Continuation Betting the Flop and Firing Two Barrels
As a sweeping generalisation, most players either continuation bet (c-bet) far too often or nowhere nearly enough. Which camp do you fall into?
A continuation bet happens when a player raises, one or more opponents call and the player who made the initial raise makes the first bet on the flop, or continues their aggression.
As a sweeping generalisation, most players either continuation bet (c-bet) far too often or nowhere nearly enough. Which camp do you fall into? The players who make too many c-bets simply fire one at every opportunity regardless of the board texture or villain type. While those who hardly ever c-bet usually only do so when they have connected with the flop and connected hard. Both approaches are wrong, but what is right? The answer, like it is with most poker related questions, is it depends.
Whenever you raise preflop and are called, you should ask yourself a number of questions based on your hand strength, the flop texture and the villain who is contesting the pot with you. For example, you should be asking yourself how hard you connected with the flop, what sort of range your opponent will continue with, what is the texture of the flop like and how many turns you can bet and represent a hand on. Once these questions are answered it is much easier to decide whether to c-bet or not.
The majority of people will look at the flop and instantly see if they have completely smashed into it or missed completely. If you have hit the flop hard you are almost always going to be betting; it is a matter of betting big (on wet flops) or betting smaller (on drier boards).
Poker can be easy, sometimes.
Poker is easy when you continually make hands in raised pots. Unfortunately, we are going to miss more flops than we connect with. Does this mean we should give up and not make any c-bets when we miss? Of course not. We don't like passivity in this house.
When you miss the flop, do not be disheartened. Instead, ask yourself some different questions about your opponent and start to think about later streets. Should you miss the flop, ask yourself what sort of range is your opponent going to continue with his hand with? In many cases the answer will be a narrow range and if that is the case you should probably bet. If your opponent likes to float the flop, that is call bets with a wide range of hands in an attempt to take the pot away on later streets, you have to start planning for the turn and preparing yourself to fire two barrels - or more - to win the pot.
If there are not many turn cards that you can continue on if your flop c-bet is called, then the safest option is to check. This may seem weak but it is better than giving your money away. The more potential outs you have, the more you should be inclined to bet.
Again, an example for you. You open from middle position with Ac-Qd and a player who likes to call flop bets calls you in the big blind. The flop comes down Kc-8d-6c. The big blind checks to you, do we bet? In this spot, I would bet. This is because, not only do we probably have the best hand right now, but we can also fire a second barrel on a large number of turn cards including any ace, any king, any queen, any club, and maybe any jack - possibly more. This is a lot of cards that we can represent on the turn so we should therefore bet.
There will be times when you are genuinely stuck in your decision-making and are unsure of what action to take. Usually in these spots, there is little difference between checking and betting so you will not be giving up too much equity doing either option. These spots are also quite uncommon, especially if you are asking yourself the questions we mentioned earlier in the article
Do not get into the habit of c-betting all the time, but at the same time do not allow yourself to play the flop timidly. Keep thinking, keep analysing and keep your opponents guessing.
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