I have made some extraordinary leaps in c-betting over the past few months, thanks to an increased volume in online play. However, I still need some work. In general, I c bet when I either have a range advantage, flopped value, or flopped a draw.

This is my strategy vs loose players:

1. I c bet any flop that comes A or K high

2. I c bet dry boards that are very dry and come Q or J high, or boards that come Q or J high and I have good backdoor equity.

3. Flopped a good draw/value hand



However, now I'm lost on how to attack tight players, when we don't flop a good draw or value. Should we be doing the opposite of when we're c betting loose players? Should we be c betting any flop that doesn't come A or K high, and c betting the Q or J highs when we have good backdoor equity?

Obviously, these are just general situations. If someone is folding way too often/way too infrequently to c-bets, I adjust accordingly. I'm just talking about the average 1/2 player. Thanks!

Against tight players look for 3 things.
1. Your actual value or strong draws.
2. Flops with a single card A-J. Tight player hands have more high cards so flops with multiple high cards that didn't help you are worse then against loose players.
3. Garbage flops with all cards 9 or less and no possible flopped straights. A tight player will know your c-betting nothing some portion of the time but usually give up their air also.

In general you should c-bet a bit less and bet once and give up more often against tight players. Tight players have more pairs in their ranges and when they hit the flop they tend to have better hands. Loose players have to have air on most flops and more 2nd/3rd pair so you can often bet/barrel them off if they are not stations.

bet almost all the time against tight players as they see you checking weak hands to others and wont make the connection. this is 1/2 poker so not many higher level thinking players will be there.

Are there any boards in particular that you'd suggest checking? Three card flush flops when we have no pair, no flush card? AKQr flop and we have air? Or just c bet 100% vs tight players?

What kind of tight? If they're playing AJ+ and 22-AA, and do the live player thing where they literally never 3-bet, on a board of AKQr, if you have true air, say 87 or whatever, their hand will combinatorically be:

AJ (12 combos)
AQ (9 combos)
AK (9 combos)
QQ-AA (9 combos)
22-JJ (54 combos -- 6 each except for 8s and 7s since we have one of each)

So they're a 54:39 dog to have something they want to continue with -- so your cbet that's less than a PSB should be immediately profitable as long as they don't float you with the pockets. If you add in KQ at 9 combos, it's still 54:48 they have a pocket pair smaller than the board.

The other thing about boards like this is smaller cbets should be effective, so that also improves the profitability of a stone bluff cbet (if you make it slightly less than half pot, they should still fold a hand like 77 if they're not deciding to take an outright float on you, so now you're getting 2.2:1 on your money that you win the pot right here).

I tend to c-bet nearly 100% HU, just because the cbet itself tends to be so immediately profitable and the ability to simplify the hand are so valuable as to outweigh other considerations. Even cleaning up their 2-6 outer on that board may be worth doing with a hand like Q6s (say you raised the button or over a weak limper or whatever and ended up with a single strong opponent) -- you'd rather not have to play a guessing game as to whether they turn a set/straight, and your value in binking two pair+ doesn't actually decrease by c-betting the flop (if anything, it may increase, although you've got RIO considerations since they may already have two pair themselves).

yes good post. i always play the player and you can easily move your c-bet up or down to influence his calling you range. some it wont matter and you should have a handle on that and may be able to c-bet only a tiny bet and increase your winnings just from that.
others that float you, tend to stay out of their way unless you have better hands or have the balls to retake it when they do which few live players have.

i play all the time with net players that have moved to live or play both. few adapt to live and win in the bigger games as they dont play the player but still try to play ranges on people that put their money in on hunches and how they feel at that moment.

Thanks all

Also take note of how they generally respond to cbets in pots you aren't in.

I played a guy at 2/5 yesterday who seemed to think a cbet killed his family and was out for revenge against them. He c/r small vs a lot of them and overbet barreled turns with basically air. He did it for value too of course.

Most people react too passively, c/cing hands they should c/r, which can make barreling tough for us. I think developing a balanced cbet and checkback range is important vs good or just aggro players.

It all starts with pf, if you raise too loose and cbet too wide you are exploitable. Most live opponents wont notice but the ones who will can crush you in that spot. This usually isn't an issue at 1/2 but be aware of opponents who can notice that.

If you end up in a spot like that where you were attacking weak players blinds with a wide steal and a good player calls it's fine to give up more often rather than force something.