What Is A Bet In Poker?
2 minutes
Last Updated: December 17, 2023
In poker, a bet is a wager made by a player during any betting round.
There are two main goals that poker players aim to accomplish with a bet, they either want to win the pot by getting other players to fold, or they want to increase the size of the pot by extracting more money from other players.
In No-Limit Poker Games, players are allowed to bet any amount they want, while in games with fixed limits and pot limits, players can only bet up to a predetermined amount.
With this said, some of the different betting options you will encounter in poker are:
- The open raise bet: the first voluntary action that increases the size of the active bet in the hand is known as the open raise bet.
- The 3-bet: the 3-bet is the third made bet after the blinds and the 2-bet, increasing the active bet size in poker hands.
- The 4-bet: the 4-bet is the fourth made bet after the blinds, the 2-bet, and the 3-bet, increasing the active bet's size.
- The donk bet: is a bet made by a player who was not the aggressor in the previous betting street. For example, if a player who has called before the flop makes a bet on the flop instead of checking to the preflop raiser.
- The continuation bet: also known as a “c-bet” is a bet made on the flop by the player who was the aggressor in the preflop betting round. For example, if a player who raises preflop makes a bet on the flop.
Poker Bet Example:
Let’s say you are playing in a $1/$2 No Limit game of Texas Hold’em. The UTG player makes a raise to $4, the HJ folds, the CO makes a re-raise to $10, the BTN folds, SB calls the $10 bet, BB folds, and the UTG player calls.
In this situation, we have two different bet types:
- The $4 bet that UTG made is called an open raise or a 2-bet since it is the second bet after the blinds, increasing the active bet from $2 to $4.
- The $10 re-raise that the CO made is called a 3-bet since it is the third made bet after the blinds and the open raise, and it increases the size of the active bet from $4 to $10.
Now let's say that the flop comes As 7s, the SB, and the UTG check to the CO, who makes a $30 bet.
This flop bet is called a continuation bet since it is made by the player who was the aggressor preflop, as CO is the last player to make a raise preflop.
Now if instead of checking the SB or the UTG make the first bet postflop, this bet would be considered a donk bet since it would be made by a player who was not the aggressor before the flop as both SB and UTG just called the CO re-raise before the flop.
ONLINE POKER:
RESOURCES:
