LOW BLINDS NO LIMIT HOLD’EM CASH GAMES
with Sam O’Connor
Should You Make the Continuation Bet?
Let’s say you’ve raised before the flop. Your raise is an amount calculated to give you two callers and some valuable information. But the cards in the flop don’t seem to have helped anybody, including you. Should you make the continuation bet and try for this raised pot?
When you make that continuation bet, you are saying, “There are three junk cards on the board, fellow players; those cards didn’t help any of us and I still have the best hand. If you want to see another card, call this!” (Don’t make it a small bet.)
But when should you try it? The game of continuation bets is an adventure all its own. It’s a game within a game, and it is art more than science. And it is more about people than cards.
When your hand is improved with the flop, you have easier choices. But we aren’t talking about good luck today; we’re discussing the semi-bluff or outright bluff as a continuation bet.
There can be a down side to making the bluffing c-bet. Your opponents called your preflop raise with pocket cards they liked. They have the cost of a raise invested in the hand and they may still think they have a good chance to win. Even worse, either of your opponents may well have improved his/her hand and didn’t want to take the lead in the betting. One of them with an improved hand may be intending to slow play your continuation bet. A slow play could be a good plan on his/her part because, so far, you have been the hard charging player in the hand. You could be in c-bet danger - or maybe not.
Is there a rule for continuation bets?
It’s a game of people and, therefore, there are no hard and fast rules. A continuation bet after a rag flop in small blinds no limit is made successfully more often against beginners and extra tight players than against knowledgeable opponents. And only a little knowledge in an opponent can be dangerous.
Players new to no limit, who have graduated from neophyte to novice, sometimes use methods of play that may include check-raising the continuation bet. Then, too, there is the journeyman player who intentionally plays small cards when you raise preflop and now is ready to call your c-bet for a slow played draw or trap.
What should you do?
Your decision to make the c-bet should depend on 1) your table image; 2) your position; 3) the size of your opponents’ stacks; 4) the players involved.
1) By far, the most important is the first one - your image. Have you made the c-bet lately? How often? Have you shown strength in a hand recently when you made the bet? Are you an overall winner at the table? What kind of cards were in the last hand you had to show? Here’s a good one: Have you shown enough strength in recent play that your opponents will believe you could have a pocket pair?
2) Of course, the last position in the betting order is usually the best position for a c-bet because your opponents, presumably, have shown weakness by checking to you.
3) Watch the size of stacks. You might be able to anticipate a check-raise of all in; you’ll want a hand that gives you a chance to win the showdown contest of the turn and the river.
4) Bet wisely based on what you know about your opponents. Even if just one of your opponents has a habit of calling bets of any kind, you may want to wait until you can bet for value.
One big card.
Let’s change the flop to two rags and one big card. Let’s say it’s a king. Now, when you make your continuation bet, you are representing top pair and it’s a different and often less dangerous game than the three rag flop. Unless you are known as a habitual c-bettor, any good card in the flop will help to make your story believable. However, if you are called, you likely will be called by a pocket king and, unless you have a king and a big kicker, you may wish you had never started this line of betting. But, in that case, you were just unlucky that the caller had a king - unless, of course, you were foolish enough to bet into a player known to slow play top pair.
Altogether, the game of continuation betting is mostly a game of people and only occasionally a game of cards. When you don’t have the hand you wanted, it’s a game of choosing the right players and situations for representation. If your story isn’t believable (or an opponent has the biggest king) the game then becomes a game of cards that could lead almost anywhere.
Some refinements.
If you’re on top of your game and ahead of the other players, maybe you’ll raise from an early position (thereby representing strength) with a plan to make the continuation bet. You do it because you want to create a little action and it’s the kind of game in which you can get away with it.
As you are called by players, they will be acting behind you. You’ll want to pick your after flop plan very carefully. You’ll make the c-bet if the opponents are players who will fold easily. But, if you believe the flop helped no one and you see the last player to act is, himself, a c-bettor, you may choose to check your hand. If the last to act tries a bluffing bet, you can raise him. You won’t need the best hand, just the easy c-bettor type trying for the pot. Your original strategy has just reversed itself. And it was made possible partly because you were the one who made the preflop raise.
Playing the players.
The art of the continuation bet works beautifully when you choose the right situation with the right opponents. Bottom line: Continuation betting is mostly about playing the players.
Sam O’Connor is the author of the new book How to Dominate $1 and $2 No Limit Hold ‘Em. You can contact him at HowToDominate@aol.com