A continuation bet is a bet made after the flop by the player who took the lead in betting before the flop.
According to Harrington, three conditions must hold true for it to be a continuation bet.
1.
The player making the bet was the betting leader before the flop.
2.
After the flop, no other bets have yet been made.
3.
The player making the bet missed the flop.
In other words, you're hoping that your opponent might miss the flop hit you and you'll be able to pick up the pot right there.
It's a very powerful move and I've been using it very successfully in my play now for awhile.
It's also a dangerous move, which could make you donk off huge amounts of your chip stack.
There are a lot of conditions to when it should be tried.
First, consider what your opponent might think you have by raising preflop.
He could think you have something like AQ (see my last post about an AQ story).
It reasonable to raise preflop with that or better.
Holding something like that, a flop of K 9 5 rainbow is a good candidate for a continuation bet.
He could have hit, mostly like he missed too though.
If he was holding AK or something similar, he probably would have re-raised preflop.
Same for any big pair.
You should probably fire away with about a 1/2 pot sized raise in a situation like this.
However, let's look at another situation.
You have pocket 9s.
The flop comes A K 4.
This is a horrible flop for a continuation bet.
Here it's important to think about what your opponent could have called a preflop raise with.
Ace is a big one...
especially at the low limits I play at...
people love holding on to Aces under all kinds of conditions.
I've seen people play aces all the way to the river even though they are clearly a huge underdog.
I'm not saying you should completely fear the Ace on the flop...
often times you can use it to your advantage by giving the impression that you hit, but you have to be careful...
the flop here represents two danger cards...
the A and the K.
It's very likely that someone left in the pot was holding one of those.
The more people in the pot, the more likely that is.
That brings me to the fact that continuation bets work best the less people in the flop, simply because the value of holdings go up because less cards to hit something.
It's pretty simple.
The less people still in the pot, the less likely that the flop hit them.
Basic.
Here's the last point, and this really applies for any strategy at the poker table.
Never, and I mean NEVER, get predictable.
You should vary your bet size post flop and whether you make a continuation bet.
Also, make sure you sometimes make what seems like a continuation bet when you hit your flop strongly.
Always vary your play.