Continuation betting on the flop is one of the areas that PLO-noobs struggle with, and since a bit of tweaking won't hurt the veterans either, I figured this would be a suitable topic.

I'm gonna post some theory and HHs first, and after that this thread is open for discussion. People are welcome to question my views and post HHs of their own for review.

I'll try to pick a few BBV-style hands

General Considerations

-Sizing
In a vacuum, you should vary your c-bet sizing based on board texture. Personally, I like having three different sizings when I'm grinding and multitabling, but there's always room for fine-tuning. KJ8ss should be bombed, ~60% is fine on AJ6ss, and 30-40% is more than enough on K72r or 663r.

Monotone and paired flops are a separate art form, consider QJTsss vs K72sss or JTTss vs 663r, for example. Not to mention all the levelling that comes with them, lol.

Finally, you should also use larger sizings both OOP and multiways, as both your perceived and actual ranges are stronger.

-Number of Villains
Your level of aggression should be directly related to how many ranges you're up against: heads up you can get away with a ton of barreling, 3ways you gotto pick your spots more carefully, and against 3+ you're forced to just play your cards based on their relative value most of the time.

-Position
Having position gives you more latitude as it's difficult for villain(s) to peel OOP, and you can put a ton of pressure on capped ranges OTT IP. Compared to NLHE, position is incredibly powerful as you can rep a lot stronger in PLO.

If you hate most turns, especially multiways, check-raising as first to act is usually a good plan.

-Opponent Type(s) and Tendencies
When making c-betting decisions on the flop, adjusting to your current opposition accordingly is vital. Surprisingly, this is often easier vs regs as their ranges are more defined and you often have more experience on their preferred lines. Against the fish it's always a guessing game: does he slowplay a lot? does he raise with decent combodraws? is he paying any attention to my play/range? Usually it's a good idea to play a lot of potcontrol until you've developed more specific reads.

Especially in position, checking villain agression is important. Some are check-raise enthusiasts, while others prefer donk-betting. Comparing those two stats is often quite insightful: some players donkbet 20-30% and never c/r. Others c/r 20-30% and donkbet maybe 5%. Many tough ones mix it up by having both stats around 15%

-Backdoor Equity
Against aggressive opponents IP it's often wise to realise your equity on dry flops. QJT9 on K82 is an obvious example. If you balance your checking range enough, you can represent a lot of strong hands on many turns.

Heads-up Pots OOP


Dry:



Wet:



Medium:





Heads-Up Pots IP

Dry:




Medium:





Wet:






3-way Pots OOP













3-way Pots IP

What do you think about checking river, or maybe betting less? Seems like he's not calling much but the 5 or possibly JJ, and a check prevents us from getting bluff shoved on and us not knowing what to do since we don't have many 5s in our range UTG this should happen some % (when we bet less).

The turn looks like a good spot to check and give up if you don't have anything, but I think with KK, unless MP is floating a lot, that you would get more value betting turn and river because people just won't pot that turn because it looks obvious they have the 2 or 44 and they want deception.

2nd in an awesome thread

It would be even more awesome if you made an Excel sheet of cbet percentages (in SR and 3b pots, IP and OOP, HU and MW) you deem close to optimal at different stakes for different preflop looseness levels (like 19/14/4, 25/17/6, 30/20/8), so that the readers could tweak ranges, but I understand I'm asking for too much, so maybe just post your own historical percentages throughout your climb up stakes, separating Rush and normal tables and specifying what preflop styles you had at the time.

Thanks for pointing out the importance of flop donk and c/r stats, I've had them on my main HUD for long but I'm often too lazy to take them into account until these donks and c/r's happen

Also, to what type of spots would you recommend to pay the biggest attention for those like me who'd like to increase their cbet% in the unconscious competence, so that they don't play hit-or-miss when playing in the 'push mode' at fishy hours (aka autopiloting at too many tables in an attempt to swallow all the fish in the world )?

I thought about this and figured he has some JJ/AA+NFD-blocker in his range, so I think I just gotto try and get paid by those and valuetown vs the 5. If he somehow has KQQT/KJTT-type hands he's prob also calling me down. If river SPR was more than 1, it would be a sicker spot fosho


I think I expected this villain to peel fairly light and turn some of his weaker SDV into a bluff. If he checks back, and I can get value from his heroing range on the river pretty often. barreling would prob be better in a vacuum.

It's a free clinic, post a few borderline spots

I was talking about checking the river or betting smaller in the first hand I quoted. Having the 5 in hand would make him quads, so no value there. I think there's value in betting for the QQ and TT to call, but he may bluff sometimes... whatever... seems like a pretty close spot... I think I'd bet smaller.

But now I'm thinking that the flop has gotta be a cbet, right? The check on this board after we raise UTG is going to look like we are c/cing or c/r a decent amount, setting off alarms for others to check back decent draws. They probably don't b3b anything but exactly JJ maybe 55 and huge draws we're flipping against when we c/r. Most importantly I think they just play better OTT when we c/r the flop as opposed to when we bet flop (and if they raise we probably bet/3b huge right? or are you bet/calling this flop ever), and then of course them checking back flop is pretty disasterous.

-both villains are pretty fishy. sb's fold to c bet 56% MP = 50%

lol, I obv noticed a 5 gives him quads, I meant valuetowning ourselves/paying off. Betting closer to halfpot is def an option.

the reason I don't like c-betting is that we allow both villains decent implied odds to peel by doing so. They can peel with naked NFDs, naked wraps and other similar combos, and will have position on a lot of awkward turns. c/r gets value from their weak stabs and gives us more info on their ranges.

Ur blocking flush and str8 draws and have position, wp

I think I was overestimating how often people bluff/semibluff raise that spot in position. We block lots of hands they could be raising with for value or as a semi bluff with KKQ2 on KJ5cc so a c/r becomes better because of that. I'm guessing most people check back draws on this flop though, and winning the pot outright is pretty good for us, but them checking back and us leading almost every turn is not a bad result since we probably get some light calls and always have equity.

nice

shouldve made a collumn of how to not overplay AAx on different textures too.

but when i think about it, just dont...

cbet % ip hu? cbet % oop hu? cbet% 3way?

well put. and sometimes there's a bet and a raise after our check...

I don't think those numbers would be particularly useful as such, and frankly I feel a tad awkward divulging them

the question is fine, obv

Shouldn't you check the river on hand 2?

why would you check flop on hand 4?

i have so much to work on....

Villain in hand 2 is a really passive fish, he can actually pay me off with an 8. Also a protection sizing, obv

For hand 4, check out section on backdoor equity vs aggros

Btw I don't like the flop check in hand 4 either - T turns are good (though on a T-Q runout our straight won't be nut), but the J-high BDFD is meh. I'd be happy to steal on the flop here.

Which would undoubtedly be the std play. So when a good player sees a BTN-stealer c-bet this flop...

...the stealer will stack him with K2 often enough

E: OK, I'm using feminine logic here because it's just won a bracelet. But even from a masculine viewpoint, BTN's opening range contains more random stuff like K2 or 82 than SB's solid continuation range, which should be considered by SB when constructing a c/r range.

And if BTN c-bets 100%, how often does he have 2pair+?

hand 4 is villain dependent imo, some villains give it up here pretty easily, some will get into a raising war. i agree, from the naked sense a bet makes, it would only be to bluff out exactly QQ and nothing else. if we fire multiple barrels, induce raises to 3bet/bluff, want to balance out our nutty range with lots of bluff, never c/back with a strong hand etc, all these complicated/metagaming aspects, flop could easily go bet/x (x being fold most of the time) though imo

Could u plz GGARJ explain the thought process in hand 11 OTT? Really curious.

yup

sorry, missed the question earlier.

Villain's line didn't make much sense, especially 3ways. He should have a fairly wide betting range, but c/r for value is ridiculous. If he wants value from my weak stabs, c/c is better

I would be very interested in learning more about cbetting in 3bet pots. I feel like I give up way too often after a cbet or calling a cbet.

Ah, that's def a different art form all together. Your perceived and actual ranges are more defined, so you need to pay more attention to what ur repping and how ur range does on different textures. Position is also an important factor.

Good topic for a 6k milestone, perhaps

Post a couple HHs and I can give you pointers