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When should I be continuation betting?
Waddell93
Member Posts: 56
Morning all,
So my origional question was going to be 'When should i continuation AK?' as if i raise pre, get a caller and then the flop is low/mid. I conti bet 1/2 pot and I get insta called for the turn to be a blank and i check to there all in!
But in reflection, the true question would be 'when should i be continuation betting?'
I completely understand the relevance of conti betting on a dry board and not a wet one, but i still find the flat call from the villian to shove the river.
Any advise would be great 
Comments
I think you pretty much said it all in your message actually. You make a continuation bet if you're the initial raiser, and the board is relatively dry on the flop. A continuation bet on a wet flop is possible, but much less common actually. It is also important to take the number of players in the pot into consideration and if your continuation bet is for value or a bluff. Even if you just have A high, that could still be for value if you think you're ahead - which most of the time on a flop like 249 rainbow, you will be.
If your continuation bet is called, it is possible to bet again on the turn for a double-barrel, but you should be re-evaluating on each street.
If your opponent is shoving on the river, chances are they have something - so it really depends on what you have as to whether you call or not. Don't just call on the hope they are bluffing (I was previously doing this a lot, and it rarely works!)
As well as being board dependent it is also very player dependant. Don't cbet calling stations when you have A-high post flop. Good aggressive players will also start testing you out if they see you c-betting a lot - either reraising when they have nothing themselves or calling then betting if you slow down on the turn.
In general on a low stakes cash table it wont get you very far as you will get called down by all-sorts. C-betting a missed AK raise is effectively a bluff. A-high might be good and if another card comes that you hit then you may have just overtaken your opponent but may find it hard to get paid.
Another point is that c-betting generally works better when you have raised over a limper, rather than open raising and getting called. In the former you should have the better range of preflop holdings - the reverse is normally true in the latter situation.
As well as these general points it pays to observe what your opponents are opening with / calling raises with/ putting up a fight post-flop with. Some players will call down every street with bottom pair, some players will fold to any show of post flop strength if they have missed. Good players will be adjusting all the time to what you are doing.
Back to the original topic, I had a continuation bet work very well this morning:
We want to be balanced with our cbets meaning we dont wanna just cbet when we hit a really nice flop and check when we dont, but at first and at the low stakes I'd focus more on just how a flop will connect with their range of hands.
For instance if you raise AK and we have position, they check to us on 9TJ. Now this flop smashes the range people like to call with pre... the chances they have at least 1pr, or a king or an 8 for an open ended straight draw is very high, whereas we can checkback knowing we have 2 overcards to potnetially make a better 1pr hand AND a gutshot to make the nut straight. On the other side of the coin, if we raise AK and they check to us on 339, it's very hard for them to have many hands that they'll continue with so we'll get ALOT more folds and even when we do get called it's alot more likely we are still ahead against people who don't wanna fold such a dry flop with AQ/KQ/KJ/AJ etc.