A minimal system for betting or calling could be based solely on the immediate strength of our hand. In fact, a more useful betting strategy could still use this basic system as a template and simply proceed to a hierarchy of alternative branches whenever the current decision is rejected. For example, if the initial betting decision based on hand strength decides to fold we could fall back on another consideration such as semi-bluffing. If we then do not decide to semi-bluff, we fall back on to another decision like pot odds. Each time the proposed action is rejected the next decision point can be checked against some defined order of priority. Priority is dependent on how aggressive the action is. Pot odds and showdown odds (described below) are low priority because they are passive calling/checking decisions (if we always used the pot odds decision first, we would never bet). However, a strategy like check-raising is only used with a very strong hand so it would be given the highest priority ( i.e. considered first).
A simple betting strategy, based on hand strength, is described in Figure 6.2. It uses a function called Make which is used to show a level of strength appropriate for the hand held. The Make function is used in the pre-flop betting strategy and to some extent in the actual post-flop betting strategy.