Continuation Bets – 5 Tips to Improve Your Continuation Bet Success Rate
Raised Pre-Flop? Not Sure Whether To C-Bet Your Missed Hand? Read On For Tips
That Show You
How To Make Those Continuation Bets More Effective.
After raising pre flop it is often a profitable move to ‘continue’ with the aggression you showed once the flop comes – whether your hand improved or not – by betting out. This is known as a continuation bet – it is sometimes abbreviated to cbet or c-betting.
Continuation bets are an important part of poker strategy, they serve 2 main purposes. Firstly you will use them as a form of bluff and take down the pot on the flop. Secondly, when you have a very strong hand, you will want to build the pot – so betting often on the flop will help to disguise those times when your raise it for this purpose.
There are many factors which affect whether your continuation bet will be successful, here we are assuming your objective it to win the pot immediately after the flop comes.
Continuation Bet Success Factor #1 – Number of Opponents
The bigger the number of opponents active in the hand on the flop the lower the chance that your continuation bet will succeed. Against a single opponent you can expect to win the pot more than half the time, against 4 or 5 opponents your success rate can plummet to 20%. If you missed the flop completely 1 or 2 opponents is best.
Continuation Bet Success Factor #2 – How Big You Make Your Bet
Larger continuation bets succeed more often – yet lose you more chips when they fail. Very small cbets are likely to be called often, while this diminishes as the bet gets larger there is a statistical ‘sweet spot’ between 40% to 60% of the current pot size. This gets the maximum value as bets of this size usually induce opponents to fold, bigger (pot size or above) bets get slightly more folds – but more chips when they are called.
Continuation Bet Success Factor #3 – Skill and Tendencies of Opponents
 There are two types of opponent who are more likely to call your continuation bet. Highly skilled players and very unskilled players! The highly skilled players will expect you to cbet and will call often to see what you do on the turn. ‘Calling Stations’ (very bad players who tend to call too often) will think that their 3rd pair with no kicker is a good enough hand to call all the way to the river – be careful of both of these opponents! Tournament Shark gives you ROI, ratings and buy-in data for opponents in real-time as you play – giving you a profitable edge at the tables.
Continuation Bet Success Factor #4 – Potential Draws on the Flop
When the flop comes with 3 suited cards or 3 cards to a straight the success rate of continuation bets goes down considerably. This is because many opponents will call your bet in the hope of getting paid off if they hit their straight or flush. The same is true with 2 suited cards or connected flops that do not make an obvious straight – the more draws potentially available the less likely your cbet is to succeed. Conversely, flops that contain pairs are excellent candidates for c-bets. These are much less likely to have hit your opponent.
Continuation Bet Success Factor #5 – High Cards on the Flop
The higher the flop comes the more likely your continuation bet is to succeed. Flops containing an Ace are the best of all. You should often bet out even when you do not hold an Ace yourself as your opponent will not generally call without one. The same principle works with King and Queen-high flops. As the board gets lower your cbet success rate will drop – be careful on those small-card flops.
In Summary
The very best time to continuation bet is against a single opponent on an Ace high flop of 3 different suits with no obvious straight draws. You should aim to bet around 40% to 60% of the pot – which means you need to succeed only one in three times to show a profit. Remember to avoid doing this too often into highly skilled opponents and into calling stations!!
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