| 18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
header-bg

How and When to Make a Value Bet in Poker

Making the right value bets is the difference between making a little bit of money at poker and making a lot of money at poker.

A value bet is exactly what the name implies: a bet designed to increase the value of a pot. To wield this type of bet effectively you need to consider the following information about your opponent:

  • The strength of their hand

Obviously, the stronger a hand they have the greater the chance they will feel that their hand is good; thus, they'll be willing to call for more money.

  • Their view of your hand

If the other player thinks you have the nuts they aren't going to be willing to put almost any money into the pot. But even if the other player is almost sure you have the nuts, you can still make a bet small enough to give the player the proper odds to make the call.

A mathematical player will call this bet.

  • Their ability to fold

Some players are just not willing to fold a big hand (this reluctance is commonly referred to as getting married to the hand). A player with this complex will call a very large value bet with a big pocket pair -- even when it should be obvious that you have him beat.

On the other end of the scale, when your opponent is playing scared he will have to be persuaded to put any money into the pot at all.

Steve Sung
Some players, such as Steve Sung, don't have a call-amount threshold.
  • Their call amount threshold

Most poker players have a natural limit to how many chips they will call in one bet. Some players put an absolute number to that limit; others a percentage of their stack.

As a general rule assume that the threshold is half the player's stack.

How Do I Make a Value Bet?

On the surface, value betting seems simple. If you have a pretty good idea of the above factors you'll know to value bet large or value bet small.

That much is easy; the difficult part is getting the amounts as close to perfect as you can.

If your value betting amount is too low, that will equate to hundreds or thousands of dollars in a month (depending how often you play at what limits). But if your value bets are too big that will result in a significant loss every session.

Value Bet Example:

Say the maximum value bet a player will call is $50.

If you get $40, you've lost $10 (20% of the bet). But if you bet $60, the player will fold, losing you $50.

Money not made is money lost. A botched value bet will cost you money. Even though you won the pot, you should note it as a mistake and work at correcting it.

I'll repeat myself, because this is so crucial: properly value betting is the difference between making a little bit of money at poker and making a lot of money. It's one of the most important aspects of poker for any player to master.

The River Value Bet

value bet poker
Should you value bet?

Quite often in the course of an average poker session you'll be faced with this dilemma:

  • When in position, should you bet the river for value?

The plus side is obvious. When your opponent calls with a worse hand you stand to win a bigger pot. But by betting the river, rather than checking, you make yourself vulnerable to a check-raise. 

If your opponent does check-raise you'll be in a tough spot whereas you could have avoided all that by seeing a cheap showdown.

Related Reading:

Which Hands Can Be Value Bet?

First, decide if your hand warrants a river value bet or not. There's no one answer - merely a sliding scale based on the factors below.

There are very few hands that you can paint with a broad "Always value bet" or "Always check down" brush. Poker is not that easy. 

Your hand must be strong enough that if you're called it's best at showdown. After all, that's what you are doing with a value bet:

  • Trying to make your opponent call with a worse hand

Depending on the factors below you could decide to value bet the river holding anything from a single-pair hand to a full house.

Which Players Should You Value Bet?

river value betting
Punish loose-passive players.

Your opponent is easily one of the most important factors when deciding to bet for value or not - he or she makes all the difference.

One opponent may call large river bets with any pair; another may fold everything but trips or better. You must identify your opponent's playing tendencies before opening yourself up with a value bet.

The ideal opponent to value bet is a loose-passive player. Loose-passive players play too many hands and go too far with them. These players are just ATMs dispensing cash. Value bet them relentlessly.

If you notice a player calling down lightly (with worse-than-average hands), hammer those rivers with top pair, good kicker, because you know that player will call.

Further, due to their passive nature, loose-passive players are less likely to punish you with a check-raise.

Related Reading:

Don't Ignore Tight-Aggressive Players!

Tight-aggressive players can also be targeted for value betting. This may sound counterintuitive - after all, how can both loose-passives and tight-aggressives be value-bet targets?

Doesn't a tight-aggressive style tend to defeat loose-passive players? Wouldn't that mean that TAGs are less likely to make river calls with worse hands? Yes and no. It depends on how good a player he or she is.

Over the years TAGs have learned about pot control and found that value betting other TAGs with one pair is a losing proposition because TAGs do not pay off rivers with a worse one pair.

These same TAGs now know that a player firing three barrels (i.e. a river bet as well) has either a monster or a stone-cold bluff. There are fewer monsters out there than bluffs, so a lot of TAGs will end up making hero calls against a player who fires three barrels.

It's up to you to find out who these players are. Some TAGs are fixated on trying to make hero calls on the river. If you can find those players, you can exploit them.

How Does Your Image Affect Value Betting?

Your image dictates how your opponents are going to play against you. It affects every decision they make, so ultimately it should determine every decision that you make.

when to value bet
Use your image to your advantage.

You can obviously then use your image to your advantage. If you have caught a wave of cards and been very active, but haven't shown anything down, players will perceive you to be loose-aggressive.

If your opponents think you're loose-aggressive they'll call you down lighter on the river. This is what you want. A player who will call you down light will also pay off your value bets.

River = Big $$$

The river is the most important street to play. Sure, you don't play as many rivers as you do flops, but it's by betting the river when the pot is big that you'll make your money.

Don't get into the habit of wanting to see cheap showdowns. Use all the information you have available and look for good spots. 

If you feel that your opponent might call with a worse hand, absolutely stick a bet out there.

Making good river value bets can take your game to the next level. If you look for good spots, you can make a killing. If you don't, you'll be leaving money on the table.

Why You're Afraid of Value-Betting the River

By Arthur Reber

The scene: The river card has been dealt; it sits next to a small mountain of chips. The first player, who's been check-calling all the way, checks again.

The button, who's been pushing the action, says, "Okay, I check. The pot's big enough," and shows down pocket queens on a K♠ Q♠ 6♦ 9♣ 6♠ board.

A simple scene, yes? Also not an uncommon one. Just think how often you've witnessed something like it. Here's a guy with the third-best possible hand checking the river.

when to make river bet
Dan Harrington

Sure, the check-caller could have rivered quads. But we've all heard that comment made when the button has the stone-cold nuts.

It's actually not a simple situation at all. It's rife with financial and psychological elements, mostly taking place inside the head of the guy with the pocket queens - largely unconsciously.

Simple Money Mistake or Deep Human Paradox?

It's clear from a basic strategic perspective that failing to bet the river here is a money mistake. Dan Harrington has argued that it's one of the most common and costly errors that otherwise good players make.

Failing to value bet in such situations can, over the long haul, turn a small winner into a break-even player or even a loser.

So, why do so many players do this? Why would they give up a chance at considerable gain and accept, in its place, a more modest win?

Is this an individual, chancy thing, like stupidity? Or is it possibly the result of some deeper feature of human conduct, some tendency we have to behave in less-than-optimal ways?

It turns out that the latter is closer to the truth. There is a fascinating, deeply paradoxical and surprisingly common aspect of human behavior behind it: it's called the uncertainty effect and it's found whenever people are involved in situations that lack full certainty.

It may seem weird that poker players would be averse to uncertainty, but under the right conditions they will be. To get a better feel for how this mechanism operates, let's get away from the green felt and out into the "real world."

Here's the deal you're offered. You can purchase either:

  1. A $50 gift certificate to a store
  2. A lottery ticket where the prize will be either a $50 or $100 gift certificate (to the same store) based on the flip of a coin.

How much would you pay for each?

Astonishingly, a recent study found that the average amount people would be willing to pay for the first was MORE than for the second. And this wasn't just one nutty outcome. This paradoxical result has been found in study after study in all sorts of circumstances.

should i value bet on river
We are a weird species.

Uri Simonsohn, at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, chalked it up to a "literal distaste for uncertainty" and reports finding it in a variety of real-world settings including book stores, restaurants, whatever.

And, of course, we see it in sharpest relief when a poker player checks on the end with what is almost certainly the best hand.

We are members of a very weird species. We are simply not the rational creatures we like to think we are. We do not make optimal decisions, even when we ought to know better, and even when we think we know better.

Emotional Cost vs. Cash Cost

Now, knowing that people make these silly decisions is amusing but it's only half the story. Why do we do these things? Why are we so ridiculously irrational?

The reason stems from a deeply ingrained human characteristic: risk aversion.

Settings that contain risk or have uncertain elements make many of us feel uncomfortable; they produce distinctly negative emotional experiences.

From an evolutionary point of view, being risk averse is adaptive. Being wary in risky situations dramatically increases likelihood of survival.

If you don't know what's out there waiting for you, you're far better off being cautious and guarded - even it means you forgo occasional gains.

While this worked fine eons ago, in the modern world it yields this odd paradox where we will devalue an option that is obviously better in material terms because it is wrapped in uncertainty and loses value in psychological terms.

In short, it just may cost more emotionally to bet on the river than it's worth in cash. About now I can hear some of you howling, "Not me doc, no way would I do anything that stupid."

Well, maybe you wouldn't ... and maybe you would. We don't know since we haven't collected the data. But do ask yourself if you've ever checked the river in this kind of hand.

And, in case you're curious: Simonsohn's data shows that the uncertainty effect is found in over 60% of the population.

Related Poker Strategy Articles

Related Articles

Unibet Poker Open 2023
Unibet Open Bukarest 2023 – Here we go!

Unibet Open Bukarest alkoi pari tuntia sitten, pahoittelut että blogi pääsee vauhtiin myöhässä. Syytetään Lufthansaa, joka onnistui eilen jättämään matkalaukkuni Frankfurtin kentälle. Nyt on laukku saatu tänne Bukarestin Marriottiin ja…

November 30, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Suomalaisten chip count, Event 1

Ville Mustonen 65K Aleksi Naski 265K Samuli Hietala 330K Jarno Jokiniemi 85K Max Avela 260K Kai Lehto 105K Feras Abid 130K Topi Palenius 95K Atte Franssila 85K Markku Vihavainen 50K…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Voitonjako on selvillä

Ensimmäisen sormuskisan WSOPC Event 1, voitonjako on nyt selvillä. Turnauksen palkintopotti on 183.360€, ja 47 parasta pääsee rahoille. Turnauksen voittaja kuittaa mukavat 38.510€, ja min cash on 1.100€. Tällä hetkellä…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
WSOP banner
WSOP Schedule 2020

The 2020 World Series of Poker kicks of in Las Vegas on May 27th. With a time frame of more than 7 weeks and 100 tournaments this will be the…

August 21, 2023 | Arved Klöhn
WSOP banner
Pikku tauon jälkeen jatketaan

Pidettiin pieni tauko, nyt peli jatkuu tasolla bb ante 4K, blindit 2K/4K. 111/573 pelaajaa.

July 25, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
melvin shroen live reports from The Festival in Nottingham 2023
PokerListings set to do Live Reporting from The Festival Series in Nottingham (13-19 February 2023) 

Melvin Schroen - Live Reporter For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.…

March 22, 2023 | Melvin Schroen
PokerListings Awards 2022
PokerListings Operator Awards – Winners 2022

Since 2020, we have been awarding the best poker operators and innovators in the poker business with our PokerListings Operator Awards. Every year the operators are nominated and awarded in…

January 11, 2023 | Bjorne Lindberg
Oliver Hutchins Wins the Trophy in the €500K GTD PPC Malta Main Event (€71,000)

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2022 PPC Malta Main Event United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins won the trophy in the €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event for €71,000 after a back and…

April 7, 2022 | Jason Glatzer
All Poker News
caL
2023-11-29 02:40:33

I’m confused by your pocket Qs example on “why you’re afraid of value-betting the river.”
Sure there are potential quads, but there are many other possible hands better than your set with a
“K♠ Q♠ 6♦ 9♣ 6♠ board”.
You seem to be ignoring all the potential flush hands, the J-10 straight hand, and THREE different potential full house hands.

Checking with a set avoids getting check-raised, and thereby
a) minimizes your loss on a trap, and/or
b) avoids losing by folding to a bluff check-raise

Sanjay Sinha
2021-12-10 08:54:08

Wow, the psychology explanation for checking a powerful hand on the river is a Bulls-Eye !!! 🎯
Let me describe a PLO hand where I made 2 BIG mistakes: (This is going to cause utter disbelief…)
I bought in with my LAST $300 and after 6-7 hours, had it up to $1,280. The table was 5-5 PLO…
I got Q♣️J♣️10♣️9❤️ —> The pre-flop raise by the Button was $25 (I was in the cut-off position).
There were 4 callers so pot was $130 with limpers & blinds. The flop came: 9♣️8♦️4♣️ so I had Top pair with a Straight NUT wrap draw & Queen-hi Flush draw. I checked and the button bet $75 and so I just called (2 players folded). The turn was an A♥️ and I bet $150 and the Button raised it to $350. I paused for a minute and then called. The pot was now up to $980… The river card was the K♣️ giving me the 2nd NUT hand but….. I CHECKED it. The Button bet $980 and I went in the tank. She had been semi-bluffing all night but I could NOT be certain she did not have the Ace-hi Flush. I thought about it and just made myself believe she had it because she raised hard on the turn when the A♥️ hit so she had to have an Ace and maybe she had A♣️-x♣️ (???) The table could NOT believe I folded when I showed my hand and the player next to her told me that she only had the A♣️-9 WITHOUT any other club. 😱 She had top 2 pair only and I could have won it all…($1,960) !!!
I should have value bet the river $400 and if she put me all-in, then I would have had to call her for sure.(pot-commit). I folded because I was uncertain and did not want to lose my whole stack. Let me know what you think… I still feel bad about my mistakes… 😰

Jimmy B.
2021-10-02 19:46:05

I took my time reading this article. There was a ton of knowledge in it that will take a players game to new heights if the information is used properly. After reading it I realized my biggest problem was not getting maximum value outta my hands. I’m going to integrate what I’ve learned into my playing style IMMEDIATELY! I cant hardly what to see how much.my game will improve….THANK YOU!

Manal Nassar
2021-10-04 08:36:39

Hi Jimmy, We’re glad you enjoyed the article. We’re constantly updating our Poker strategy page so please come and visit us again. Good luck at the tables!

Manal
PokerListings

Carla Bennings
2010-02-05 06:27:32

I got interested to read on when I’ve read the first paragraph regarding betting. I’ve never taken poker seriously until today. Maybe I am still not getting used to playing poker online poker.williamhill and I am giving it a try. 😀 thanks

Comment on that

Your message is awaiting approval