How to Use Feeler Bets in Online Poker

Betting and gambling are the very essence of no limit Texas Holdem poker.  As much as no limit Texas Holdem poker is a pure poker game it is every bit as much, if not more so, a gambling game. While pocket poker hands and community poker card board reads are important and relevant to betting, there is no doubt that betting strategy, rhythm, pace and tempo are a technique all their own for the best of no limit Texas Holdem poker players.

If you watch such televised poker events as the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker you will notice many familiar names/poker players who make the final poker table time after time. These poker players make the final poker table because they are excellent gamblers and have mastered the art of betting strategy in no limit Texas Holdem poker as much as they have mastered no limit Texas Holdem poker itself.

One of the most important skills, if not THE most important skill, that an online poker player can master is the art of being unpredictable with his betting strategy and patterns at the poker table as his online poker opponents can, at many websites, research his playing patterns and get an easy read on him. One of the most important techniques that good no limit Texas Holdem poker players employ both at online poker websites and at live casino poker card rooms is the “feeler” bet.  Players at the table that employ a feeler bet simply makes a poker chip bet at the poker table in order to pick up information from the other players.  A feeler bet is simply paying for information so that a player can then make his next move at the table.

A good example of a feeler bet is when a no limit Texas Holdem poker player has a small to middle pair on the button and the other players at the table check after the flop.  It’s likely that one of the other poker players has a better hand, but to try and get a read, the button player will throw a feeler bet onto the table to see if the player(s) with the better poker hands bets.  The hands that were poor will likely fold and the hands that were not are the threats that the button player can now decide how to play against. A feeler bet can serve two purposes. It can tell you where you are in a hand or it can win the hand for you outright. Keep in mind that you are almost always better off to bet than to just check. You can’t gain any information or win a hand by checking. Keep that in mind as you look to place feeler bets in poker.