A lot of time how much to bet is knowing what your opponet has what if you don't know exactly what your opponet has in front of him? A lot of times with 5-6 other opponets I will not know what they have in front of them. Maybe 2 other players will have similar chip counts to me. But figuring out what to bet when you don't know how much they have is really difficult for me. Chip estimation is difficult for me one time I missed moving on after I won my hand by one $25 chip and that was the lowest chip on the table. You could bet from $25 to $1,000 on any round in $25 increments.
Wong's book has your answer. Actually 3 of his rules apply here: 1) When in doubt, put it out. 2) If you mind turns to mush, bet the max. 3) In a crowd, bet the max. Very simple rules but in the situation you described, it's what to do.
What to do. Punt Tool. I disagreeeeeee, If you dont know the exact chip count, if you're not a good chip counter, rather than maxin as the faded icon suggests, take an unqualified, semi intelligent guestimate of what your stacks compare to your opponents and with many, many other factors involved.....hell, adjust on the fly, and at least make a self determined "guess" rather than a blanket "rule of thumb" to eliminate you from any possibility of a chance. I'd guess, "put it out" would give you maybe a 50-50 chance, if you're too lazy to incorporate all the other factors, but if you've been somewhat involved in the game so far you should be able to increase your odds above that 50-50 and then at least you know, YOU TRIED. instead of giving up.
noman, The original post on this thread said: A lot of times with 5-6 other opponents I will not know what they have in front of them. Maybe 2 other players will have similar chip counts to me. But figuring out what to bet when you don't know how much they have is really difficult for me. Chip estimation is difficult for me Now with 5-6 opponents in contention (I assume) and not knowing any chip counts, any loss would probably be disastrous. And if you bet too small and win then someone will probably win more. Therefore, make a win count by betting big. This is where Wong's rule "In A Crowd, Bet The Max" comes in. Sometime we get so tied up with our knowledge that we think there must be something better than simple. But simple is often the best answer. Now I'm not advocating a blanket "bet big all the time". I'm only saying that with the limited info provided, betting big in this instance is the right thing to do.
I think the problem with guestimating is that, even with an ideal bet, you're unlikely to be a lock to win. So you've got whatever percentage chance to win multiplied by the chance that you could have bet too little and have locked yourself out. After that consideration, you're likely to be below the 44% chance of winning the hand outright on a max bet. I'm not saying "put it out" is always correct, just that it does have a basis in probability that makes it effective in some cases.
Wumpie: Certainly, the sickest feeling is to win a hand at crunch time and realize it wasn't the bet to win. But, particularly, in the non elimination tourneys, a guestimate can also garner you a low as well as the high, rather than risking it all on the high. The solution is to practice, learn to chip count expertly, or baring that guesstimate, cause, you're also gauging your opponents, your position, the 44 per cent, factored by swing, by push, by double or split possibilites by Curt's revenge, by surrender where available. Long and short, there's more you CAN factor, even without accurate chip count that can produce a win, without just "putting it out"
with a little experience you can get pretty good at chip counting - but everyone can sometimes make errors in their counts of others chips - what I do - if I am not totally sure - is allow a reasonable 'error range' say one or two chips - then if I want the high - bet based on your count plus two chips - if you want the low - bet based on your count minus two chips - factor in the possible error
