Continuation Betting on Wet Boards Out of Position – Learn the Best Strategy
Continuation Betting on Wet Boards in Position – Build a Perfect Strategy
If you play poker right, you will be entering most of your pots as the aggressor, whether it be as the one raising first in or the one 3-betting preflop.
Whenever you open the pot before the flop and get one or more calls, you will have to proceed with making the right plays on each street, and it all starts with the flop.
There are many nuances to playing flops as the aggressor, and new players often have trouble knowing when and how much to bet on different board textures.
Poker coach Tristan Wade explained the basics of flop play as the original raiser in a concise video for MyPokerCoaching.com, and brought us the top 10 tips for playing the flop as the original raiser.
Keep reading for a concise and detailed look into the 10 tips you should remember before playing your next poker session.
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#1 – C-Bet More on Dry Boards
One of the simplest tips to playing the flop as the original raiser is to continuation bet more on dry boards that heavily favor your range.
A board like A♦8♣2♠ is very dry, making it nearly impossible for the preflop caller to have a drawing hand. Only a few gutshot straight draws are possible.
On a board like this, the original raiser has a significant range advantage and nut advantage, and you should use these advantages to bet your entire range.
By c-betting this flop often, you will win the pot outright very frequently, and you can get away with making your bet very small as well, as most opponents will fold the majority of their range even for a 25% pot bet.
#2 – Check Stronger Hands on Connected Boards
The more connected the board, the more you want to check some strong hands on the flop, especially when the board gives a range advantage to your opponent.
For example, on a board like 7♠6♠5♣, you can start checking hands like AA or KK, as these hands become significantly less valuable on this type of board.
While your hand is still best in most cases in a heads-up pot, it is also very vulnerable if you get raised, as it can be beaten by a number of hands in your opponent’s range.
Checking strong hands here is also done for balance, as you can trap opponents who like to bluff a lot and allow them to put money in without blowing you off your hands.
#3 – Size Your Bets Based on Board Texture
The amount you bet on the flop should have nothing to do with the hand you hold and everything to do with the board texture.
As a general rule of thumb, you want to bet smaller on dry boards and bigger on connected ones, as the ranges you will be betting on the two types of boards are significantly different.
On a dry board like A♠8♦3♣, you will usually want to c-bet your entire range, and a smaller bet is the better option with such a wide range of hands.
On a wet board like J♠10♠6♣, a bigger bet is better because you will be betting a polarized range made up of your strongest hands and draws while you will be checking your middling hands.
When your opponent has many different drawing hands and the board can change significantly on the turn, you will typically want to bet closer to the pot size than you would on a disconnected and dry board.
#4 – Be More Aggressive in Position
When you open the pot preflop, you want to stay aggressive in most cases, but even more so if you have position on your opponent.
Having position allows you to apply more aggression across the streets, control the size of the pot when necessary, and, in some cases, get a cheap showdown.
Your opponents will have a more challenging time playing against you from out of position, which allows you to make more bets and take more aggressive actions in position.
Playing more aggressively in position is a rule that applies to all scenarios, and playing the flop as the original raiser is no exception.
#5 – Construct a Check/Raising Range
Constructing a solid check/raising range as the preflop aggressor is not a simple concept, but it is one you should start delving into early in your poker career.
We already discussed the fact you want to give up your preflop betting lead on boards that favor your opponent’s range, but that doesn’t mean you will simply check/fold every time.
Instead, you should also check some of your strongest hands, such as flopped straights and sets on such boards and use these hands as check/raising candidates.
You can balance this out by also check/raising some strong draws like the nut flush draw or an open-ended straight draw in order to keep your opponents guessing.
#6 – Don’t Overplay Against Multiple Opponents
Multi-way pots may not be as common in online games as they are in live games, but they come along in both variants every now and then.
Playing against multiple opponents is significantly different from playing heads-up, and you should remember that when deciding how to proceed after raising preflop.
You should start getting cautious from the moment you decide whether to c-bet or not. You should be c-betting significantly less often when facing two or more opponents.
On further streets, you should stay on your toes and be aware of the fact multiple opponents are in the pot and they could all have a significant piece of the board if they are calling bets.
Multi-way pots should generally be played more straightforwardly and with less inclination to make heroic plays.
#7 – Group Your Hands for Easier Play
Poker players who play at the highest level and train with poker solvers approach poker from a theoretic standpoint and split their range into several groups.
Generally speaking, you can split your range into the top of the range, which are your value hands, the middle of the range, which are hands that will sometimes win the pot, and the bottom of the range, which are hands that will hardly ever win the pot.
Understanding the different hand groups and learning to split your range into groups like this will allow you to think about poker from a more GTO perspective and let you play pretty good poker, even against the most formidable opponents.
#8 – Understand Range Advantage
If you want to play good poker, you should always be thinking about hand ranges, and this will lead you to think about who has the range advantage on the flop.
Having range advantage simply means that one range has more equity than another on a particular flop.
For example, if you open the pot from UTG and get called by the big blind, your range will be made up of about 15% to 20% of all hands, including middling and high pairs, suited Aces, suited Broadways, etc.
Your opponent’s range, on the other hand, will be much broader and will contain quite a few suited hands, various connectors, all pocket pairs, etc.
On a board like A♠K♦9♥, you will have a significant range advantage, as you have all the best hands like AA, KK, AK, and 99, which your opponent would have likely 3-bet preflop if they had them.
On the other hand, on a board like 6♣5♣4♦, your opponent will have range advantage, as they have top pair, two pair, set, and straight combinations that you can’t have given your preflop opening range.
#9 – Know What Hands to Keep Barreling
When you are deciding whether or not to c-bet the flop, you should already be thinking about what hands you want to keep bluffing with on later streets.
The hands you can keep barreling will depend on the texture of the board and the hand ranges you and your opponent have.
Generally speaking, you will want to keep barreling in spots where your opponent has a lot of weak hands and you have the appropriate blockers or unblockers to allow them to have hands they can fold on the turn or river.
Before you make your flop play, make sure to think about how you will play your hand on later streets, as you can’t play good poker one street at a time.
#10 – Be Willing to Give Up
Just as firing multiple barrels is sometimes the right play, giving up on a bluff is also very important in some situations.
Whether it’s because the board favors your opponent’s range, because the opponent is particularly sticky, or simply because you feel it in your bones, it is vital to give up some of the time.
Giving up at the right time can be just as profitable as making the big bluff, so make sure you don’t keep barreling every time and give up on some of your bluffs to live and fight another day.
Article by
Tristan Wade
Tristan Wade is a professional poker player from Florida who has won the WSOP bracelet and amassed $2 million in tournament winnings over the years. On top of playing poker for a living, he is an active trainer at pokercoaching.com and has helped many players improve their skills by producing high-quality content.
You can connect and follow Tristan on Twitter.
