Continuation Betting

Most of you will be familiar with the art of the continuation bet. In case you’re not it basically means that once you have raised pre-flop you fire out a bet on the majority of flops to try and take down the pot. We raised preflop to say we are strong and we continue our story. This is generally a profitable move.

However, the continuation bet is a whole lot more complex than that. For starters, as with all things in poker we need to think about position. Pre flop the big blind gets to act last. The big blind gets to see what everyone else does before making his decision, so on this street the big blind has the positional advantage. His disadvantage comes from being out of position for the rest of the hand. Post flop the big blind will typically be out of position and have to act first and this is a big handicap.

We all know how important position is, but a whole lot of people give up their positional advantage on the flop by continuation betting 100% of the time. Think about it, if you bet 100% of the time the big blind knows exactly what you are going to do before you do it. You’ve effectively given up your positional advantage because the big blind knows you will continuation bet all of the time and so he gets to act last again. He gets the choice about closing the action or opening it up again. This means that when the first two cards were dealt the big blind had position, and when the next 3 cards dealt he had position again. By continuation betting 100% of the time, we allow the big blind to have position for 5/7ths of the cards dealt during the hand. This is more than half the hand!

So we must check some % of the time. How often is up for debate. A whole load of factors will influence what the answer is. How often does your opponent defend the big blind? How good is the flop for your range? How good is the flop for their range?

We certainly don’t need too much of a reason to bet. 3 to a flush, over cards, bottom pair or a gut shot straight draw are good enough reasons to continuation bet bluff, as they have the potential to turn into bigger hands should our opponent fight back. We must decide what hands we should check with. We need to make sure we are balanced when we check, because if we only ever check the nuts our opponents will soon figure us out and play accordingly. I often check my nut hands when they make it really hard for our opponent to have anything and I need them to take a turn card to catch up. Like KK on a K22 flop or something similar. Like I say if we only check the nuts our opponents will exploit us so I often check my absolute worst hands too, for while they have the most to gain as a bluff, it is no bad thing for your opponents to see you check terrible hands and that you aren’t always bluffing. Occasionally I will check my mid strength and drawing hands. How do I decide what occasionally is? One way to randomise your play, which is a good thing as it stops people getting reads on you, is to use a clock to decide. If you check your draws and top pairs whenever the number on the clock ends with the numbers 1 or 2 then you will be checking these hands 20% of the time. It is up to you what % you want to check these hands back, it depends on your play style. A hat tip goes to Dan Harrington, as it was from one of his books that I stole the numbers on the clock idea. Of course if my opponent folds too much I will continuation bet a whole lot more just to take down the pot there and then.

That’s enough strategy from me, my current poker plans are pretty much over and done with for the year! There are plenty of competitions kicking about in December, but I’ve been away a lot for the past 6 weeks and it is absolutely essential to get my work/life balance correct. I’m really looking forward to my last tourney of the year. The Unibet Open in Antwerp at the end of November promises to be at least as much fun as their last excellent event in Cannes. However I am even more excited to spend December at home with my wife, the lovely Emma, enjoying the run up to Christmas together. A lot of poker players I know have to beg their partners for a trip away. This is anathema to me. Whilst my work life balance is not perfect my wife knows I try my best in that regard. When I do go away to play a tournament I leave with a kiss and her best wishes. Don’t get me wrong, we both get lonely, but her love and support towards me, and mine towards her means that I never need permission to go away to do my thing. I definitely have the nuts when it comes to my marriage.