Post-flop betting

	Continuation bets should generally be the same size whether you hit or miss a flop. Keep it simple and consistent

In this article I’m going to discuss the art of post-flop continuation betting. It’s an area where the situation often dictates your action, so I’m going to focus on four different scenarios: continuation betting in the early game, betting the turn in the early game, post-flop mid-game betting and post-flop end-game betting. As I’m sure you’re aware poker is a ver y intricate game, so there’s no way I will be able to give exact explanations on what you need to do in ever y situation. I just want to give you a basic over view of how I think in these particular hands.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, the first rule I’d suggest is that continuation bets (c-bets) should generally be the same size whether you hit or miss a flop. Without labouring the obvious, the reason for this is that you don’t want people to know whether you’ve really hit a flop or were just making a standard c-bet.

You want to stay unpredictable so you can get paid off with your big hands and make people fold when you’re bluffing. Keep it simple and consistent, especially when playing against good players. If you base the size of your bets on whether you’ve hit or missed, they will take your game apart pretty quickly.

C-BETTING IN THE EARLY STAGES OF AN MTT

In the early stages of a tournament I try to keep my play as straightforward as possible. When I smash a flop I want to extract maximum value and protect against some of the goofy draws that people will chase early on. All I can really say is bet, bet, bet.

When continuation betting, however, you want to take into consideration how many players are in the hand. When I’m heads-up in a pot, I will generally always fire a continuation bet even early on in a tournament, simply because it’s less likely my opponent has flopped anything.

Usually the ideal continuation bet is around half to two-thirds of the pot. In a multi-way flop on the other hand it’s more likely that somebody has flopped something, so I’d be more inclined to check-fold flops that I completely miss.

Here is an example of a recent hand I played in a $109 freezeout on PokerStars. In this particular situation I have no pair and no draw in a heads-up pot. There are 1,500 chips in the pot after the blinds, my raise, and his call. I bet the pot and take it down uncontested.

SEAT 1: J3bros. (6,510 in chips)
SEAT 2: benjo38AA (5,900 in chips)
SEAT 3: spoonieluv40 (3,230 in chips) is sitting out
SEAT 4: PeFlo (2,910 in chips)
SEAT 5: Moorman1 (3,495 in chips)
SEAT 6: _sryman.com_ (2,575 in chips)
SEAT 7: allinstevie (18,340 in chips)
SEAT 8: QuasiFiction (2,965 in chips)

spoonieluv40: posts small blind 100
PeFlo: posts big blind 200

HOLE CARDS

Dealt to allinstevie [A?-Q?]
Moorman1: folds
_sryman.com_: folds
allinstevie: raises 400 to 600
QuasiFiction: folds
J3bros.: folds
benjo38AA: calls 600
spoonieluv40: folds
PeFlo: folds

FLOP

[3?-J?-5?]

allinstevie: bets 1,000
benjo38AA: folds

allinstevie collected 1,500 from pot

If you notice the stack sizes, my stack is obviously in great shape and my opponent has around 20 big blinds, which is plenty enough for him to fold after missing a flop. You need to be careful about betting into players who are very short because often they will just stack off with any two overcards or any pair or draw.

KEY POINT

Continuation betting when you miss the flop in the early stages of a tournament should usually be reserved for heads-up pots. Be wary of betting into multi-way pots when you miss the flop

BETTING THE TURN EARLY IN TOURNAMENTS

If you’ve bet out on the flop and are called you will usually have a pretty straightforward decision on the turn. You’re still early in the tournament and will still be pretty deep-stacked, so your choice is either to bet the turn as a bluff if you haven’t improved or continue trying to extract value from weaker holdings when you have a strong hand.

Let’s look at some thoughts on how to bet the turn in different situations. I have an old hand history here from a $109 tournament I played on PokerStars back in June. In this hand I hit the flop very well with A-K and improved to top two pair on the turn. I want to extract maximum value here from hands like K-J, A-J and any other A-x hands or gutshot draws.

SEAT 1: allinstevie (2,625 in chips)
SEAT 2: sharon 33555 (2,595 in chips) is sitting out
SEAT 3: rebuy097 (6,150 in chips)
SEAT 4: joachin68 (2,645 in chips)
SEAT 5: markedcard (2,410 in chips)
SEAT 6: a lert (4,280 in chips)
SEAT 7: pastika (6,095 in chips)
SEAT 8: jimmyb12 (4,095 in chips)
SEAT 9: shinerrr (1,590 in chips)

markedcard: posts small blind 50
a lert: posts big blind 100

HOLE CARDS

Dealt to allinstevie [A?-K?]
pastika: folds
jimmyb12: folds
shinerrr: folds
allinstevie: raises 200 to 300
sharon 33555: folds
rebuy097: calls 300
joachin68: folds
markedcard: folds
a lert: folds

FLOP

[J?-K?-6?]

allinstevie: bets 400
rebuy097: calls 400

TURN

[J?-K?-6?] [A?]

allinstevie: checks
rebuy097: bets 300
allinstevie: raises 700 to 1,000
rebuy097: folds

allinstevie collected 2,150 from pot

In this hand I decided to go for a check-raise, as this allowed me to extract some extra value that I might not have got otherwise. When I check, the first thing the villain thinks is, ‘Oh he’s scared of that Ace.’ This line of thought often leads people to bluff at hands that they wouldn’t call a turn bet with.

KEY POINT

When maximising your return on big hands, look for spots where your opponent may try to represent a scare card and go for a check-raise, or check-call on a dry board