Agree with tneva. Actually I think anything under 60% is sort of losing value. Sheer math: suppose you c-bet 60% pot, you only need to succeed about 37% of the time to show a direct profit from that. Believe it or not, my overall flop cbet success is at 47% over 27k hands I had at NL10. Moneeeeeys!!!! (btw I cbet more in the 70-74% range).
Your impression that people call a ton is often a bit askew, 40% can easily seem like a ton yet it's not high enough to justify not c-betting a bunch. If you add in some profitable 2nd barrels, some lucky equity on the turn etc you'll find it works out quite fine. With most opponents who aren't completely brain dead fish, if they notice you c-bet and SPECIALLY that you're not just a showdown happy nit, but barrel the turn a fair bit, they will probably play you less, and call your c-bets less oop.
Still, don't go all crazy and miss excellent opportunities to check multiway, or pot control your hand and even simply give up the pot on ugly boards (obviously by ugly board I don't mean you missed, I mean it's way too likely your opponent's range just utterly smashes the flop - say QJ9 with a flush draw is NOT a good board to c-bet vs a limper usually).
Edit: another important reason for c-betting a healthy amount of the time is that at your tables, you will find some people who understand poker somewhat, maybe even have a HUD. I've come to make ridiculous profit from simply exploiting players who simply don't c-bet enough, and some of your opponents will do that to you. Giving free cards can hurt, and also playing the guessing game by giving up initiative can hurt. Sure you might think "I'll just mix it up by checking some of my top pairs etc", but this gets you into a calling game to induce bluffs which gives free cards a bit too often and might lead you to level yourself and get value towned "I've shown weakness hence I call down to exploit his bluffs" .... except as it turns out, the guy doesn't fire more than once as a bluff or something. Also a decent player will pick up on some timing tells and board textures, and you won't get enough value back from these traps to justify the times you simply get outplayed, imo. Once in awhile you can use the fake value raise though, vs guys who have a very high bet vs missed c-bet. Say you have an A-high board vs some loose station who will bet a lot, you can check to them once in awhile and throw in a bluff c/r instead of c-bet, see donk call and wonder what the hell you do now. Most players at micros see the c/r as much more value oriented than simple bets (often rightfully so). This line is even good against some steal-happy regs ... I've probably fallen pray to it myself a few times, I'm sure
Last edited by schism; 10-20-2010 at 02:03 AM.
Reason: regs are out there