Jonathan Little's Weekly Poker Hand: Stop Mindlessly Betting Half-Pot!
Poker pro and coach Jonathan Little has been producing a wide variety of strategy content for poker players for some time, including authoring multiple books and sharing videos and articles on his website and elsewhere, much of which is free to players of all levels seeking to improve their games.
Little started his popular "Weekly Poker Hand" series on YouTube more than five years ago, using the format to focus on particular concepts and common mistakes as illustrated in his hand analyses.
In the episode shown below, Little reviews a hand a student of his played in the Sunday Million on PokerStars, a hand that inspires Little to make a point about the need to think consciously about bet sizing, such as when making a continuation bet on the flop.
Action begins with the player opening with a min-raise from under the gun with K♥10♦, an initial decision Little doesn't really recommend. A middle position player calls, then the flop comes great for Little's student as the 10♥4♥K♣ board makes him two pair.
With just over 1,000 in the middle, Little recommends betting on the larger size — around 700. Instead the player makes a half-pot bet, and Little explains all of the reasons why such a bet is not the best choice in this situation.
The opponent calls, the turn is the 5♦, and Little's student again bets exactly half the pot. Again Little isn't a fan of that bet size, noting how the player is missing value.
Listen to Little's analysis of the hand and situation below, which includes discussion of several concepts...
- starting hand selection and strength
- position
- board texture
- continuation betting
- bet sizing
- value betting
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $7,000,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
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