Friday, September 15, 2006

Folds to Continuation Bet

In response to my post about whether to continuation bet out of position with an Ace-high hand against a calling station, I got this comment:

easyE said...

Take this for what it's worth because I am playing lower stakes than you (.5/1, 1/2 NL). But, I've had this same issue a LOT. As you say "it depends". But playing out of position, I found I lost a lot of money on continuation bets. If the hand went to showdown, I'd find that many times villian hit bottom or middle pair on the flop and was happy to call my continuation bets on the flop, turn and even river. So if I miss the flop, here is basically what I do right now: If the player's "Calls Coninuation Bet" is relatively high (I show this stat in PAHUD now), I'll check the flop and bet the turn. I've found that so many of these "floaters" can't stand the turn bet. It seems that many of them are willing to call a preflop raise and and a flop bet, hoping to hit big.

If an A hits on the flop, obviously I'll bet. Even if they've caught a piece of the flop, they seem to fold a lot, because now they "believe the continuation bet".

Depending on the player, I may continuation bet on the flop, but then shut down after that. I just hate playing out of position, and being called down by a small pocket pair, middle or bottom pair.

I know with 6max there is a lot of talk about aggression, aggression, aggression. But, I haven't necessarily found that to be true out of position.


I found this to be excellent advice, and it has helped me deal with difficult situations when out of position.

The "Folds Continuation Bet" option in PokerAce HUD is particularly helpful (I prefer this option over "Calls Continuation Bet"). It's nice to know that if a player will fold to any continuation bet more than half the time, it's usually worthwhile to go ahead and try to take the pot down.

And, like easyE says, if someone won't fold to a continuation bet on the flop, often a delayed continuation bet on the turn will work well.

Thanks for the insight, easyE.

1 comment:

easyE said...

Glad my comment helped. Hey maybe I'm actually learning something :).