You may have heard of the idea of a polarizing bet: one that can only represent a huge hand or a bluff. But what kind of bet represents a polarizing bet, and why would you want to make one?
The answer relates to one of my previous tips: sizing your bets based on the perceived strength of your opponents' hand. In that tip, we talked about how, when value betting a very strong hand on the river, you should make larger bets if you believe your opponent has a strong hand and is unlikely to fold. This creates a situation in which the meaning of your bets is somewhat limited:
Small/Normal Bet: You believe your opponent has a marginal hand and want to induce a call; you might do this with anything from a hand just barely worth value betting to the nuts. It is also possible to make a small bet bluff in certain situations, though that's a tricky play.
Large Bet: You may make this bet with a very strong hand when you believe your opponent has a strong hand themselves. You might also make a large bet to induce an opponent to fold when you're bluffing.
Large bets can only be made with a strong hand (if your opponent might have a strong enough hand to call) or as an attempted bluff. That makes a large river bet a polarizing bet. Even if you did make a large bet with a marginally valuable hand, it's essentially a bluff (and almost always a big mistake, since you could have just checked to take a showdown), since your opponent will only call a large bet with a hand that beats you.
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