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Chris Moorman is one of the most accomplished poker players in the world, with $9 million in live tournament winnings, and more online. The English pro, who is an ambassador for ACR Poker, has a WPT title and two WSOP bracelets. Follow Chris onX.
Continuation betting is one of the first things a poker player learns. It can be a very powerful tool, but you must use it in the right way to gain the maximum benefit. I will discuss a few dos and don’ts of c-betting, which should help you better grasp how to use it most effectively.
A very common situation that arises in tournament poker is that you open-raise and end up playing a heads-up pot versus the big blind. Versus a lot of opponents, it’s actually incredibly profitable to continuation bet close to 100% of the time. Against better players, you have to be very careful when doing this on a lot of board textures because they are able to find the appropriate number of check-raises and put a lot of your range in a tough spot to continue.
A simple rule to follow is that the earlier position you have raised from, the higher percentage of time you can continuation bet profitably. Continuation betting becomes a lot trickier when you start playing pots versus a flat caller in position and/or multi-way pots. Now, you have to start thinking about the board texture and if it is better for your or your opponent’s ranges.
Also, other things come into play, such as what turn cards bring you equity, and you can barrel as a semi-bluff. Do you block potential floats, such as nut backdoor flush draws? What are the effective stack sizes going to be on the turn and river if you are called on the flop? How much protection do you need with your hand? Are your opponents the type who are likely to stab at the flop when checked, so is check-raising your hand a better option instead?
Multi-way you want to lower your continuation betting percentage by a huge amount. What a lot of people don’t realize is that you also need to lower your sizings significantly. In a heads-up pot, you may continuation bet 75% of the pot a significant portion of the time. In a four-way pot, this is pretty much never going to be the right play.
Also, the bigger the gap between the position you’ve raised from and where you’ve been called from, the higher the percentage you will normally continuation bet.
For example, UTG versus the button, you will still bet a very high percentage of the time, but conversely, cutoff versus button, you will need to mix in a lot more checks and proceed with more check-calling and raising with your range just because your opponent will have a significant range advantage, plus the advantage of position on future streets.
Having a super tight, strong range from UTG negates the power of position a little bit on most boards, unless it’s a particularly bad board for a UTG range. Then it’s smart to employ a 100% check range as the UTG player.
When continuation betting, you need to plan ahead on future streets. Don’t just fire out a continuation bet without thinking about at least some of the questions posed in this article first.
Always think during the hand about what you are trying to represent and what hands you are trying to fold out or get value from, and then choose an appropriate sizing based on this and the board texture.
When used correctly, continuation betting can be very effective, but it’s important to really consider all the factors at play before putting that one bet out there so that you can set yourself up for the turn and river play if your opponent continues.
