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Here is a simple idea that many beginning players are completely oblivious to: controlling your opponent's pot odds allows you to induce mistakes. As the player who makes the most mistakes is the one who loses, and you want to be there when your opponents are making mistakes, inducing them to make mistakes allows you to control the game. By putting in the right amount of money, you change the pot odds for whoever acts after you. If you change the pot odds so that they either call when the odds are unfavorable and you might have the best hand, or they call when the odds are favorable and you definitely have the best hand, you are benefiting from their mistakes.
If, for example, there is $200 and your opponent needs four to one odds in order to call (you have put them on a flush draw; you are holding two pair and are positive that you have the best hand at the moment) how much should you bet? The short answer is, "enough so that they have less than four to one odds." In this case, betting $50 is too little: this means they have to call $50 to win $250, which is five to one on odds. $100 would certainly do it - then they would have to call $100 to win $300, giving them three to one odds.
What happens if they call and win? Does that mean your $100 bet was a mistake? Not at all - you believed you had the best hand and you offered them poor odds to call you. If they called you, that means they made a mistake and then got lucky. Your job is to get them to make mistakes, because consistent mistakes will have a bigger effect on the chip stack than getting lucky.
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