Amateurs should try this strategy

During the 2017 World Series of Poker, I saw a number of players implement an overly simplistic postflop strategy, either playing in a blatantly straightforward manner or blindly continuation-betting on the flop with their entire range. Such players are easy to play against because their strategy is so guileless.

Few amateurs are able to recognize this tactical error — especially those who play in small- or medium-stakes games — because it’s so common to the amateur player pool. But once amateur players become enlightened to this mistake, they’re instantly able to improve their strategies, allowing them to focus on other tactical elements of poker.

In the distant past, most amateurs would make a continuation bet only when they flopped a hand they thought had significant value. This allowed competent opponents to indiscriminately apply pressure whenever the amateur checked, because when the amateur checked, he almost certainly did not have a strong hand.

If you only bet with your good hands, you will get crushed by observant opponents, because when you bet, they will fold unless they have a premium hand or are getting the right price to outdraw you, and when you check, they will apply aggression and steal the pot.

Over time, amateurs began to figure out that if they continuation-bet every single time, they would become more difficult to play against. The problem with this strategy is that you would have an overly wide betting range (including all sorts of junk). This allows observant opponents to apply pressure in spots where the board should be bad for the amateur’s range, resulting in the amateur frequently getting outplayed in sizable pots. This is the level most amateurs were operating on during this year’s WSOP.

Instead of continuation-betting with every hand, or only with your best hands, I suggest that you continuation-bet almost every time except when the board is bad for your hand and appears to be good for your opponent’s range.

As the preflop raiser, you should generally not continuation-bet with junky postflop hands on flops that contain all middle cards, such as J-9-7, 9-8- 6 or 8-73. This is because when you raise, your range will typically consist of big pairs and big unpaired cards. On middle-card boards, you’ll usually be left with a hand that is tough to play if your continuation bet gets called or raised. It is also quite possible that your opponent will have a strong hand on such flops, because the hands people typically call raises with contain lots of implied- odds hands, such as Js 9s, 8c 7c and 7h 6h.

Quite often, the best play is to checkfold in cases where you have nothing and your opponent could easily have something. Of course, if you elect to have a check-folding range, be sure to mix in some check-calls (with marginal made hands such as middle pair) and check-raises (with effective nut hands and draws) to ensure that your opponent cannot automatically bet and take down the pot when you check.

Give this strategy a try the next time you’re in a low- or medium-stakes game.