Contbet

The using of contbet (continued bet) according to the opinion of famous poker player Dan Harrington has three reasons:

  • the wish to force out of the game more stronger opponent;
  • effort to get more money from an opponent with a strong hand;
  • compulsion to pay unprofitable value of opponents with draw.

In most cases, a contbet is made in order to increase own equity. However, this method is good in the case when the equity is higher than the amount that needs to be paid. It is possible to use contbet as a trick move in the tactical strategy. The bet is made in order to confuse the opponent in calculating the range and style of the player. In this case, the player may lose a certain amount of chips, but this is a fully justified loss. It is cpmpletely unreasonable to spend your own resources to deceive an opponent who does not follow and analyze the tactics of the player. On small (micro) limits, the bluff is perceived by seated at the poker table with a special dislike. Contbet, by itself, is the continued bet of the poker player who showed aggression on the pre-flop, provided there is no bet before him on the flop,that's why the player raises preflop and makes the first bet on the flop.

Positive momemts of contbet

With contbet in a pre-flop, an aggressive player shows strength, stating that he will fight for the bank and this makes the opponents think that the player at the moment has either a strong hand or a perspective draw (a value contbet). Often flops do not bring the expected strengthening of the hand, and therefore to call the contbet without already available combination on the hands for the opponent is unprofitable (contbet as a bluff). If the opponent who analyzing the situation, received a check from the player on the flop, he will make a bet, considering the move as not falling opponent into the flop, and the poker player will throw his hands at the contbet. That's why you should alternately check with a reinforced by flop hand and make a contbet with a blank hand. All these manipulations confuse the opponent and the countbet here has a fake meaning. The contbet should be played with taking into account several factors.

Hands of a player and the quantity of opponents

Strengthening of the player's hand on the flop to the monster (the highest flush, full-house, quads, etc.) you need to use on 100 % without scaring your opponents. However, often the flop brings only a good hand or nothing at all. In this case, slowplaying is even dangerous. You can often use a contbet as a bluff to balance your own range, in the case of a high level of opponents. Microlimits assume independent bets, except the situations when the player is sure that on the check will be an aggressive response from the opponent.

The greatest effectiveness of the contbet occurs on the heads-up. The more people got on the flop, the less is the strength of this technique. With repeated use of a contbet against several opponents, the effectiveness is greatly lost. Non-hitting to the flop is calculated from the correlation of seven out of ten cases. But playing against two opponents, the probability of getting each of them increases to one of two cases, and with three opponents the probability of a blank flop falls to one of three. In a case of analyzing, it turns out that heads-up raises the chances of a "clean" flop to 70%, two opponents - 50%, and three - 33%. It's better to play without bluffing, playing a multi-bank.

The right using of information

The thinking poker player pushes back from the information on the position that will keep his financial resources in integrity. In an aggressive position, it is possible to study the strategies of the other opponents who went on the flop. It is worth to throw off floating fans. The image of the ”dark horse“ is assigned on the new player until he shows himself. Bluff without an image is a failure. Contbet will not attract much attention of opponents, if the player before was nit with raises in early position. However, all this applies to the game, where sit poker players that analyzing their rivals. Microlimits are not famous for such players. But even study the tactics of the opponent, it is not a fact that the player can adapt to the game. Reads, statistics, information on each poker player can help in making a decision in the game.

It should be noted that many loose players on the pre-flop transform in harmless folders, provided that they do not catch the flop. It is possible and the opposite situation, when a quiet and flexible opponent, getting into the flop,he becomes tight-aggressive and will be intractable on post-flop. Making a conclusion from the all saying, we can sum up that playing the contbet, don't based only on the preflop statistics. The value of the flop is more important. This is the level of the flop on the contbet and the level of check and raise. Contbet with blank rates will not bring a successful resolution of the situation, but is it worth to bet if the player does not have a chance to catch the board with blank cards. You must also incline to the contbet if you does not have any statistics on the opponent at all.You should not ignore such tactical move. Such strategy will allow you to begin collecting information about your opponent. With a small hit in the flop and a promising rival, the most correct is an attempt to press him out of the bank.