A continuation bet is simple leading out on a flop after raising the pot preflop. It is a 3/4 pot bet as standard.
It is done to limit the action in a hand, or to attempt to take the pot there by showing stregnth preflop and stregnth post flop.
Put simply, its basically a bluff if you miss the flop.
More often than not, its done with hands of AK/AQ type. Youll raise to 3x BB preflop, get one or two calls. Flop with come 9 5 3 or similar, youll fire out a bet for 7 x BBs.
Thats the standard play.
However it gets mroe tricky with the more people in the pot. If your raising to 4x BB from MP with AK for instance, and you get a call from the hijack, button, and big blind, then your in a 4 way pot. The pot is now 17xBBs.
Say the flop comes 872 rainbow. This is a good flop for any low pair, overpair, or set. More than likely 2 or 3 of the origional raisers/callers have missed, and your looking good with your 99 or 78suited or something.
The true art of the continuation is knowing when to do it correctly. In this instance, it a hugely -EV play as your hardly ever going to get 3 folds in a pot this size with the amount of players in, so in this kind of case a check/fold, or even a check/call or raise if your feeling like you can turn your preflop raise into a representation of AA-JJ.
Now sometimes you can CB on a flop with a huge hand, as players will pick it up that your basically pulling off a standard continuation. IF im raising from MP/LP with AA-TT, or a lower pair, and im hitting a low flop for my overpair, or nailing a set ont he flop, ill often bet the pot or close to it, as it looks weaker than it is. You can often entice players with bad hands into the pot by betting a very strong hand at certin stages, and making the LEvel 3 play assumption they will put you on a single pair, or overcards, or even complete air.
The difference is knowing when exactly to pull it off. In earlier stages its alot easier, as with players having 100x BBs each as a stack, they will often be unwilling to get into pots on tricky play situations, as its highly -EV int he long run tog et so creative early on to win smaller pots, when larger ones can be won simply by "playing your hand".
Later on its a necessity. Your raising is commiting a larger proportion of your stack, influencing your post flop plays. You can simply ignore the fact you have a quarter or more of your chips in the middle, and this is when continuation betting really comes in.
CBing simply for the sake of it at this stage is stupid though. Yo need to time when to get it in, and bet the coreect amount as to get other hands to fold. Pushing in on a flop with 3x what is in the flop is a huge sign of weakness usually, so its better to be avoided.
How many times have you seen somsone with blinds of 50/100 raise to 400 with 1,300 behind, the flop comes 4 5 9, and they insta push. They get called by a pair, or set, or soemthing, and when tis shown down they flip over AJ or something?
ANswer - Much too often.
Players aret thinking about bet sizing to make it look stronger. Or what the other players might have int heir hand.
To progress in later stages you must continuation bet, but you MUST do it at the correct time, and for the correct amounts.
