Continuation Betting and the Importance of Position at the Table

Continuation Betting and the Importance of Position at the Table

When deciding whether or not to make a continuation bet on the flop, one truly critical factor in that situation is your position at the table.  You're playing a hand,  you raise before the flop from under the gun and get called by the player sitting in the big blind position. You should strongly consider making a continuation bet most of the time, whether the flop helped you or not, this portrays that your preflop raise from the worst position at the table holds a very big hand. In the same situation, your opponent's call before the flop doesn't signify nearly as much strength because he was getting a huge discounted price to call from the big blind. If he checks to you on the flop, you should make a continuation bet at least 90-95 percent of the time, mixing in a check here and there when you have a hand like A-J or A-Q and hit the flop with your ace or queen.
Now let's say you make a preflop raise on the button and get called by the big blind. You still have position on your opponent, but he's probably not going to give you any credit for having a strong hand because stealing blinds from the button is so common on the button. There's a chance he might check-raise you with absolutely nothing, so you should be much more inclined to check after your opponent checks, especially if you actually have a decent hand like pocket eights on a 9-5-2 flop or A-K on a T-Q-5 flop. In the second situation, you would be better off checking and taking a free card with A-K because you're likely drawing to ten outs and, even if you don't improve, your hand is still strong enough to have showdown value on the river. If you do decide to make a continuation bet and get called, you can almost always have a good idea your opponent has a better hand than the one you hold at the time. You should then take a free card on the turn, which will give you another shot at hitting one of your outs on the river.  
Continuation bets have become common also, so preparation is a must due to the fact the your opponent has seen this dance before.  Your opponent looks at this as a steal attempt in this situation, you should be prepared to go all the way with your hand whenever you're short-stacked and connect with the flop. For example, if you only have 50 big blinds in your stack, you raise from the button with J-10 suited and the flop comes 9-J-5, you need to be willing to get all your chips into the middle of the table. You should make a continuation bet most of the time, but occasionally you're going to want to check behind in this spot in order to disguise the strength of your hand. Now if you had 70 big blinds in your stack in the same situation, you might want to check behind because you're a little too deep to entice an opponent who has a J to want to put you all in. If you check, most of the cards that fall on the turn won't hurt you. Only an A, K, or J would give you much concern. Having disguised the strength of your hand, you can then bet for value on the turn and the river. Your turn bet will most likely get called by many hands worse than yours, including those holding small pocket pairs. If your opponent checks to you again on the river, you should continue to bet for value, but if he leads out with a bet you should just call. If you raise, you're only going to get called by a better hand than yours.
Now let's turn it around and say you're out of position. You raise before the flop from middle position and get called by the player holding the button. Now you're in much more of a sticky situation if you decide to come out and make a continuation bet because, if your opponent calls, you're going to have to act first on the turn and if you check the turn your opponent will often dive in on your shown weakness, and make a large bet.  

However, there's a great way to take advantage of this situation. Wait until you actually have a strong hand on the flop, top pair or better, and make a continuation bet and get called, this is a great spot for you to check the turn. By doing this it will appear to your opponent that you're conceding the pot, and more often than not, it will fool him into believing he has the better hand. If the flop is J-4-2 and you have Q-J and check on the turn, your opponent could try to put you all in with a hand like pocket nines, whereas if you bet the turn he would probably fold that hand.  
 If you want to succeed in tournaments, you should always be very aware of your position at the table when deciding whether or not you should make a continuation bet on the flop.  What types of horror stories have you experienced, did a continuation bet fall apart at the seams for you, or was there success I want to know!