<=== newbie need help with continuation bets

[dave5813]

Lets say I have AKo and raise 6x BB before the flop. My question now is if I miss the flop should I always do a continuation bet on missed flops into my opponents if im heads up? I know I should get the read if they are loose/tight but the way I see it is if you do continuation bets after each flop missed then the 1/3 flops you do hit with decent cards you will more then likely get paid off because people expect a bet out of you and when you hold pocket pairs they will be harder to detect in the range your opponents peg you for. So should I do continuation bets against only the tight players who I know will fold more then like 40% of the time or should I do it rarely or all the time? Kind of looking for a more in depth answer to this.

[Pelion]

This depends alot on the sorts of players you play against. In small stakes games I think it has become spew to cbet every single time you raise preflop. Obviously you are more likely to try it against tighter opponents than loose ones as with any bluff. Flop texture also plays a part. Search around on the forum there have been alot of threads on this topic in the past.

[martindcx1e]

you need to cbet when it is least likely that the flop hit your opponent(s). good flops to cbet on are usually heads up ones with 1 or 2 broadway cards and no more than 2 of a suit. paired boards make for good opportunities too. flops that bring connected stuff like 678 and 8TJ are usually worse to cbet on and flops that bring 3 broadways aren't too great either unless of course you actually make a hand. i've also heard some ppl argue that cbetting flops like 235 or something similar is bad because all pocket pairs will call or raise you and it definitely doesn't look like it was "supposed" to help your hand.

when you get 2 callers you usually shouldn't cbet if your hand didn't improve much imo. sometimes you will get flops like 228 rainbow or something and you can go ahead and fire away. when there are 3+ callers then just give up the hand unless you have a good reason to bet it.

so basically bet every time unless you think there is a good chance that villain will call/raise.