Think of a salesman, the one you open the door to talk to just to slam the door in his face. Then think of the salesman who you ended up letting in your house, and talked to for a while, and then bought something from. This is called the “foot-in-the-door” phenomenon, and it’s a part of human psychology that can be used to your advantage on the poker table. Think of it in terms of compliance. You first get someone to agree to do something small, then they’re more compliant to do something big. Applied to poker online, let’s say you have QQ, and the board comes low and uncoordinated. You bet a small bit and your opponent follows you. Next comes a Q, ohh nice card for you, so you bet a little bigger, and again your opponent follows you. Finally, on the river, you have the compliance built to get him to stack off with you. If you see this as a compliance builder, you see why bets get progressively large. Most online poker strategy says to bet the pot or something similar, but it’s this phenomenon of compliance of once you get someone following you, your metaphorical foot in the door, it’s harder for them to stop following. So if you have betting initiative, don’t let down your psychologically following opponent and stop betting, keep him coming along for the ride. After all you only asked for a small amount of his money to begin with, surely he’ll be willing to part with a little more if you just lead him to do it.
