Resisting the Urge to Bet for Information

"I wanted to see where I was at" is a phrase I hear from a lot of amateur players. This is typically after the conclusion of a hand in which they were holding a medium to strong pocket pair, an overcard came on the flop (often an ace), and they bet. Whether the player realizes it or not, this is fear talking--fear of uncertainty, fear of the unknown, fear of being forced to make a decision. When someone bets "for information," what they're usually doing is attempting to absolve themselves of the burden of thinking. They're saying to themselves, "If I bet and get called here, I can then confidently check/fold in my knowledge that the the other player paired that overcard." The problem is that "betting for information" in that scenario is burning money. Whenever a bet is made, we should be aware of what the bet's purpose is. Are we betting to get value from worse hands? Are we betting to get better hands to fold? A combination of both? Or just to "take it down?" To illustrate, let's look at a hand I played last week (I'm using a different export format for the hand history, hopefully it's a little easier to read):


Seat 1: Small Blind ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 2: Big Blind ($32.75 in chips)
Seat 3: UTG ($22.18 in chips)
Seat 4: UTGplus1 ($30.37 in chips)
Seat 5: UTGplus2 ($15.81 in chips)
Seat 6: Donzo ($38.29 in chips)
Small Blind: posts small blind $0.10
Big Blind: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Donzo [9c 9d]
UTG: calls $0.25
UTGplus1: calls $0.25
UTGplus2: calls $0.25
Donzo: raises $1.50 to $1.50
Small Blind: folds
Big Blind: calls $1.25
UTG: calls $1.25
UTGplus1: calls $1.25
UTGplus2: folds
*** FLOP *** [5c Ac 3h]
Big Blind: checks
UTG: checks
UTGplus1: checks

Preflop is straightforward, as I'm dealt 99 on the button and there are three limpers when it gets to me. In retrospect I should've made it 7-8x instead of 6x, but I get three callers and the flop comes A53 with two clubs. It checks around to me and we're presented with a situation like I described above. So if we were going to bet, what is the purpose of our bet?

1) Value. I can reasonably expect to be called by flush draws and perhaps sometimes a pair with a gutshot (e.g. 45). There is perhaps a chance that some players might call one street with 66-88, but in a 4-way pot at these stakes it's unlikely.

2) Bluff. My profitable bluffing range is EXTREMELY narrow here. Since no one raised preflop, I have no way of putting anyone on a pocket pair better than JJ (and probably no better than TT). No one is ever folding a set or two pair here and is probably not folding any ace, as all weak aces without a 3 or 5 give the player a wheel draw in addition to their pair. So we're left with the only superior hands that fold to us being TT and perhaps A6-A8 from a tight player.

3) Both for Value and as a Bluff. This sounds contradictory, but sometimes what you are doing with one or more opponents is betting to get value from part of their range (e.g. a flush draw) while bluffing the part of their range that beats you (e.g. TT). However, in this hand both ranges are too narrow to make this apply.

4) To Take It Down. Sometimes in a multiway pot we have reason to believe we have the best hand and that most inferior hands are going to fold to a bet, but our hand is vulnerable enough that we would prefer to bet to take it down now rather than risk another scary card coming. I am wary of this line of thinking because it often goes hand in hand with the "fear" of not knowing how to handle an uncertain situation, but it's sometimes an appropriate play. In this hand, all players checking indicates some weakness, but isn't enough information to conclude that no one is slow playing or that their ranges are heavily weighted toward hands that have a lot of equity against us.

I decide to check behind thinking that I probably have the best hand, but am prepared to re-evaluate on the turn.


Donzo: checks
*** TURN *** [5c Ac 3h] [9s]
Big Blind: bets $3.92
UTG: folds
UTGplus1: folds

Jackpot on the turn, as the 9 gives us the 2nd nuts and the big blind leads out for about 2/3 pot. Both other players fold and now we're left to ponder the villain's range and how to extract maximum value. The big blind leading the turn into three other players probably means that they flopped big and were slow playing. A5, A3, or a set of 5's or 3's is most likely, with a possibility of 53 and A9 as well. There's also a modest chance of something like a flopped flush draw that thinks the 9 probably didn't help anyone and is attempting to take down the pot.

We could just call here, but raising makes sense for two reasons:

1) We want to get value from the small number of flush draws in the villain's range while they're still drawing.

2) Our line looks extremely weak and it's almost impossible for the villain to put us on 99. Checking behind on the flop has essentially told our opponent that we didn't flop a strong ace, two pair, or a set, and a flush draw probably would've warranted a continuation bet as well. Consequently, unless we played A9 skittishly or were getting tricky with 55 or 33 (unlikely in a 4-way pot), the villain almost has to think we're bluffing here. I raise with the expectation that the villain will usually shove all-in, which is precisely what happens.


Donzo: raises $10.34 to $10.34
Big Blind: raises $20.91 to $31.25 and is all-in
Donzo: calls $20.91
*** RIVER *** [5c Ac 3h 9s] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Big Blind: shows [5h 3d] (two pair, Fives and Threes)
Donzo: shows [9c 9d] (three of a kind, Nines)
Donzo collected $66.85 from pot

The villain had 53 for a flopped two pair. To return the original point, if we'd bet the flop we'd have been called or raised by a better hand and gotten the other hands (which were QJ and T8) to fold, accomplishing the exact opposite of what we want: getting better hands to fold and worse hands to call. Instead, not betting emotionally and instead checking allowed us to control the hand and cash in (with a bit of help from Luck).