Why you shouldn’t bet for ‘information’
You will often hear players use phrases like ‘I bet to find out where I was.’ In fact even in analysis or poker commentary people use the phrase ‘bet (or raise) for information’. Most of the time it’s a mistake to view a bet or a raise as an attempt to gain information. And here’s why…
The first problem is that you may not get the information you want or may not like the information you get. Let’s say you call a preflop raiser with 8-8 and the flop comes K-6-2. You don’t know if your Eights are good or not so you decide to bet to ‘find out where you’re at.’ Your opponent raises you – now what? What information have you gained? Have you just found out your hand is beaten or have you just found out your opponent is a strong player who views your lead as weakness?
What if your opponent calls your bet – what have you learned now? Maybe your opponent’s call is weakness and he’s calling with a worse hand, maybe it’s strength and he’ll extract value from you on a later street. He may even be floating you with position.
Thinking like a winner
Getting information should be a by-product of betting, not the sole reason for your bet. It simply is not a good enough reason for putting chips in a pot, because good players will exploit you. Of course, your opponents’ response to your bets will give you information, but you shouldn’t be choosing to bet just so that you can respond to their reaction! Betting to see where you are is a defensive way of thinking about the game and is counter to what should be your main plan: to be the one asking the difficult questions. You should focus on making as many of your bets as possible either for value to be called by worse hands or as bluffs to make better hands fold. That way you’re the aggressor and you’re thinking about the game in the right way.
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