Continuity Betting — Part II

As discussed last month, a good pot-limit Omaha continuity betting (c-betting) strategy involves tailoring your sizing and frequency according to your opponent’s tendencies, your own image, and board texture. To refine your strategy, let’s look at each individual factor in more detail and see how it should affect your thinking.
For now, let’s forget playing against call-stations. They’re very profitable to have at your table, and for the most part, easy to play but you won’t learn much. Instead, we’ll focus on the regulars. Some regs will seem to outplay you whatever you do, but they are few and far between. Especially online, most regs love to float — call with a weak hand with the intention of bluffing later on in the hand — particularly if you c-bet too often. Once you identify your opponent as a floater, you need to make two adjustments. Firstly, tighten up, both pre and post-flop. Until your opponent catches on, he will be calling your c-bets with awful equity against your range, and attempting to bluff you on turns and rivers where your range is much stronger than he thinks.
Secondly, think about backdoor equity. You might have no pair on the flop, but with two backdoor flush draws and more key wrap turns, a c-bet will be profitable against a chronic floater. You can now semibluff the turn a lot of the time or check-raise when he bets. With no backdoor draws or pairs, against an opponent who doesn’t like to give up, you generally have an easy check-to-fold.
Against someone who c-bets the flop and gives up on the turn very often, floating in position with a wide range will be very profitable. The natural results of the above adjustments is that you will c-bet the flop with a lower frequency, but follow it up on the turn, floating wide against such a strategy now becomes a heavily losing play. Your image, whether your opponents think you c-bet too often and give up, or rarely, should play a large part in your decision-making process, so be aware of how your opponents perceive you.
In general, be more aggressive out of position. In position, you can think about taking lines that control the pot size, especially against tricky, aggressive opponents who check-raise often as well as float. As part of your balanced strategy, consider your turn and river plans after you check. Will you call down on turns and rivers that don’t improve your weak showdown hand?
When sizing your c-bets, don’t just think about frequency and the strength of your hand; look at remaining stacks. A bet that uses ‘leverage’ — the threat of being able to go all in on the turn, or expecting to pay more to see the river — is more powerful than one that allows your opponent to expect to see the river cheaply as well. If your plan is to bet most turns, give yourself room to manoeuvre.
So now we have a solid, functional c-betting strategy, let’s examine some hands:
Game: 6-max pot-Limit Omaha
Blinds: $5-10
Stacks:
Under The Gun (UTG): $2,340
Hijack (HJ) $855
CutOff (you): $2,120
Button (BTN): $3,330
Small Blind (SB): $990
Big Blind (BB): $1,035
Your hand: A♥ 8♠ 7♠ 5♥
Action: two folds, you open to $30, SB calls, BB folds.
Pot: $70
Flop: K♥ 7♦ 4♦
SB is a casual player, bad at hand-reading, and loose-passive, but does take the occasional stab. He checks. Check or bet, and how much?
Bet. He can call with flush draws, fold better pairs that have no draws, and if you are behind, your ace, 7, and backdoor flush draw are all probably live, not to mention your gutshot. As your opponent is loose-passive, he is unlikely to raise without a great hand; you might even have the best hand, in which case you’re protecting yourself from being outdrawn on the turn, and from his occasional turn bluff. You need not have a plan for the turn, but there is some value in deciding which diamonds, if any, you will barrel. $40 is a good size to bet, as it does not inflate the pot massively, and gives you a good price to hit your equity; also, there aren’t many hands he will call for $40 but fold for $70. If you had a value hand, such as a set, two pairs, or a combo draw, you would bet bigger, exploiting his lack of hand-reading ability.
Game: 9-max pot-Limit Omaha
Blinds: $10-20
Stacks:
UTG: $1,970
UTG+1: $970
UTG+2: $8,770
HJ: $3,530
CO: $6,620
BTN (you): $12,240
SB: $1,980
BB: $2,275
Your hand: J♦ 10♦ 9♠ 7♠
Action: two folds, UTG+2 opens to $70, HJ calls, CO folds. You 3-bet squeeze to $300, folds to UTG+2 who calls, as does CO.
Pot: $930
Flop: Q♥ 9♥ 6♠
Both your opponents are regs, reasonably aggressive, and they check to you. Check or bet, and how much?
Easy check. You will get check-raised very often on this board, as there are a lot of made hands and big draws in your opponents’ ranges; you suspect one or both of your opponents may check-raise with hands as weak as bottom pair and a flush draw, as you’re representing high pairs by three-betting preflop. Checking allows you to see a free turn, preserving your direct six outs to make the nuts, two outs to make trips, lots of two-pair outs, and your backdoor flush draw. By checking, you also balance nicely — your c-bets will get more respect in future spots. ♠

Michael Piper has been playing pot-limit omaha online for a living for more than five years. He posts online under the screenname wazz.