Contiuation betting - General Question

[NickPoker]

Situation you raise 4 to 5 BB pre/flop with AK.

1. How often do you contiuation bet when you miss and how much do you bet? What do you if you are check raised? What if you are just called?
2. How often do you contiuation bet when you hit top pair or better and how much do you bet? (assume uncoordinated board) Check raised? Called?
3. How does position affect your decision?

Another similar scenario you have 10/10 to QQ and a overcard hits?

The reason I am posting this is that I have been getting called a lot recently. I think part of it is due to predictabilty. Unless the board is particularly scary my general line after a preflop raise is to lead out 2/3 to 3/4 pot whether I hit or not. I think one of my bigger leaks is to firing a 2nd barrel when I miss flops with hands like these.

[elena_elphie]

I continuation bet 95% of the time if it is profitable to do so (which seems to be true in most games I play in). If that is not the case, I will do so less frequently, and also check some very strong hands as well.

Firing a second barrel is opponent specific and not my default play, although I will do so occasionally against unknowns as well.

[Marlow]

From time to time, I have the same problem(s) that you are having now. So here goes…

First, my understanding is that a “continuation bet” is a term used for a hand that you led with a raise before the flop, but then completely missed on the flop. Like AK par example. So when you’ve completely missed, I would say that you should not do this any more than 75% of the time against unknown players. Obviously, if you find that your opponents are weak, then do it up to 100% of the time. And if they are LAGs, then do it much less frequently.

I like to bet anything from 30% to 100% of the pot, depending on my opponents and the texture of the board. At least 60% of the time, I’ll bet 50-75% of the pot here.

If I’m called, I’ll only lead the turn if I suspect that my opponent’s on a draw. Aside from that, I’ll check. If you do this regularly, opponents will catch on quickly and start to steal from you on the turn with any 2. It’s important to take the exact same line with monsters (such as draws that you hit).

If I’m raised on the flop, I check pot odds, and fold if I have to.

Position affects my decision the most when I have more than 1 opponent. When it’s heads-up I will apply the same principles regardless of position.

Generally, I don’t like to make continuation bets against more than two opponents. Maybe three if in position.

Now if you DO hit, but are still unsure of your situation, then these are typically called “Probe” bets. You make these to see where you are in the hand, but they play more like a semi-bluff.

I’m curious to get more responses to this thread, as I spend a lot of time thinking about this subject…

Marlow
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[Leptyne]

Your question is too broad for me to attempt to answer all your questions but I'll try and share a few thoughts with you. First I'm a believer that "tight is right". Specifically thats less than 20% at mid to upper level. You can add more hands as your post-flop expertise increases. Second, generally I make all my opening raises the same 4-5BB. My reasoning is that you can put me on a narrow range of hands, but you don't know if I've got AA, AK, or A-Qs. Since I represented a Big Pair pre-flop I'm going to continue post-flop by making a pot-sized continuation bet. If I've got TT and the flop comes Q72 rainbow I'm going to make a pot-sized bet and represnt something, KK, could be AQs. Note that I don't do this UTG or in the blinds. The ideal situation would see two callers, one on a draw and one with JJ. The draw missed and I hope that I have the kind of image to convince the JJ to give it up. If I get any action then I've got to play the game. You know, put you on possible hands, run the numbers, look at who I'm up against.

Generally speaking I'm going to check the turn. If A Q hit the flop and I've got TT or AK and my continuation be got called I'm probably up against another Q, maybe QJ or KQ. I may call or fold to any more action depending on the situation.

[whitelime]

I'm assuming you're talking about betting the flop. I think there are a couple of important factors that change this decision. One is the number of callers you get.

When it is a heads up pot and I raised preflop, I will bet about 100% of the time with position and maybe 90-95% of the time w/o position. The types of flops I check out of position are say 789 or monotone flops when you don't hold one of the suit.

With two callers, if I am last to act, I usually bet if they check it to me. Otherwise, I usually check unless the board has a specific texture with one high card, 2 rags, and not too draw heavy. I think you can profitably bet a K22 board or similar with 2 callers. You also shouldn't bet as much on these types of board as it's pretty much hit or miss.

With more than 2 callers, I rarely bet when I miss.

[neon]

Haven't read the other replies, so sorry if I'm being repetitive.

Generally speaking, I continuation bet nearly 100% of the time after raising w/ AK. Would you bet the flop w/ AA on a J high board? Then bet that board w/ AK, too. And I don't necessarily have a set amount I bet; most of the time, it's a pot-sized bet, particularly if it's a drawy board that an overpair would bet big into to chase off draws or at least give them improper odds.

I won't fire pot every time, though. Sometimes I'll CR the flop w/ a whiffed AK. Sometimes I'll make one of those spine-tingling, i-flopped-top set type bets and then bomb the turn. And sometimes (very rarely) I'll check and fold to a big bet. If I raised an EP limper who likely has a pair in the 88-JJ range and the flop comes rags, I'll probably check behind some percentage of the time and peel one off.

As with everything, it's all opponent-dependent; if the flop comes rags, you lead for pot and get called, you gotta know who's got an overpair they're not folding and who might be calling behind w/ nothing to take the pot away on later streets. And it depends a lot upon your image, too; you're obviously a lot more apt to get respect if you're not splashing around trying to represent big hands w/ your whiffed 86 suiteds as well as your whiffed AK's.

Same w/ the 1010-QQ situation. I fire out every single time I raise/reraise w/ one of these hands. If I get called, I take things from there, w/ whom I'm up against having a lot to do with it.

And as always in hold 'em, position, as they say, is only everything.