The other night, I found myself drifting over to my local casino in my hometown. Roughly a year and a half ago, the riverboat casino decided to open up a poker room and, although it only has five tables, is quite active during the casino’s hours of operation. This night was no different, as it took about an hour for me to get seated at my $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em table.

After getting settled in, I was dealt one of those hands that you like to speculate on in a cash game, a J-10 of spades. I scanned the table and noticed a raise at the far end of the table. When the action came to me, I asked the dealer, “What’s the raise?” I was quickly stunned when she replied, “Twelve dollars to go.”

“Twelve?,” I yelped as I did a double take and looked at the dealer plate. Yes, it said $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em, $200 maximum buy in. Needless to say, I reluctantly slid that J-10 towards the dealer and into the muck. I looked over at one of my table mates and he said, “That’s not uncommon…in fact, the raises can sometimes be even larger,” and my brain went into overdrive as I processed this information.

The point I’m trying to make here is, whether you are playing online or in a live game, you have to make the appropriate sized bet rather than an outrageous one. Whether you’re playing for nickels and dimes at the micro-stakes online or you’re playing in the largest cash games in Las Vegas, making the appropriate bet will, in the long run, be the more profitable move than making a humongous bet that runs everyone off the table.

To start, I can sometimes understand why someone makes an inappropriately large bet. Perhaps the person is sitting on a big hand, say pocket Aces or Kings, but has been burned repeatedly with them. Psychologically, that player says to themselves, “I’m going to make SURE I take this pot!” This could even come into play with even Queens or Jacks, because they don’t want an Ace or King coming along for the ride. There is also the idea that you can push someone out of a pot with big bets (normally after the flop), but there is more to win if you play correctly than making that huge mega-bet.

The purpose of a pre-flop raise is to state to the table, “I have a hand that I like.” It is NOT meant to discourage action on the table. In fact, when you have holdings like Aces or Kings, you actually WANT players to come along with you. Even though your odds fall off in a multi-way pot (as we all know), you can be safely assured that, prior to the flop, you’re in good shape and can make appropriate decision post-flop.

By putting in a six-, seven- or even eight times the blind raise (I saw a few hands at this particular table where the pre-flop raise was $25!), you are discouraging any action for your premium holdings and, as such, denying yourself the chance to make a nice little profit from the pot. By making the standard raise (for example, at this particular table, I would have normally raised pre-flop to $7 or $8), you are making your statement and maximizing your potential for a nice takedown.

And what does that huge pre-flop raise do for you? In most instances this night, the raiser pushed everyone out of the pot and picked up the $3 in blinds. There’s little logic in risking $12-$25 and only picking up $3 for your efforts. On those instances where you get fancy, raise it an inordinate amount and holding nothing, what happens if you get played back at with, say, a re-raise to $36-$75? Sure, you got information that your hand is probably no good, but you could have gotten the same information with the standard raise and, as such, saved some coin for that next hand you want to play.

If you are playing at such a table with these over-betters, then you have to do two things. First, you want to have premium holdings when you decide to enter into a pot. Especially if you are able to get it to a heads up situation, then you are probably going to have the pre-flop edge. Secondly, there is room for speculation against these betters and potential to play suited connectors against them, but be sure to get away quickly post-flop if nothing comes home, otherwise you will end up dropping a huge stake in the game.

Making the appropriate sized bet for the game that you’re playing is critical to success on the felt, whether it is virtual or live. By over-betting pre-flop, you are only hurting yourself in the long run of the game.