Value And Continuation Bet In Poker
Value and continuation bet are two of the most common terms in poker and they have an important role in your poker strategy, too.
Let’s see the most important aspects of value- and continuation bet.
Value bet occurs when you have a high pocket pair or two high cards and on the flop your hand seems to be the best. In this case you make a bet (most of the times) for value and you suppose your opponent has a weaker hand when he makes the call. The size of the value bet is usually between half and two-thirds of the pot. If your opponent is a loose player then your bet can even be the size of the full pot. The size of your continuation bet does not matter (half the pot, two-thirds or larger) but you have to vary the size of your bet time to time because if you always bet the same amount your opponents will have an easy read on you.
Continuation bet is different from value bet because some actions have to happen to get the chance at all for a continuation bet. For a continuation bet to occur there has to be a preflop raiser and only this person can make the bet on the flop. If another player makes a bet on the flop and not the preflop raiser then it can be a value bet, bluff, etc. but not a continuation bet.
You have to see the difference between continuation bet and value bet. With value bet you did not have to lead out before the flop. With continuation bet you actually continue the action you started in the first round. And while a value bet happens when you have most likely the best hand, a continuation bet does not say anything about the value of your hand. It might happen that your continuation bet is a complete bluff, a semi-bluff or it is the best hand. Also, when you make a value bet you hope to get called. It is different with a continuation bet because in this case you are happy to take the pot right away.
One more issue with continuation bet. It had a totally different message for players at the tables some years ago. Before the online poker boom, continuation bet was a very easy way of making money. Most players just folded to the bet of the preflop aggressor on the flop. If you made a continuation bet, your opponent only made the call if he hit the flop. In the last years as poker players improved their skills, continuation bet lost a lot of its value. Players do not give much respect anymore to the preflop aggressor and there are a lot of check-raises on the flop against continuation bets. For this reason you should not make a continuation bet on every flop because your opponents will learn your patterns and you will face many check-raises.
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