Over betting occurs when a Holdem Poker player makes a bet that is disproportionately high compared to the size of the pot.

Dont be suspicious

While you can bet as much as you want in no limit Holdem Poker, if there is only $10 in the pot and you bet $500, then everyone is going to assume that you are either insane or that you have a huge hand.

Making a massive bet into a small pot is a dead giveaway that you have a powerful hand why else would you risk so much money to win so little? Assuming you are in a healthy state of mind, it simply doesnt make sense to risk $500 to win $10 unless you know you cant be beaten.

Beware the bully

In tournaments, and sometimes in cash games, you will find a bully who will deliberately over bet a pot because he has a huge stack of chips in front of him and you have an itsy-bitsy one. He knows that if you call his over bet and lose then you will have busted out. He understands that you have to wait for a monster hand. And seeing as these only come around about as often as an asteroid impact, he will pick up a lot of pots before you call him out.

Here his strategy is to dwindle off your stack and keep you out of the game. Its not very nice, but then all is fair in love and poker.

Shake it, shake it, baby

Changing gears, or varying your play, is vital in poker. If you become predictable, then your opponents will know exactly what you are going to do and ruthlessly exploit your patterns. Throwing out an over bet occasionally can leave your opponents thinking, Huh? What did he just do?And thats a good thing.

Dont over bet too often though, because that will also become predictable.

Over betting should be looked upon with caution, but not totally discarded as an option. Keep it in your arsenal, but dont use this rocket launcher to take out a fly.