.

If you think about betting in a more scientific and methodical way by applying game theory concepts, you can reduce the reasons for betting to two primary concepts:

• Leveraging the advantage of knowing your own cards

• Realizing equity or prevent your opponent’s equity realization

Taylor’s take is right-on. I also hear phrases like “my hand doesn’t need a lot of protection”. What they really mean is “I don’t need to deny my opponents equity realization”.

[misclickdonkey]

Im not a big fan of protection bets either. because your either getting called or raised or they fold anyways. it hardly ever changes anything. So say you want to protection bet for 20% of the pot on the river. Are you really going to fold if i click it back and min raise you? probably not. Sure sometimes itll get a worse hand to fold and you dont have to show down. But what happens when you have 3rd pair on the river protection bet to 20% and I 3-4x your hand when you were going to just fold to a half pot bet anyways? now youve lost another 20% of the pot from your stack. Like the other guys said i think we want to be betting as a bluff, to deny equity, or to get value. if you have some show down value but really dont want to put more chips in why do it In my opinion.

[jack]

Thanks for the clarification and the great comments. Rec.Poker rules!