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A bet from a player on the flop who raised pre-flop is known as a continuation bet or simply a c-bet. That player has continued to seize the initiative, hence the term, continuation bet. The normal use of the continuation bet is by a player in position against a lone opponent who has checked on the flop. The use of a continuation bet is rooted in the wisdom that most of the time one’s hand does not improve on the flop. Therefore the first player to bet may take down the pot right then and there.
Over time the use of this strategy has almost become the 100% default action by many poker players. Right up front we will state that if players employ this poker strategy every time they have taken the lead pre-flop, they are continuation betting too frequently. When this is the case, what can be utilized selectively to one’s benefit can become a major leak. As in all of poker, predictability is analogous to stepping into the cross hairs of all but your most obtuse opponents.
In this lesson we will attempt to explore the why, when and against whom this action should ideally be taken. We will also recommend some counter strategies for when your opponent is the one making a continuation bet.
The Purpose of Continuation Bets
As stated above, the strategy is based upon the fact that a hand is not usually improved upon by the flop so attacking your opponent with further aggression, regardless of your holding, can many times win the pot. It can also be used a reverse bluff when you hold a strong hand and would like to build the pot. The main purpose, however, is to win the pot immediately.
The Number of Opponents
The fewer opponents you are facing the higher your chances of success in winning the pot with a continuation bet. As a general guide, consider the following:
- C-bet almost 100% when heads up
- C-bet 50% when against two players
- C-bet 25% when against three players
Continuation betting against more than one opponent, while much less frequently, gives your game a degree of unpredictability. Although if there are four or more players then you’ll probably want to have hit the flop before sending more chips toward the middle – and a check may be in order.
The Texture of the Board
As the Mad Genius of Poker, Mike Caro, has stated… hold’em is a game of high cards while stud is a game of live cards. Keeping that counsel in mind, if the flop comes Jack, Queen and King there is a high likelihood that one of your opponents may well be holding a match to one of these wheel house cards. They weren’t calling your pre-flop raise with 6-3 offsuit!
The texture of the flop is critical to whether a c-bet is the play with the best expectation. Aside from high cards, be careful of coordinated boards that favor straight and flush draws. Ideally, you’ll want to see a ragged, rainbow flop.
Let’s look at a few examples. Suppose you raise with and get called by the button and the blinds. The flop comes :
Figure 1
This is not a good spot to c-bet. You’re against three opponents and your hand value is only an inside straight. You missed your high cards and flush potential and one of your opponents could have easily connected with such a flop. If checked to, then check and hope you get a free look at the turn. If you bet and then get raised by the button or check-raised by one of the blinds, you would have to fold, so see if you can hit your draw on the turn.
Let’s suppose you’re holding the same hand, yet this time you’re against a single opponent and the flop is dealt :
Figure 2
This is a completely different situation and if your opponent checks it’s a great time for a semi-bluff c-bet to either take the pot right then or if called you have two overs and the second nut flush draw. If you were facing more than one opponent then it would also be a good time to make a continuation bet, unlike the previous example.
You can also make a continuation bet when you flop a very strong hand, such a set. Remember that in poker it’s important to play different hands the same way. If you regularly make continuation bets when you whiff on the flop, you should also bet when you make a strong hand too – so as not to arouse suspicions. Your intention in poker is to manipulate your opponents and one advantage of frequently c-betting is that you will give your good hands some cover and disguise.
Bet Sizing
If you’re playing no-limit hold’em then you will also need to decide the size of your wager when planning a continuation bet. Many factors should contribute to your decision including: opponent playing tendencies, stack sizes and your own table image. You need to balance your bet size for two reasons. Understanding that the strategy is not fool proof… you don’t want to bet too small which will invite a call and to bet too large becomes foolhardy.
But it’s important to be consistent with your betting. Therefore your continuation bets should be the same size as any other post-flop betting and conventional wisdom seems to favor a bet size of at least half the pot. To bet less extends better calling odds to your opponent and to bet more becomes too costly when you run into an opponent that actually has a hand. This is not a hard and fast rule and you’ll find yourself making adjustments through experience, feel and the general nature of the game.
Your Opponents
While it is true that knowledge of how you believe your opponents will react is a universal poker criteria to successful play, when betting into an opponent with nothing, it is good to know how tight or loose he may tend to play.
In addition, just as you are making a play so may be your opponent. Is he savvy enough to be floating you? This is a play in which your opponent may suspect you are continuation betting so he just flat calls expecting you to check on the turn. If you do check after he calls your continuation bet, his intention is to seize upon your apparent weakness and bet to steal the pot.
The factors outlined above are the major criteria one should evaluate to determine the wisdom of making a continuation bet. In a perfect situation you should be in position against a single weak/tight opponent making a bet of about half the pot into a raggedy board. The half pot bet will offer him 3-to-1 odds which aren’t very good drawing odds. If you know your opponent is knowledgeable regarding drawing odds, this becomes a positive to offering him poor odds to a possible draw.
Countering the Continuation Bet
Now let’s take a look at the same situation in the mirror. Instead of aiming the shotgun at a lone opponent, we’ll imagine you are looking down the barrel of the continuation better. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, always be observant of your opponents in order to improve your decision making. Is he aggressive and loose or timid and tight or where in that range does he dwell? You know many players love to see a flop and then feel compelled to fire a continuation bet to end the action. Know your opponent’s tendencies – this knowledge pays dividends.
Reverse Engineering
Poker Bet Shove
Reverse engineering is a term used in many fields to describe a process wherein you first dissect a competitor’s product, marketing plan or just about anything in order to determine how it’s made or done with the intention of replicating it or improving upon it. The best way to combat an opponent who is continuation betting is to understand his thought process and, if appropriate, play back at him. Review the following checklist to determine if you’re being manipulated by an opponent’s continuation bet.
- Does he regularly, therefore predictably, continuation bet?
- Does his bet warrant a call based upon your hand?
- Based on his tendencies, is attempting to steal the pot?
- If he is stealing, should you raise, call, or fold?
Identifying the Meaning of Your Opponent’s Bets
There are many different types of bets in addition to continuation bets… value bets, probe bets, and semi-bluffs as examples. There is nothing worse than attempting to thwart what you believe is a continuation bet by calling all the way to the river only to face the ultimate revelation that your opponent was value betting the whole time.
Knowledge is power and it is up to you to observe your opponents betting patterns to understand just how they play the game. It is this knowledge that will help guide you to making quality decisions and when all is said and done – making quality decisions is what separates the winners from the losers.
Conclusion
Continuation betting is a solid poker strategy to employ when the criteria outlined above is in place. However, it should represent only one arrow in your quiver of ploys. As in all of poker, don’t use it every time you have been the pre-flop aggressor as you will become predictable and, therefore, exploitable. Instead, observe your opponents and determine who among them does not understand the wisdom of mixing up one’s game.
Related Lessons
By Tom 'TIME' Leonard
Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.
So, you want to learn about betting limits in poker? Let’s start with a general idea of what we’re talking about.
Betting limits refer to the different rules or structures you have to follow for betting and raising. These rules will affect how much you can bet or raise, and when, at any given point in a hand/round.
And it’s a pretty big deal. If you jump from one limit to another – with no experience – you’ll feel like a fish out of water. Because each one has a different strategy to learn. Each one has different mistakes to avoid. This page will cover all that in more detail.
One thing though – reading about different limits can be confusing. If you want to fully understand them, we suggest playing a few rounds of free money poker of each. Chances are you won’t be any good by the time you’re done. But at least you’ll “get it”.
Now let’s get into it.
The Different Betting Limits or Formats in Poker
The different betting limits used in poker include:
What we’ll do is explain each one and give you an example.
With fixed limit games everything from the amount you can bet or raise – if you can do either at all – is predetermined. There is a limit to both the amount you can bet or raise, and how many bets or raises can be made per round.
This is how limit games work:
Preflop and on the flop, you’ll be able to bet and raise the small blind – in our case that’d be $1. And in many games the max number of times you can raise is 4. So, at most each person will put in $4.
Poker Bet Crossword Clue
On the turn and river (or later rounds in razz and stud), the big blind is doubled. In our case that’d be to $2. The 4 raises per round applies here too.
You’ll only be able to make a bet/raise the size of the big blind. You can’t bet in multiples or cap the betting at the same time.
For example, if you make a bet of $2, the next person can only raise it $2. Then the next guy $2. That’s the gist, anyway.
Limit holdem used to be a real popular game. That is, until no limit games were shown on TV. Now limit is mostly used in poker games like stud and razz. It’s one of the easiest betting formats to learn.
And because of the cap on every betting round, it’s a bit easier on the bankroll. That said, limit games are the hardest to master.
For one thing, there’s no room to bluff. Since you’re only able to make a bet the size of the big blind, there’s always odds to call. And it’s almost always correct to do so. In fact, experts say a common mistake is to fold too much.
(This is opposite of no limit poker where players don’t fold enough.)
Since you’re only able to bet so much and so many times per round – and the fact that every player will have odds to call to draw – slow playing only means you’re missing out on LOTS of value. You really need to maximize what you win when you have the best hand. This also helps make up for the times you draw to better hands (correctly) and lose.
The bottom line is fixed poker is more or less a passive math game rather than an aggressive game that often relies on guts and brute force – like no limit games often do.
This is arguably the most popular type of poker today. This is what you mostly see on TV. The exciting part is when you see someone say they’re “all in”. It’s exciting because they’re willing to put all their chips – sometimes their tournament life – on the line.
This encourages a brute force style of strategy that many players use. Very much UNLIKE fixed limit poker. Not only that, but there are no limits as to how much you can bet. So long as you meet the blinds with your bets and raises, you can do whatever you want.
For example:
The minimum raise is $4. From there the min raise is to $8. Then $16, and so on.
But so long as you meet the min raise, from there you can raise/bet whatever you want. You can raise from $2 to $10, $8 to $20 or $50, or $16 to $35.50. Or, you can shove all in.
You can do whatever you want.
This creates a different dynamic. One that is less focused on odds and the cards you hold (although both are still important), and instead a game that is more focused on player styles and stack sizes.
You can be a winning player simply due to being more aggressive. You can bet and raise more. Bluff more. Good players win more money by seeing fewer showdowns.
But this can also open the doors to more mistakes. It is possible to be overly aggressive – to bet or raise too often, play too many hands or stay in a hand longer than you should.
You got to learn when to fold, too.
And because you have the freedom to bet however much you want, you need to learn how much to bet. You need to bet enough to discourage people from drawing, while not over betting, because there’s no sense in risking more than you have to to achieve the results you want.
This is sort of a mix between fixed and no limit poker. You have a cap on how much you can bet, but you’re only limited by the size of the pot. As you can probably imagine, once you make a few bets and raises – or get a few streets in – the pot is big enough where you can go all in.
For example, if the pot is $2, that is the max you can bet. But once you bet $2 (and make the pot $4), the next person can raise another $4 (bringing it up to $8), then the next guy can raise $8 (making it $16), and so on.
(It’s important to point out that you don’t have to “pot it” every time you raise. You can raise anywhere from the minimum (double the last bet/raise) to the size of the pot. Anywhere in between that is fine.)
Strategy is somewhere in the middle, too.
You want to be someone that can play the odds, bet for value (real important early on to build a bigger pot later), and still play the player.
It’s a challenging, yet profitable betting limit for players up to challenge of mastering it.
The general idea with cap limit games is there’s a limit to how much money you can put during a hand. This is relative to big blinds, and is often between 20 and 30. Once you’ve reached the cap it’s treated as if you’re “all in.”
Experts say this can lead to more lively and aggressive games since your risk is capped more so than no limit and pot limit. Since you can only lose so much, it probably encourages more ‘screw it, let’s run it’ type moments.
Spread Limit Poker
Spread limit games are similar to fixed limit poker.
You’ll have a range or spread – say $2 to $5 – that you can choose from for your bets and raises.
Poker Betting Strategy
It’s not a popular betting limit, based on the fact that we don’t see it online (much) and when you Google the phrase the results are scarce. But these games do run.
Beginners tend to make the mistake of betting the top of the spread with their best hands and at the bottom with weaker hands. But anyone paying attention will spot this.
So, you want to be more aware of how you size your bets relative to the strength of your hand.
Other than that, since this is so much like limit poker we’d recommend following those strategies. Bet for value, fold a little less often compared to pot and no limit poker, and bluff less.
If you’re a visual person it’s going to help to play a few rounds of each game to fully understand how it works.
But that’s okay.
It also gives you a chance to see which formats you like best. Which formats you want to learn first – not just how to get through a hand, but all the strategies and tactics that are so different from one betting limit to the next.
Poker Bet Lost
And that’s a deep hole that’ll keep you busy for the foreseeable future.