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!

Hold'Em Situations That Will Help You Become a Winning Player

 

 

 Hold'Em Situations That Will Help You Become a Winning Player

Trapping Hands
These are my favorite forms of chip raking opportunities on the felt. The definition of a trapping hand is simple;  you hold a really strong hand and another person has a weaker hand that may show strength for him to continue playing with. An example of a trapping hand would be if you flop a set/trips, especially with a small pair, and another person has a big pocket pair. You can brutally clean him out at this point. Any player less than extremely experienced will fall in love with a big pair type of hand and almost always you can really empty his piggy bank.
There are a variety of trapping hands out there. For instance, flopping a straight and your opponent may also flop, but hits a set.  Trapping hands are hands that come in great when your maybe having a slow day, not seeing many cards to play, stay patient and there is your reward. There are mayne situations that could be considered a trap, I find the easiest to explain and make someone really understand is flopping the set.  This is a hand where the entire time you are aware that you are way ahead, especially if you flop top set. Again as said in previous posts, stay humble, dont fall in love with any hand, you could think you are running a trap hand, and you yourself are falling right into the hands of a trap, so be aware, think before you act!

Betting in Late Position - You won't make a bunch of money betting in late position when everyone checks to you but its worth mentioning because you could pick up the scraps (blinds) and grind a couple hundred dollars that way, even without having hands to play.


Drawing Hands - Drawing hands are tricky in no limit. When you flop four of one suite in limit holdem, it is an easy decision to keep calling till the river. In no limit that isn't always going to be the case since if you miss your draw on the turn card, often the next bet will be too large to make it profitable to keep calling. I've found that if I'm in early position with a flush draw or straight draw it is often better to come out betting, almost  a feeler bet, but enough to make them think,  instead of checking and calling. First, if you check and call you give away your hand as well as show weakness, also you leave yourself open to being over bet or just bet out of the pot. Second, you may even win the pot by tossing chips into the middle as a feeler. The risk of betting is that you are going to get raised an amount you can't call. My advice for drawing hands is to learn the odds and then compare them to the size of the pot.  Also, get a feel for your opponents, do they tend to form a continuation bet or do they check performing a trap.


Big pair over big pair (AK included) - I mentioned above about how most of the time you won't make that much with your big pairs. The usual routine is that you raise preflop, get a caller or two and then bet the flop and everyone lets go of the hand. Sometimes you'll get a freshy who doesn't believe you and calls you down but those folks do not usually last that long. A good percentage of the time I take down smaller pots with my AA, KK or AK. The rest of the time I come away with the win, I end up against someone who has a smaller pair. AA and KK can be hands that sadly lead to a way for you to lose your stack because it is very easy to fall in love with the best starting hands because they are the best. If you're dealt AA or KK on the dealer button, You have a better chance of making more money with it since people assume that you're playing  position instead of the cards in your hand. This is why if you are on the button with a big hand and everyone folds to you, don't slow play it and limp in, raise it since people won't believe you. Sometimes I'll even make a raise much larger then I normally do on the button if everyone folds to me. For example, if I normally raised to 15-20 dollars preflop, I'll raise it to $35 or $50. Then people really think I'm trying to steal the blinds. Every now and then you'll have a guy who tries to raise over the top of you  thinking you're bluffing and it will end to your benefit. Those are the dream moments.

Small Pots - Most of the pots in no limit, and the ones you'll win, are going to be small. Everyone will be winning little pots for a while and then ACTION, someone will get nailed and lose their stack. That's how it goes. The small pots can add up after a while though.  Stay patient and persistent, and success will follow.

 Bluffing -  It's almost impossible to bet someone out of a pot in limit poker since it just costs them one more big bet. In no limit this situation has much more potential for earning, especially coupled with a good read of a hand and position. Learning when to bluff is an advanced skill that you will pick up as you learn the true feel of the game, thousands of hands and situations, seeing and understanding why things happen, and again analyzing your opponent. We will go into the bluff in later posts, but keep in mind a decent player is hard to get off his medium hand, and a novice is simply called a calling station, they are almost impossible to bluff, just keep that in mind and pick your spots.  Don't become to obvious, or your bluff will be voided and you will lose!