CONTINUATION BETS

CONTINUATION BETS
By John Vorhaus

Let's talk note box, that little window you can open when you play poker online, and where you can store information about your foes. Some people who dabbled with note boxes have long since given them up. They note that the glut of players on many sites makes it rare to see the same foes twice, and therefore judge that collecting data -- making book, I call it -- isn't worth the effort.

I think they're missing the point. The question of note boxes is not, "How can I store information to use against my foes when next we meet?" but rather, "How can store information to use against my foes right now?" Even if you're only sharing a sitngo or loitering in a cash game -- and certainly if you're playing in a large-field tournament when you'll be with the same players until you or they bust out, or until the table breaks -- you should make the effort to open note boxes on all your foes and record whatever morsels of information you can glean.

But time, tide and internet poker wait for no man, so if these notes are going to be useful, we need to be able to do two things with them: write them quickly, and use them immediately. In service of this goal, I have developed a series of shorthand codes, abbreviations mostly, that represent large chunks of information. These codes tell me in an instant, and remind me as play continues, what sort of foes I'm up against. One I find particularly useful is CB, the Continuation Bet.

A continuation bet is the bet that a preflop raiser makes on the flop. Many players feel constrained to make this bet whether they've hit the flop or not, because they perceive (and rightly so) that if they don't follow up preflop raises with postflop bets, their attentive opponents will start taking advantage of their postflop timidity. When I see a player make a continuation bet, I type "CB" in his note box. I don't know at first, of course, whether it's a naked CB or a real bet with a real hand. So I keep my eyes peeled, looking to see if he makes this bet frequently. If he does -- and especially if he ever shows down a hand that missed the flop completely -- I'll write CB+ in his note box, to alert myself that this player doesn't necessarily have to have hit a flop in order to bet at it.

A continuation bet is a strong move. Not all players will make them, and those who will reveal themselves thereby as aggressive and canny by nature. Thus, a simple CB, or especially CB+, in your note box tells you more than just how this preflop raiser handles his postflop obligations. From this one note you can deduce that this poker player has a certain minimum level of awareness, expertise, and guts. Not to put too fine a point on it (or rather to put a precisely fine enough point on it) strong players make CBs and weak players don't.

The beauty of putting your foe on CB tendencies is the freedom it gives you to make speculative calls. If the price is right, you can now call his preflop raises with almost anything, knowing that if you happen to hit the flop, you'll find yourself ahead in the hand against an opponent who has nothing but the hidebound determination to bluff off some chips. Call him on the flop, raise him on the turn (or bet if he checks) and take down a pot that you otherwise would have missed.

Wouldn't you be better off just folding your marginal hands and waiting for better opportunities? Against an unknown foe, sure -- but this is a known foe. Thanks to your codes, you have an information edge over him, an edge that's just begging to be exploited. Now you can call behind him with cheese like 8-7, knowing that if the flop comes something like 8-J-3, your foe will feel obliged to bet into you whether he has a jack or not. Most of the time, of course, he won't have a jack (since most of the time the flop misses any given player's hand) and if he bets without a hand, he's just playing into your strength.

This play won't work every time, of course. There's no guarantee that you'll hit the flop and he'll miss it, or that the flop won't come so scary -- say A-K-J -- that you'll have to let your undercards go whether you think he's hit or not. But you know what? That's alright. Remember that every time you fold to the continuation raiser, you merely embolden him to use the same trick again at the next opportunity. Since this is internet poker, that next opportunity may be only moments away, and next time you might hit your hand and snap him off. You can even deal yourself a bluffing opportunity by folding to one continuation bet and raising into the next one. Since you've proven yourself capable of laying down when he attacks the flop, he's bound to give your raise more credence when you come over the top. Especially because he probably doesn't have a hand in the first place!

I'm second-guessing myself a little right now, because it seems like I'm advising you to play hands with negative expectation -- crap hands, really -- and I don't have the math to back up my assertion that this play is right. Know what? I don't care. Internet poker is about deciphering your opponents' patterns and then getting out ahead of them. Tabbing someone as a CB player and giving him a chance to hang himself (okay, there's no law that says you have to do it every time) is just a step you take to take over the game.

Anyway, what's really important in this discussion is not the play of particular hands but the mindset you bring to your online poker session. People who play online poker for any length of time can become complacent and run their games on autopilot. It's vitally important that you not do this, and challenging yourself to keep meaningful notes on your foes will wire your attention to the task at hand. Open those text boxes. Keep your head in the game. Information is power, and the more information you store, sort and use, the more power you'll over your foes you'll have.