I moved over to a different site to take a break from my $0 bankroll challenge recently to play for some decent money — the main thing I’ve noticed playing higher stakes is the willingness of opponents to challenge continuation bets.
The game is constantly evolving and you can see its evolution when you make a big shift in stakes. In my freeroll experiences, once I got a big stack, I played “old-school poker,” making pre-flop raises in position and taking down pots with continuation bets on the flop.
Think before you make that continuation bet
But this style, often over-used, is becoming old hat in the bigger online games. Experienced players sniff out this strategy quick.
Let’s say you’ve got a hand like A-K and you’ve made a standard pre-flop raise in early position. Your opponent, an aggressive player, has called you from the button.
The flop comes 8-5-J.
Now, you could fire another bullet at this pot and take it down, but you’re pretty sure your opponent will raise you. After all, even though he’s looking for weakness, he’s expecting a continuation bet. A lot of good poker players will call your continuation bet with nothing, even a gutshot draw, especially if they have position, just to see what you do on the turn.
Whatever you did on the flop, the real action takes place on fourth street.
If you fired a bullet on the flop, a second bullet should convince your opponent you’ve got a hand. Or, against players who are looking to test you by calling on the flop, you could show them weakness by checking a strong hand into them on the turn.
A lot of people mix-up their post-flop play, but don’t bother to employ any strategy on the later streets. Against quality opponents, I try to move the action to the turn, even if that means checking a good hand on the flop.
Now a lot of people disagree with me and call this a version of slowplaying, but I like to think it’s just my attempt to stay ahead of the curve.
Tony, this is solid advice. I often get burned slowplaying, and I have never really given the turn second bullet theory thought.
OK, so I put this plan to the test today, albeit in a free money game. The table nuts were out of the way, and the ones left were playing staight ahead poker.
With Ac-Jc, I raise three times bb. Unless I have J-J, which makes me quiver, I typically stick to 3xs. The small blind reraises to 11xs. I called.
The flop comes 7d-3d-6d. He bets 300 into a pot of 720. I smooth call.
The turn is the 10d. He checks, I push for my last 810 into a pot of 1,320. He has 930 left, and instantly folds.
Now in a realy money event, I would have probably taken that more cautiously. It’s my nature to play tight. But the future may be different. I definitely wanted to put your theory to work and test it.
Deuce, good to see you trying different things in your game. But really, this exercise works best the higher you move up in stakes or if you’ve identified your opponent as a decent player who will fold at least once in awhile.