Continuation Bet in NL

[NYCNative]

You make a big raise. One caller. Flop misses. The flop's texture says "make a continuation bet." How much is a good bet in this case? Pot size? Half pot teaser? Or are we basing it on the flop's specific texture?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

2/3 - 3/4 pot size is a good rule of thumb as long as you adapt that to the stack sizes (relative to the pot size) of you and your opponent(s).

[PotatoStew]

What sort of texture says "make a continuation bet"?

[Guruman]

I like continuation bets when an overcard that I don't have shows up.

Ex: I raise preflop with AQo, get one caller, and the board comes 7J5. In these cases 1/3 of the pot seems to work well. Fire the bet and take down the pot. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[NiceCatch]

[ QUOTE ]
I like continuation bets when an overcard that I don't have shows up.

Ex: I raise preflop with AQo, get one caller, and the board comes 7J5. In these cases 1/3 of the pot seems to work well. Fire the bet and take down the pot. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would this change if you hit your A or Q? And 1/3 of the pot? This may apply to small stakes games, but playing like this will get you killed at higher stakes NL.

[Guruman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I like continuation bets when an overcard that I don't have shows up.

Ex: I raise preflop with AQo, get one caller, and the board comes 7J5. In these cases 1/3 of the pot seems to work well. Fire the bet and take down the pot. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would this change if you hit your A or Q? And 1/3 of the pot? This may apply to small stakes games, but playing like this will get you killed at higher stakes NL.

[/ QUOTE ]

A quick defense of this play:

1)According to Harrington on Hold 'Em (p277) a bet must meet three requirements to be considered a continuation bet:
"a)The player making the bet was the betting leader before the flop
b)after the flop no other bets have been made
c)the player making the bet missed the flop"

Therefore if I hit an A or Q on the board my bet would not be a continuation bet, it would be a protection/value bet by definition.

Also from HOHE (p 278-279) "For a continuation bet to be a profitable move, the amount of the bet has to be carefully chosen in comparison to the pot. In essence, you are hopint to buy the pot right now. if you overpay you'll loose too much money when your opponent calls with a hand better than yours. If you underpay you'll be offering your opponent correct pot odds to stick around with a drawing hand."

If I bet 1/3 of the pot, my opponent will need a full eleven outs to make a call profitable for him. Harrington states that he likes to bet around half of the pot on a continuation bet. My opponents typically will call an all-in if they wouldn't have folded to somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the pot, so I keep it around there.

[Finite_Risk]

If the pot is 6 and you bet 2, he is getting 4/1 to call...why does he need "11 full outs"?

[NiceCatch]

Fair enough. I believe this thread probably belongs in the Small Stakes NL/PL forum. The way you play a continuation varies widely from small-stakes to high-stakes.

Additionally, tournament play and cash-game play vary widely. I was speaking specifically to cash games.

[NYCNative]

[ QUOTE ]
What sort of texture says "make a continuation bet"?

[/ QUOTE ]I don't know, that's why I asked. You never want to do the same thing all the time. Also, if you come in with a raise and get one caller and you miss with a flop that is 2-7-4 or you miss with a flop that is T-Q-Q, those are very different textures and maybe you treat them differently.

[kado]

i say either when the board pairs you bet around 1/2 the pot, this also rids you of losing money later if you catch your hand because you know the set is out there if you get called (especially if you have more than one caller). when the board it 7-5-2 be careful but 1/3-3/4 pot bet is decent but you want to take away some of the odds if they happen to play low connectors and have a draw.