Winning Money with Small Bets | Upswing Poker Level-Up #64

This article is a transcription of the Level-Up Podcast, hosted by Upswing VP Mike Brady. You can watch or listen to the entire episode via the links above or read on if you prefer a written version.

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If you want to level up your poker skills, listen up. By the end of this video you’ll know how to use small bets to punish your opponents at the poker table. Let’s dive into the top seven small bet situations for cash game and tournament players. Situation number one is when your opponent’s range is mostly missed hands. This is one of the most efficient bets in all of no limit hold’em. You’re going to risk a small amount of money and you’re frequently going to win the pot right away. Let’s jump into an example. You’re playing a cash game with typical 100 big blind stacks. You raise pre-flop and only the player in the big blind calls. The flop is queen seven three with no flush draw and your opponent checks. There’s a reason that this has become a standard c-bet spot for damn near every poker player in the world.

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Your opponent’s range is wide in this situation. It’s possible he’s flopped top pair or even a set, but it’s much more likely he’s missed the flop and is stuck with ace high or worse. And should he have one of those low equity hands, it will take a little more than a gust of wind to make him fold. That makes this a great small bet spot for you as the in position player. When given only the option to bet a third of the pot, the solver elects to do so with almost every hand almost every time. In practice, you should just fire in that third pot bet every time and expect good things to happen. And this doesn’t just apply to our example flop here. You can look for this trend yourself in the Lucid Poker app. Sign up for free at lucidpoker.com to study up to five postflop situations every day.

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Small bet situation number two is when your hand is likely good, but benefits from protection. I look at this as part thin value bet, part protection bet. For example, let’s say you are in a tournament with 50 big blind stacks. A player raises, another player calls, and you call from the big blind with pocket sevens. The flop is nine six five with two diamonds and the action checks around. The turn is the three of hearts. Your pocket pair is probably the best hand here. Your opponents are likely holding unpaired high cards or a lower pair. By betting small, you force them to make a difficult decision with those hands. If I’m one of the in position players holding a hand like let’s say ace jack high, I’m stuck between two pretty bad decisions. I can either fold and I have six outs to improve. So I’m just giving you the pot when I could have sucked out on the river. Or I call with a hand that you beat, thus building the pot despite being behind. For you, that’s a win-win.

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Keep an eye out for spots like this where you likely have the best hand but would be happy to win the pot right away. This was a multi-way pot example, but it happens even more often in heads up pots. I have a critical notice before we move on. The strategies in this and every other video are flexible. If you have a strong hand and you think your opponent will call a big bet in any spot, just bet big. You will make more money that way. In other words, if you have reads on your opponents or other reasons to adjust your strategy away from these baselines that we’re talking about in this episode, do it. Small bet situation number three is when your range hits the board hard and includes very few potential bluffs. If you bet big in these spots, you let your opponent off the hook too easily.

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Conversely, a small bet can bring them a lot of pain. For example, imagine you’re back in a cash game and a player raises from the button. You three bet from the small blind and they call. If the flop is something like ace king jack or maybe ace ace queen, you absolutely smash the board. Other than a handful of suited connectors and medium pairs, every hand in your range connects with these flops. You can leverage that fact to profit by betting small at a high frequency. If I’m the in position player, I’m simply going to have many hands that can’t do anything about it. I’m going to have to just fold. But there’s actually another reason this is a good small bet spot. Which leads into situation number four.

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When the stack-to-pot ratio is small on the flop. In other words, when there’s already a lot of money in the middle relative to what you have behind. This is common in three bet and four bet pots.

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When ranges are narrow and the pot is bloated from multiple preflop raises, betting small is often the best path forward. We saw a three bet pot example in the last spot, so let’s look at a four bet example. You raise from the cutoff in a cash game and face a button three bet. You four bet when the action folds back to you and your opponent calls. No matter what three cards fall, any bets you make on this flop should lean small. With such a strong range and so much money already in the pot, there’s rarely a need to do anything else. There are a handful of flops on which you can justify a big overbet shove on the flop, but that’s rare. You can look for spots like that for yourself in the Lucid Poker app. Speaking of Lucid Poker Pro is currently 25% off.

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If you want to give your win rate some love this Valentine’s Day, head to lucidpoker.com. It’s a fast and efficient way to improve your skills, and we’ve got loads of major upgrades coming to Lucid this month and throughout 2026. Grab an annual subscription now to lock in that 25% discount as the app gets better and better. But keep in mind this sale expires on Monday, February 16th. Head to lucidpoker.com to get started. Small bet situation number five is when you are out of position on the flop and the stack-to-pot ratio is high. This spot is quite different from the others that we’ve talked about so far. Let’s jump right into the example.

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You raise from middle position and the player on the button calls. The flop comes king queen three with two diamonds. This is one of the better possible flops for your rang. But a small bet is still preferred by the solver.

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In fact, the small bet is basically always preferred when you’re out of position as the pre-flop raiser. Pretty much no matter what board falls. I asked one of the most knowledgeable poker pros I know why this is the case. Why are small bets preferred out of position? He wrote me a novel that I will put on screen for a few moments right now. You can go ahead and pause to read all of this and if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple, you can either check the video version or head over to YouTube. But the TLDR is this. It’s better to name your price with a medium strength hand than to let your opponent name the price with their advantage of position. Small bet situation number six is when you are out of position with a decent hand and don’t want to face a big bet.

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You may have heard of block betting. If you haven’t, it’s a pretty simple concept. A block bet is a small bet made by an out of position player. And the most common goal of such a bet is to discourage the opponent from making a larger bet when checked to. Block betting can be done on any street–spot number two on the turn was arguably a block bet–but it’s most common on the river. For example, let’s say you defend your big blind with pocket eights and then check call a small bet on a king seven deuce flop. The turn is a five and both players check. The river is another five. In this spot, you have a decent hand that’s worth one small bet and arguably nothing more. Rather than letting your opponent drive the action, you should be direct and fire that small bet yourself.

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You’ll get some nice thin value from worse hands. If I’m the in position player sitting there with ace high or pocket sixes, I’m definitely going to be tempted to call. And if you get raised you can pretty comfortably fold. Most people are not going to bluff raise you on this river. In theory, you should balance this play with some small bet bluffs as well, but you’ll need to decide if that’s appropriate in your games. Before the last spot. I want to thank you for making it this far. If you are enjoying the Level-Up podcast, please hit that like button or rate the podcast five stars and why not subscribe or follow if you want to see more. Small bet situation number seven is when you’re playing a multi-way pot. Why should you bet smaller in multi-way pots? Because the burden of defense is shared between multiple players.

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That’s a fancy way of saying that everyone should be tighter in multi-way pots. The act of simply betting into multiple players is already so strong that a small bet often accomplishes the same thing as a big bet. That said, there are exceptions. Multi-way pots are complicated and sometimes betting big is the much better option. I talked about this with poker pro Gary Blackwood in the multi-way pots episode of Upswing Poker Level-Up. If you play low stakes games with lots of multi-way pots, you’ve got to check this one out ASAP. I’ll put a link on your screen and in the description below.