The donation bet
Posted by Yutani on June 12 2006 00:40:38
Sometimes when you make a bet it’ll make all worse hands fold while all better hands call or raise ...
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Sometimes when you make a bet it’ll make all worse hands fold while all better hands call or raise. These bets have their place, for example if you call in late position after an early player limps with pocket 7’s. The Small Blind completes and everyone checks to you on a flop of 5c Qd 5s. It is obviously incorrect to check behind here, where any card higher than a 7 can make someone a better pair. But at the same time, if your bet is called the caller probably has a Queen or a 5.
Likewise if you miss the flop completely when raising preflop, but feel there is a fair chance whoever called might fold to a continuation bet. You are basically betting with the intention of letting that money go if you are called, while realizing that if your opponent folds, you probably had the best high hand anyways.
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I am however not a strong believer of making the “finding out where I am at†bet. On discussion forums and weblogs I often read that people made a bet, because they knew that only a stronger hand would raise. Or perhaps they fear that their opponent is likely to bluff if they check, so they think it better to bet.
I don’t know if my betting pattern is much diffrent than that of other players, but it is seldom that I don’t have an oppinion about if my hand is infront or behind. Perhaps I am wrong and I’ll loose some money because of it, but I am rarely so perplexed as to where I stand, that I feel a need to invest a bet purely to gauge my opponents reaction.
Perhaps it is a bi-product of playing trash hands and flopping bottom pair, that urges players to make these donation bets or because of too much multi-tabling hampering their hand reading ability. It just seems logical to me that if you don’t know what to do with a holding, then check your hand and figure out how to avoid ending in this spot again.