Five Weak Reasons to Bet (and One Weak Reason Not To)

In my previous columns I strongly state that there are only two fundamental reasons to bet — for value or as a bluff. Yet there are many other reasons experts often cite as reasons to bet. Today I will show why these are not primary reasons to bet. Indeed, they can often lead us astray.

A reminder — we're focusing primarily on low-stakes live cash games such as are played in Las Vegas (defined as "Donkey Poker" in an earlier column).

Here are five such "weak" reasons for betting, especially in such low-stakes live games, followed by one more weak reason not to bet.

1. Don't Bet for Information

We often hear a player say something like "I bet to see where I was." This sounds reasonable since we…