Pot Limit Omaha Poker Forums

I was playing with david benefield the other day and noticed that he used quite small bet sizes (2/3-3/4). Could this be a leak in PLO?

obv he is very good holdem/poker player and was just wandering if his style can transfer over in a game where equity is alot less polarized

I would say that bigger leak would be to bet always pot. You can and should vary your bet sizing depending what you want to accomplish, what kind of players you are playing with and what kind of situation you are in. Of course when you vary your bet sizing, you need to balance it as otherwise villains would pick it up too easily.

I would say that bigger leak would be to bet always pot. You can and should vary your bet sizing depending what you want to accomplish, what kind of players you are playing with and what kind of situation you are in. Of course when you vary your bet sizing, you need to balance it as otherwise villains would pick it up too easily.

Ya, this sums it up pretty well. Generally I adjust my bet sizing according to board texture, player types, and # of opponents. In HU pots, I like cb'ing full pot because it deters people from bluff raising me lightly, and it also defines their calling ranges better. If you cb pot, players will mostly only come over the top of you with strong hands, and call with draws or medium strength made hands, while often folding hands that have reasonable equity against your betting range.

In multi way pots, you have more fold equity when you bet into two or more players, so often times you can get away with c-bet bluffing smaller (especially on paired and monotone boards).

I just want to add 2 things:

David Benefield as well as most high stakes players bet for value thinner and balance their ranges way better than you or I or most people on this forum do. Part of this has to do with the fact that balancing my ranges would be a leak. People still play badly enough that I am going to play exploitably all the time and until I see someone exploiting me, I am going to go ahead and bet pot with a totally polarized range and size my bets based on the exact strength of my hand vs. the board texture. Nobody gives me crap so why wouldn't I?

The second thing, which is somewhat of a continuation of the first--he plays at a level where his opponents are playing on a much higher level and will be making WAY more moves than at lower stakes. When you expect people to be bloating pots and making moves based on board texture, it becomes far more profitable to be betting a bit less with a whole balanced range because people will be making moves on you so much more often. Basically I think it all comes down to the necessity for them to have balanced ranges.

So when Kasinokrime--a tough thinking player--bets pot into me and I raise pot with my TP+kickers+gutter, I can definitely make a case that my play is +EV because of how I expect him to respond and therefore make incorrect folds vs. my range which is wider than he might realize. But when some random donkey pots into me and I have a complete wrap but I know that he will NEVER fold to a raise when he pots it HU because he has top 2+, I just flat call.

I think I answered a different question about balancing ranges rather than whether or not betting 2/3-3/4 pot size is a leak. So, do I think this is a leak?

No.

I just want to add 2 things:

David Benefield as well as most high stakes players bet for value thinner and balance their ranges way better than you or I or most people on this forum do. Part of this has to do with the fact that balancing my ranges would be a leak. People still play badly enough that I am going to play exploitably all the time and until I see someone exploiting me, I am going to go ahead and bet pot with a totally polarized range and size my bets based on the exact strength of my hand vs. the board texture. Nobody gives me crap so why wouldn't I?

The second thing, which is somewhat of a continuation of the first--he plays at a level where his opponents are playing on a much higher level and will be making WAY more moves than at lower stakes. When you expect people to be bloating pots and making moves based on board texture, it becomes far more profitable to be betting a bit less with a whole balanced range because people will be making moves on you so much more often. Basically I think it all comes down to the necessity for them to have balanced ranges.

So when Kasinokrime--a tough thinking player--bets pot into me and I raise pot with my TP+kickers+gutter, I can definitely make a case that my play is +EV because of how I expect him to respond and therefore make incorrect folds vs. my range which is wider than he might realize. But when some random donkey pots into me and I have a complete wrap but I know that he will NEVER fold to a raise when he pots it HU because he has top 2+, I just flat call.

I think I answered a different question about balancing ranges rather than whether or not betting 2/3-3/4 pot size is a leak. So, do I think this is a leak?

No.

Awesome post.

Very good. Cheers for detailed answers guys!

Awesome post.

only because he is sucking up to you ;-)