The concept of BIDDING on a hand

A very similar concept has also been discussed on 2+2 as "The Pot Philosophy" and by Mike Caro as the "value of a hand". This is my take on the topic.

What is one thing Phil Ivey does better than any other player? In my opinion, its that he evaluates the "value" of his situation before he looks at his cards. He takes a quick survey of the table and thinks about the faces and the moves that came before him. He may even think about something related to an overall opportunity that may or may not fit this hand. Then he looks at his cards for the first time.

There are huge advantages in this somewhat long and boring discipline. He never gives off a tell related to hand interest. He has already decided what hands are playable given the current circumstances. If he is going to bluff, he may have already decided to do so before he looks at his cards.

The current situation has a value (stack sizes, position, level, tilting playing in the pot, etc). This is called SITUATIONAL VALUE. Then you look at your hand and THAT has a value. Let’s call that HAND VALUE for obvious reasons. Then you look at the POT SIZE and THAT has a value, especially post flop. That is the RETURN VALUE.

(Let's not talk about future-value as that is for the advanced only. I understand it, but can't use it effectively yet as I don’t compete at that level yet. FUTURE VALUE is making a certain play to set up the opposite move later on. You ONLY should do this when it will work, which is a very distinct set of circumstances.)

It is now, with the action to us, that we are going to BID. It doesn't matter if it’s a call or a raise; I am still assessing whether of not the potential RETURN VALUE of the hand outweighs the risk of being involved in the hand. In addition, we are deciding the value in being in this hand vs. the risk / reward paradigm.

So how do we decide what the BID should be? In high level terms, its like any other auction bid. Do we value to pot more than we value our current bid? If so, that is evidence to proceed. Do we think that our bid is the winning bid? Is that our intent? Poker is unique in that the pot has its own marketing program. As it gets larger, it advertises as such. So do we wish to make the pot more attractive, or do we wish to make our bid vs. its current value? If we make a pot size bet to protect top pair, that is a beginner move. If we make a 3/4 pot bet because we believe that our TP is probably good, but the texture of the board is luke warm so we need to protect it, then this is a more advanced play. But if we make the same 3/4 pot bet because we assess the value of the pot and our assessed value of the hand and think that we don't desire a showdown here based on value of the hand vs. our goals, we BID 3/4 pot to see if the other player will BID more or FOLD. We have made a more advanced play now despite making the same bet. We chose 3/4 of the pot because based on what we were willing to bid on the hand, we have to determine if we are going to win it right here and if we did win it right here, did we PAY the right price.

If we value this POT more for strategic reasons, we may adjust our bid UP. If we value this POT for return on investment reasons, we may bid LESS and accept more long term risk for less short term risk. (A dangerous business in NLHE, but not as much so in Omaha).

The chips you invest are gone once they are in the pot. At any given time, you are going to BID on the pot, knowing that you lose your bid chips whether or not you win the auction. The closer you BID is to the PERFECT value bid at that time, the better you are playing.

You need to make this calculation. Some do it by instinct, some by feel, some by math. But you are making a BID decision. Are you making good ones? If you can't think about poker in these terms, how can you expect to beat players who do?