When and How Much to Continuation Bet - Now You Know How The Best Poker Players Do It!

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[madx]

Two thumbs down? There are some class A idiots in this world!
Oh to have half the skill Johnathon Little has...Jason Somerville agrees he is one of the best so good enough for me!

[MASCUCH]

Great video and thanks for the essential poker tips. I'm not understanding range advantage. In the example he showed, where the cards came 9 7 3, does he not have range advantage because of the flop? Or is it because he is playing from middle position against BB? I thought BB plays a wider range, so doesn't that mean his range is weaker than middle position?

[Enrageddinosaur]

I feel like I need to be a brainiac on adderall to play poker now. Lol.

[everythingallin]

I got to meet this guy in Sacramento. He's an awesome and astonishingly good player.

[crypticnomad]

This video is really useful for a project that I am working on. I'm a software dev and an aspiring poker player. I've found a lot of the tools available for analyzing poker situations to be lacking in some way or another. To maximize study time efficiency I've started developing my own solver like app using open source libs with the intention of also releasing it open source. So far I've completed a simulator that is similar in some ways to flopzilla and pokerstove. It uses a javascript based port of pokerstove for evaluating hands but also supports ranges(and weighted ranges). The output equities almost mirror that of equilab for range evaluation. The next steps are a range trainer(user defined ranges) and post flop action evaluation based on user defined ranges(think pokersnowie with user defined ranges). This video is really useful for a basic protocol for dealing with a super common post flop situation.

[influentiapatterns]

This is what I do.

1)If you don’t mind information leakage, *generally* bet your strongest hands and the hands just at and below the weakest calling range. I call this the strongest folding range. Draws a little too weak to call and vulnerable hands like under pair or pocket pair with lots of overcards that could make it weaker pair on the flop.

So J72 flop... with 2 suits to a flush
You will check/call your 88-TT and A2 and A7. Your sets you almost always raise. You will usually call and sometimes bet/raise AJ and QQ+. Check/call 98 with backdoor draws, your AK, your T9 with backdoor draws. your AQ you sometimes bluff raise, sometimes check/call, your AT you usually bluff raise, your pocket pair you bluff raise 22-66. You can float 2 facecards with backdoor straight and flush possibilities with some bluff raises. Your single high card backdoor draw like A9 you usually bluff raise, sometimes fold, occasionally float. Hands with 2 overs to the 7 like Q9 with backdoor flush you can sometimes fold sometimes raise. Without flush draw usually fold sometimes raise. Many other weaker hands

Yes it depends on opponent but you have to continue often enough to avoid exploitation as the baseline strategy and be able to go after it the proper amount so opponent can’t just bluff catch all day or on the other side never bluff catch. So it doesn’t change too much if opening hand ranges are roughly the same.

On turn
on say a J728 board with 2 suits you might bluff hands like:
KQ with flush draw
A2-A6 with flush draw.
A9
AT
KQ no flush draw
A7
A2

Generally fold weaker hands. Call bluff catchers, raise strong hands.

2)If you do want to conceal information leakage your have to use board texture and static/dynamic flops to determine whether to bet almost all or almost always none (almost always check) (you can also cbet 100% of flops if the field is generally weak and still conceal info)

So A72 board if I’m in position and it checks to me I check. A77 I check. A98 I check A98 with 2 or 3 suits I may bet
K72 I check, K98 I check, KQJ I bet.
Q72 I usually check.
J72 I mix up checking and betting.. JTx I bet
T72 and lower I usually bet.
From out of position it’s sort of the opposite since no card can come on A77 flop that will change the nature of the hand so out of position doesn’t give away any info and have threat to keep betting.

The actual best strategy might be a bit of a blend where you simply increase the percentage of the time that you check or bet based on flop texture.
For most purposes doing the best decision 75% of the time and 25% of the time mixing it up for deception is probably good enough.

3)Tournaments.

In tournaments the later you get and the more blinds rise relative to stacks, and the more I believe pot control is needed. So early on I am more aggressive with betting, use larger bet sizes and larger preflop bet size early and then taper it down as tournament goes. I also increase the frequency I check whether it’s on the turn or flop or both. I usually do this by flop texture then after a few hands I might do the strategy that forks my range and gives away information but tournaments information leakage isn’t that bad of a problem.

[kingp]

I signed up for the premium on your black Friday deal. I feel I've made a great investment and want to take this moment to say thank you. My game has gotten better and I'm just scratching the surface of my potential. Leaving with profits in cash games and running deep in tournaments on one buy in (I don't rebuy and besides when I've been eliminated there's no more rebuying anyway.lol) I want to take these skills I'm learning as far as I can take them and possibly make something of myself with this game. Again Mr Little. Thank you.

[cjparrott]

Another great video for someone looking to improve their c betting aggression
Thanks JL

[consumer]

Interesting concept, the key issue to me seems to be the bet frequency. In your example from 9:45 you mention 'bet about 75% pot', however it is unclear how you reached this number. Anybody have any ideas?

[WoodchuckCasper]

Hey Jonathan, great video, Just had a question regarding the examples you gave.

so in the example you give you have a standard EP opening range and then an MP opening range, with AQ3 then 876 with your range equity vs the defending range as roughly 64% and 53% respectively on those boards. Then categorize us as having a huge or Tiny range advantage and then employing either a frequent small or an infrequent large style strategy. My question is, what defines a tiny or large range advantage? say we had a board that gave us a 58% equity range vs range advantage, is that classified as large or small, or something in between, and if so, what should our betting strategy be? Thanks!

[chieffanLJ]

So Ive watched this video a few times. Ive been barrelling pretty light, esp when people float the flop and fold the turn just because. However, i get in sticky situations when i all of a sudden get looked up with A high with these players. I get wayyy too aggro trying to get folds.

Ive actually been trying to develop a checking range to stop myself getting in trouble. Essentially i try to look at range advantage, but im not good at it, and in 10nl, i feel like opponents dont look at range advantage, and even if i bet from UTG and flop is AKJ, and i have 99 for example, i get floated with J9s or something, and it just...it gets hairy quick.

Thank you for this video, theres a lot of information to think about, especially exploitatively. I know i have leaks, so this is definitely a huge one

[fasutronf]

Jonathan, thanks for all of the amazing content that you produce. I'm a regular listener/viewer of your weekly poker hand and have read a couple of your books. It's really improved my game as I've moved up through the stakes.

[xawee]

Soo John I have a question, lets say you have a really unlucky night pre-flop literally getting junk constantly or never hitting flops.. Would you consider bluffing more ? Otherwise it seems like you fold fold fold fold fold and suddenly bet.. people think you have a big hand? so this should give me more incentive to bluff? While when I'm in the hotseat I have less incentive to bluff (unless I constantly show the winning hand)

[StygianStyle]

Started playing on America's Cardroom with my $5 free deposit today. Incredibly tight players in the penny games.

[CRAIG]

Thank you Mr Little, more fantastic info on how to play NLHE. This vid alone will save we in chat a decent amount

[alex_zetsu]

Is flopping trips with a poor kicker with 2 cards on the board giving people potential flush draws a premium hand or a marginal hand? If I'm playing against people who have no obviously flaws (like he just arrived at the table), is this good? What if I'm against someone who overvalues pocket pairs and might just be holding a full house?

[Germ]

Great video Johnathan learnt a lot already on just watching this video I am a beginner player therefore will be watching this couple of more times to improve my game. Keep these great videos coming. 👌

[Reportforfeed]

Hey I have a question. So if the board is wet you should bet big to protect your equity right ? But what if you have a flush draw with ace as a kicker or if you already have the nut flush ? How are you suppose de play/bet ? Cause in this case if you bet large you will not get paid very often and you don't need to protect you hand if you have a the best flush draw or nut flush.

[mothecat]

Great video. What about if you are OOP(out fo position)? MP raise (hero) villain calls on button. What about it?

[damonchow]

how should you adjust you c bet sizing if they're are no antes?