The defensive bet

Betting is highly situational. Whether you bet, and how much you bet, is influenced by a myriad of factors. One of the most interesting bets to have in your arsenal is the defensive bet. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it's not. If you're playing against action players, they like nothing better than to be the first one to enter a pot. If an action player is the first to enter a pot, more often than not he'll enter it big. On the other hand, if someone enters the pot before him, he's likely not to bet as big. If you act before an action player, and can size your bet appropriately, you'll end up paying less to see the next card than you otherwise would. So, in effect, you're defending your chips by betting.

Another kind of defensive bet, which is more difficult to pull off, is what I call a side pot bet. That's a maneuver I successfully made on the river last night, on the penultimate hand. A side pot bet is a bet you make to give yourself insurance against losing the main pot. You can only make it when one or more opponents have already gone all in and there is at least one other opponent who is still in the hand with you, who still has chips. The tricky part about side pot bets is that they have to be small enough so people are enticed to call, but big enough to give you as much insurance as possible. It does you no good if no one calls your side pot bet; then the side pot you're trying to create never materializes, and all you're left with is the main pot (and any earlier side pots). When I made my side pot bet last night, there was $37,500 in the main pot. I sized my bet at $3,000. The one opponent who was still live in the hand called me. As it turned out, I won both the $6,000 side pot and the main pot, for a total haul of $43,500. If I'd won the side pot but lost the main pot, I would have lost $9,000 on the hand, but that would have been more palatable than losing the $12,000 I would have lost without the side pot bet. Of course, if I'd lost both the side pot and the main pot, I would have lost $15,000 on the hand. This brings up an important point - if you don't think you have better than a 50/50 chance of winning the side pot, you shouldn't make the side pot bet.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 9 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 2 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 1 out of 1 times while in small blind (100%)
 - 5 out of 6 times in other positions (83%)
 - a total of 8 out of 9 (88%)
 Pots won at showdown - 1 of 1 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $38,800
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,343,684
balance: $6,793,092