Delayed Continuation Betting in No Limit Hold Em
Part 1 Introduction
What is a continuation bet?
A continuation bet is where the preflop raiser follows through on the flop with another bet. Strange as it might seem to the newbie poker player, this can be done for two very different reasons, either as a bluff to continue to represent strength, or for value with a genuinely strong hand.
What is a delayed continuation bet?
A delayed continuation bet on the other hand, is where a player does not take up his prerogative to continuation bet, by instead checking the flop and waiting to continue bet the turn, or even delaying until the river, by checking both the flop and turn.
Continue to power your way through
The continuation bet holds a lot of power in No Limit Hold Em because any non paired holding only makes a pair or better on the flop about one time in three, meaning that when you continue bet and your opponent believes your show of strength, you will win the pot a lot of the time when he hits nothing.
Not strong enough to feel confident of continuing
Even if the flop has hit your opponent a little, such as bottom or even middle pair he may still feel like he isn’t strong enough to call. So if you obtain the preflop initiative and continue it on the flop, you can win a lot of pots in which the flop didn’t help either you or your opponent, this is one of the reasons why it pays to be aggressive in hold em.
Everybody knows about continuation betting
Ok so it might appear that continuation betting is basically an automatic thing to do then, well as usual things are never quite that simple in poker, particularly when it comes to no limit hold em. The big problem with continuation betting is just about any poker player with an ounce of experience and skill is very well aware of it. In fact it is one of the most covered topics in poker literature and poker forums.
Counter strike against the continue bet
What this means, is that players have developed counter strategies against players who continue bet a lot. Raising the flop light or as a pure bluff or floating (calling the continuation bet light with the intention of betting the turn if any weakness is shown) are a common defence tactic which resteal (their re-bluff might even be ahead) the pot from the continuer bettor
The thin grey line
These counter strategies can also be overdone and so in a tough game there becomes a fine line between on the one hand the correct percentage of continuation betting from the pre flop raiser’s point of view and when and how often the player at the receiving end should play back at them.
The deciding factor
There is however one good set of parameters to follow and that is to continue bet when your preflop range of hands as it relates to the flop is ahead of what you believe your opponent’s range of hands is likely to be, similarly raise the flop or float when you believe your range of hands is ahead of the continuation bettor’s range of hands, otherwise fold.
Looking before you leap to continue bet
Bear in mind that not continue betting is not the same thing as giving up all your entitlement to the flop. Delayed continuation betting in a regular game often happens in cases where our range of hands is behind our opponent’s range on the flop. If our opponent checks on the flop and again on the turn (or checks in position on the flop), this is information, unless he is getting very tricky, he has in effect narrowed his range of hand to the extent that our range of hands is once again ahead of his, which now means a continuation on the bet on the turn will show a positive expectation.
In Part 2 of Delayed Continuation Betting in No Limit Hold Em we take a look at a practical real world example.
