Jim Reid is a longtime lover of poker, a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board, and host of the popular RecPoker podcast.
Hey, gang! This time next week I’ll already be in Las Vegas, getting comfy at the Flamingo with my RECing Crew roommate Eric Gin. I’ll have fired a bullet at the last Day 1 of the $1,100 WPT Prime and I’ll have spent the rest of my time (and dignity) desperately trying to find somebody down there (anybody!) who could get me a Golden Passport into the $5M freeroll!
Assuming those appetizers are out of the way, though, it’s time for the main course: the freakin’ WPT $10,400 World Championship.
I’ve been getting coaching from Matt Affleck since the summer, and he preaches working on high-frequency scenarios, because your skill in those spots gets expressed the most often. I promised you all some strategy nuggets this week, so let’s dive right into some of these high-frequency situations: continuation-betting on the flop - and facing those c-bets.
Early position opens vs the big blind
We’ve already been over how you should c-bet way more often on ten-high or higher boards when you open from early position and get called from the big blind, but I mentioned at the time that it was a general rule of thumb, and there were many nuanced exceptions.
Here are a few factors that should cause you to pull the trigger a little less frequently, even on ten-high or higher boards. I am trying to make these tips simple and easy to apply at the tables in real time, so I am generalizing Matt’s lessons here: if there are any errors here they are mine.
- C-bet less often on T-9-8 or T-8-7 than you do on T-8-4 or T-6-2, especially as stacks get deeper. The more made straight combos that are available on the flop, the less frequently our EP range should c-bet.
- C-bet monotone flops often, but c-bet less frequently on ace-high monotone flops, as most of our combos of suited opens from EP will have the ace in them.
- C-bet less often on ace-high wheel boards like A-5-3 or A-4-2 as the big blind player has more sets and straight draws than we do, and can check-raise us more often.
- C-bet less often on A-K-X boards as our Kx hands no longer benefit from protection and can now check back.
- C-bet less often on boards like A-8-8 and A-6-6. The big blind player’s range covers the trips better, and some of our value hands don’t benefit as much from protection as they would on other flops.
- When holding a nut flush draw on a 2-tone board, c-bet less frequently with your A-K suited hands and more frequently with your lower Ax suited hands. Not only can your lower Ax suited hands get better ace-high hands to fold, you are also not blocking the big blind player from having the king-high flush draw - and trust me, when you hit your ace-high flush you definitely want someone else at the table to have made the king-high flush!
The view from the other side
But what about when you are the player in the blinds facing the c-bets? How do you decide how to proceed? Here are a few more advanced tips from Matt:
- Rarely donk-bet: check-raise instead. To get comfy with check-raising hands that are not made value, start with these three types: 1) flush draws 2) straight draws 3) what Matt calls ‘3x3 hands’, where you have no front-door draws at all, but you do have 3 to a straight and 3 to a flush; ideally with a high card in the flush draw suit, and of course having an overcard to the board is also really helpful.
- When facing a small bet on rainbow flops you may struggle to find enough hands to call with in order to meet the Minimum Defense Frequency. If you play with a solver, you will see that many extremely weak hands have to call a small bet on a rainbow flop to be unexploitable. For 2-tone flops, you don’t have to be a hero: because there are so many suited combos you can continue with, you can fold a lot of your worst off-suit hands.
- Finally, on those 2-tone flops where you are facing a small bet, favor continuing with hands that do not have a single card of the backdoor suit in them. Many of your opponent’s bluff c-bets will be backdoor draws, so having one of those cards in your hand makes it less likely that they are bluffing.
OK that’s it for now, gang, those bags aren’t going to pack themselves! I’d encourage anyone who found this helpful to work with Matt.
And if I see you on the felt this week, just remember: when it comes to flops, it’s not as simple as ‘See? Bet!’
You can follow Jim’s progress here at PokerOrg, on BlueSky and on X, and catch the most recent episode of the RecPoker podcast here.
