The Art Of Continuation Betting - Strategy Article

Continuation Betting seems to take a love/hate relationship in no limit holdem. Especially since the popularity of the Harrington series of books, almost all players make continuation bets on a very regular basis. But few players show any thought about both the size of their bets and when they do use this strategy.

When making a continuation bet, I advise that you make a bet of about 70-75% of the pot every single time that you decide one is viable. I like having a standard bet because then it means that your opponents will find it harder to get a good read on your game. You could have 6 high or a set, but if you decide to c-bet with 6 high then you'd bet the same %age of the pot that you would with your set. This is a mistake that i often see - people bet too weak or even too strongly with their c-bets. I really do think that standardising your betting is a very worthwhile thing to do.

As far as making a c-bet is concerned, I think there are three important aspects to consider: These, in no particular order, are board texture, position, and your opponent's propensity to fold.

The first of these which I am going to look at is your opponent's propensity to fold. This is where your Poker Tracker database comes in handy. If you datamine a lot or even just play a lot then you should have a pretty decent database of statistics on your opponents.

The two key statistics in this area are fold to continuation bet % and fold to flop bet %. Check/raise flop% is also fairly significant. If a player's folds to flop bet and fold to c-bet stats are less than 50%, you can be pretty sure he is making some very light calls on the flop. This could be with any pair, or even any draw including a gutshot.

These are players who you often need to take a different approach with - value betting your made hands and bluffing less due to their calling station mentality. I'd only c-bet these sort of players on flops that are very favourable for c-betting.

Anyone who folds to c-bets or flop bets over 70% is a good candidate to c-bet unless the board is very unfavourable to do so. These guys are generally looking for top pair or a decent draw to get further involved in the hand.

Against a player who doesn't fold enough to c-bets and you have position and check behind on the flop, you could try a delayed c-bet on the turn if your opponent checks the turn to you as well. Again make this a 70% of the pot bet. They should fold a lot of marginal hands as well here, they may for example think that you flopped a big hand and gave a free card to let them catch up but you won't give two free cards.

The second category you need to look at is position. It's cliched but position is king in no limit holdem. Blank cards could win a hand if you were a good positional player. It's advantages are also apparent in the art of c-betting. I'd be much more inclined to c-bet if I had position and it was checked to me. If the board was somewhat drawy and I was out of position then this would make it less favourable to c-bet.

Finally, we need to look at board texture. I'm going to assume we have position in all instances against a fairly standard 30/10/2 player - as a good NLHE player you should be playing most of your pots in position. I'm also going to assume you have AKo in all instances unless specified.

Flop 1: JT8 with 2 suits. This would not be a good flop to c-bet generally. There is a big chance that your opponent has hit a piece of this flop or has some sort of draw. You are going to be check/raised a fair amount on this flop if you bet. So I'd usually take the free card and hope to spike a Q for the nuts or even an A/K which could be good enough to win the hand.

Flop 2: 448 rainbow. This is an ideal flop to c-bet. Your opponent should not be loose enough to play 4x, there are no draws and unless he has 8x (which is also unlikely) or a pocket pair he won't usually play back at you.

Flop 3: Q96 all one suit. This is a poor flop to c-bet. If your opponent has a piece of this, whether it's a pair or a face card of the suit on the board then he is not going away. Unless you have a flush draw yourself, I'd advise checking behind here.

Flop 4: A93 rainbow. You have 44 this time. This would be a good flop to c-bet as well. There are no draws and almost always your opponent will fold unless he has an ace or a set. The other benefit here of betting is that if you get called, you may often get to see 5 cards which give you chances to spike a set and win a possible large pot.

So to summarise on board texture, rainbow flops are good, boards without possible open ended straight draws are good. Flops with Ax are good. Paired boards are good. Flops with cards close together (particularly high cards) or with flush draws on are not good.

Finally, you may encounter opponents who don't check the flop to you. They bet minimum instead. I assume this to be a check and proceed with my usual c-bet. Often these players have some sort of weak pair or a draw and don't know how strong their hand is. I'll give them all the encouragement they need that their hand is no good and raise them and fully expect them to fold. If they bet minimum and call, I'd say they are very often on a draw.

And that's pretty much my thoughts on c-betting. I hope you found it useful and as always, I'd be grateful for any feedback.