Betting When Your Opponent is Correct to Call

At the same time, it would be incorrect not to bet at all with the best hand, even though you were 100 percent certain your opponent would make the correct play and call. By not betting, you are giving your opponent a free chance to make the best hand. Put another way, you are giving him infinite odds. Let's say the odds arc 5-to-1 against your opponent making a hand that beats yours. By betting $20 into a $150 pot, you are offering that player 81/2-to-1 odds ($ 170-to-$20), and so he is correct to call the S20. But by betting nothing, you are offering him infinite odds, in that he has to call zero dollars for the chance to win $150- Therefore, when the pot is large - even though you are offering your opponent favorable odds - it is always correct to bet with the best hand. The opponent's odds are not so favorable as they would be if you didn't bet at all. Furthermore, there is always the outside chance he might give up and fold. (See the next chapter for an extensive discussion on the free card.)
In no-limit and pot-limit games it is easier to win the big pots right away because you have the luxury of being able to bet almost any amount. So you can choose what odds to give your opponent. For example, with a $150 pot in a pot-limit game and your opponent a 5-to-l underdog, betting the maximum $150 allows you to offer your opponent 2-to-1 odds ($300 to $150) on a5-to-l shot. If your opponent calls, he is taking the worst of it, and you are not unhappy with the call. Whenever possible, then, with the best hand, bet an amount large enough so that by calling, your opponent is not making the correct play. Furthermore, in no-limit and pot-limit games, you must be careful, as we saw in Chapter Seven, to bet a sufficiently large amount so that your opponent is not getting sufficiently good implied odds to make a call correct.
By definition, in limit games you are not free to bet whatever you want, and when the pot gets large, it's hard to make a player fold. However, unless you have the pure nuts, you should give your opponent every opportunity' to fold and make it as expensive as you can for him to call, even when by calling he is still getting favorable odds.