When it comes to sizing your continuation bets, there are currently two main schools of thought:
- Either you stick to the solver-approved GTO framework, where bet size depends on range advantage and board texture;
- Or you follow a pure exploitative approach, adjusting to your opponent’s tendencies and habits.
Both approaches work – but they leave a big gap in between. Live poker isn’t played by equations; it’s played by people. And people have patterns, comfort zones, and emotional thresholds.
That’s where my new concept of Pressure Point Sizing comes in. It’s a way to bridge theory and psychology – to bet not only what the math suggests, but what the opponent feels. You’re not just betting your hand; you’re betting on their level of comfort.
- Read more: Eldarova’s Dynamic Exploit Equilibrium (DEE) Theory
- Read more: Raise the Right Hands: A Field Guide to Linear & Polar 3-Bets
- Read more: C-Bets Under Fire: How to Size Them from Early Levels to Final Table
What Is Pressure Point Sizing?
Pressure Point Sizing is a betting framework that adapts your c-bet to the emotional and strategic comfort zone of your opponent’s likely holding. Instead of asking, “What does my range want to do here?” you ask, “What does my opponent most likely have – and how confident are they about it?”
When you identify that confidence level, your goal is simple: Bet where their comfort breaks.
That’s their pressure point – the spot where continuing feels risky, folding feels weak, and every option hurts just a little. This is the zone where poker decisions get emotional, and emotional decisions lose EV.
The Logic Behind Pressure
In most real-world poker situations, players don’t fold or call because of exact equities – they react to how much pressure they feel. Some hands, like top pair or strong draws, live comfortably against small bets but panic against large ones. Other hands, like second pair or underpairs, feel safe until the pot suddenly doubles.
Your job as an observant player is to find that exact boundary. Once you know it, you can size your bets not to balance your range, but to tax the confidence of your opponent’s holding. You’re not over-betting for ego or under-betting for deception; you’re calibrating the price of discomfort.
The Sizing Spectrum
Pressure Point Sizing works along a psychological spectrum:
- Small Bets (25-40%) – Encourage loose calls and floats; they create a false sense of comfort.
- Medium Bets (55-65%) – “Tax curiosity.” Perfect for hands that beat air but lose to strong value.
- Large Bets (75-100%) – “Punish hesitation.” Force players to pay dearly for marginal holdings.
You still respect GTO principles – you maintain a balanced betting range – but the driver behind your size is their mindset, not just solver equilibrium.
Example 1 – The Cautious Defender
You open BTN with A♦Q♣. The BB calls.
Flop: K♥9♠6♠
GTO logic would often choose a small bet here – around one-third pot – to preserve fold equity and range advantage. But you notice something: this opponent has been calling wide pre-flop and showing down middle pairs like 77-TT. Their comfort zone is medium-strength hands that want to see one more street.
So instead of auto-betting 1/3 pot, you go 80% pot.
The large sizing directly targets their psychological weakness: those pairs feel too weak to raise and too strong to fold. You’re applying maximum pressure to the exact section of their range that hates decisions. If they fold, you win more than your fair share of small pots; if they call, you’ve built a pot that’s easy to win with continued pressure or equity realisation.
You’ve found their pressure point- and priced it perfectly.
Example 2 – The Sticky Caller
You raise from CO with Q♥J♥, and the BB calls again.
Flop: 10♣8♦3♣
Here, your opponent’s calling range is often wide and full of draws, gutshots, and weak top pairs – exactly the kind of hands that love to “see one more card.” You sense that small bets won’t move the needle – they’ll only encourage sticky calls.
Instead, you flip the script: You bet half pot, a size that’s big enough to tax those marginal holdings but still leaves room for double-barrels. It’s not about scaring them off; it’s about charging them rent for staying comfortable.
When they call, they’re now emotionally and pot-committed. You can attack the turn with another well-timed barrel or check back knowing you’ve already extracted max value from their curiosity.
You’ve turned their comfort zone into your profit zone.
The Psychology of Pressure
Every player has what I call an emotional equilibrium – the point where their confidence in a hand crosses into doubt. Pressure Point Sizing is about reading that line and betting right at the edge of it.
A small bet keeps them relaxed. A big one wakes up their fear response. Neither size is right nor wrong; it’s about knowing when to apply each and to whom.
In live settings, the signals are everywhere: a player’s breathing changes, they glance at chips but don’t grab them, or they stare a bit too long at the board. Those micro-cues reveal where their comfort lives – and that’s exactly where your bet should land.
The Mirror Effect: How Your Sizing Reflects Your Hand
Every bet in poker is also a mirror – it reflects back on you.
While you’re applying pressure to your opponent’s range, you’re also revealing subtle information about your own.
This is the second layer of Pressure Point Sizing, what I call the Mirror Effect:
Your bet size doesn’t just influence their comfort – it shapes how they perceive you.
Most players unconsciously separate these two dimensions: “my sizing for value/bluff” versus “their response.” But every chip communicates. The size you choose tells a story about your confidence, your range, and your rhythm at the table.
The mastery of Pressure Point Sizing lies in controlling that reflection – using sizing that pressures their range without breaking narrative coherence about your own. You’re not just playing against their emotions; you’re managing the emotional conversation.
Example 3 – Balancing Pressure and Perception
You open HJ with K♠Q♠, and the Button calls.
Flop: Q♦7♣2♣
Your hand sits near the top of your range – you’ve smashed the board.
If you bet small (25-30%), you signal weakness and invite floats; if you overbet, you freeze weaker hands and distort your range story.
Pressure Point Sizing means betting medium (60-70%) – a size that:
- Taxes the weaker Qx and 7x hands your opponent feels safe with, and
- Projects a believable continuation range that includes both top pairs and bluffs.
Your bet pressures their comfort while maintaining credibility in your story. You’re attacking their psychology and protecting your own perception simultaneously.
Example 4 – Turning Perception Into a Weapon
You open BTN with 9♥8♥, and the BB calls.
Flop: A♠5♠3♦
You completely miss – but this board smashes your perceived range. Instead of the routine one-third pot, you bet 75% pot.
That size screams confidence. It projects “I have it.” You’re deliberately shaping their perception to reflect strength, while using the sizing to force folds from capped, mid-strength holdings.
Even though your bet is designed to stress their comfort zone, it simultaneously broadcasts controlled dominance about your own range.
Pressure Point Sizing isn’t just about what you make them feel – it’s about what you make them believe.
Sizing as Communication
At its heart, Pressure Point Sizing reframes bet sizing as two-way communication:
- Outward: applying psychological and mathematical pressure to your opponent’s range.
- Inward: shaping what your sizing tells them about your hand and your mindset.
The strength of this framework lies in maintaining both sides of that equation. When your bets disturb their comfort while reinforcing your own credibility, you achieve control of the full narrative: pressure, perception, and persuasion.
Integrating It With GTO
Pressure Point Sizing doesn’t replace GTO – it extends it.
You still balance your range, but your decision-making gains a human overlay. The best players today already blend solver logic with social intuition. This framework simply makes that process conscious and teachable.
Use standard GTO sizes as your baseline, then adjust for psychology:
- Overfolders: smaller bets, same fold rate, less risk.
- Sticky callers: larger bets, more pressure, higher EV.
GTO gives you balance. Pressure Point Sizing gives you control.
Why It Works
Poker is a game of information, and bet sizing is communication. Every chip you place in the pot sends a message. The mistake most players make is speaking their own language instead of their opponent’s.
Pressure Point Sizing flips that dynamic. You start speaking to their fears, their biases, and their thresholds – while ensuring the message they receive about your range stays consistent.
Your bets stop being random numbers. They become precise sentences in a psychological conversation.
Solvers teach balance. Live poker rewards discomfort. The art lies in finding the hands your opponent wants to feel safe with – and applying pressure right there, while staying believable yourself.
That’s the essence of Pressure Point Sizing: A New C-Betting Framework.
Bet where their confidence ends – and your story begins.
