Free Poker Strategy

Poker Strategy: Continuation bets are bets which follow up a bet made during the previous betting round. These are most likely made after a preflop raise, and are not always a sign of strength.

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The value of making this continuation bet is partly that unless you are facing a strong pocket pair (which you would expect a reraise from preflop in most cases) your opponent will miss the flop more often than not. Your opponents reaction to your continuation bet will also tell you more about their poker hand than if you simply check and they bet. If you check the flop, you would expect a raise from your opponent on the basis of the weakness you have shown, regardless of what cards they are holding.

Despite checking being a potential sign of weakness, it can be turned into a show of strength if you come over the top of your poker opponents subsequent raise with a reraise of your own. You must be careful if you have missed the flop completely though, as you need to be sure in your judgement that your opponent is only betting pick up the pot uncontested. Continuation bets are often made if a player hits a part of their hand and feels they are in front, or if they pick up a strong draw. Different players will have different tendancies in this regard and so it can be a bonus to know the people you are playing against.

You may sometimes find players who will reraise your continuation bets, especially if you have a loose table image, which gives you a tricky decision to make. If you choose to reraise again to convince your opponent you have the best of it, you are getting a lot of chips into a pot in an uncertain position. As with most aspects of poker, reading a situation and extracting information via your betting will help you a lot.