Players like Barry Greenstein use a 100% C-Bet tactic and whilst it is not a bad strategy to C-Bet a high percentage of the time when you are the aggressor pre-flop, it’s also good to mix in check backs, especially when you could get raised off your hand.
In this article we look at some hands and whether we will want to fire out the C-Bet on the flop or look to Check and see a turn card…
Open-Ended Straight Draw
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is on the Button with Q♠ J♠
Folded to Hero on BTN: Raise to $6
BB: calls
Flop: K♣ 3♥ T♣
BB: checks
Hero: ?
We will pretty much always want to bet with a strong straight draw to the nuts like this, we can defend against even a check-raise and when we hit our turn card we can win huge pots. Hands like this make good semi-bluffing hands as we will probably never be bluffing too much if we pick premium draws like this to bluff with.
Weak Top Pair Hands
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is on the Button with K♠ 6♠
Folded to Hero on BTN: Raise to $6
BB: calls
Flop: K♣ 3♥ 5♠
BB: checks
Hero: ?
We are going to want to mix up our play here, there aren’t too many bad cards for us on the turn but we certainly can’t get three streets of value from a worse hand, so we will want to get two bets in on boards like this a lot of the time.
The question is just how we do this, we could:
- Bet flop, check turn and bet the river
- Bet flop, check the turn and bet the river
- Check the flop back and go for bets on the turn and river
Getting Aggressive Out of Position
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is in the BB with: 7♣ 6♣
BTN: Raise to $6
Hero: 3-Bet to $21
BTN: Calls
Flop: 5♣ 3♥ Q♦
Hero: ?
So we have taken a spot to mix up our game and polarise our 3-Bets from the Big Blind against an aggressive opener with a suited connector and we have hit a decent board, with a gutshot to the nuts and backdoor flush draw.
We will want to be checking this type of hand, continuing seems like a good plan in theory as we can win the pot with just seven high, however, if we get raised we have little choice but to bin our holding. However, if we check our opponent may give us a free card and we can win on some turns by betting or hitting our card. Another play is that we can check-raise against some bets from our opponent too.
Flopping Weak Draws
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is on the Button with T♠ 8♠
Folded to Hero on BTN: Raise to $6
BB: calls
Flop: Q♣ 3♥ 9♣
BB: checks
Hero: ?
We could argue to bet here, as we only have a gutshot and little showdown value, however, if we are betting these hands, we are probably over-bluffing and can be exploited with check-raise bluffs.
So with that in mind this hand makes a good check back, we still have a draw which can win us the pot and we can look to represent some hands on the turn or look to Delayed C-bet against another check from our opponent on the turn.
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