Anatomy of the Delayed Continuation Bet
12-09-2006
Gregg “Bunky” Williams
Second entry of the anatomy series (the first one being the "float") and wanted to break it down for a lot of the newer NL players out there. Also helps my writing skills for the Book I'll be writing starting January 1. I have a bunch of the outline finished , an now its just filling in and writing content. Soooooo, off we go. The delayed Continuation Bet.
I'm quite sure most people who are not stone cold newbies have heard of the "continuation bet". First time I heard the term was from Howard Lederer, who claimed it was coined by Dan Harrington. Works for me. I've been doing it for years, knew what it was , just never had a solitary term for it. Well we do now. Thanks Guys!
A standard continuation bet (for those of you that don't know) is a bet that is a "continuation" of the preflop raise. A brief example is where you raise preflop, someone calls, and the you bet the flop as a continuation of your preflop raise. You can have a strong hand or a weak hand or even a mediocre hand to make the continuation bet as it portrays strength. That is the basics of the standard continuation bet.
Now when I say the delayed continuation bet, what I mean is that the continuation bet just happens in a delayed fashion. Not that you hem and haw and stall before you make a standard continuation bet, but rather that the continuation bet happens on a later street. That street is almost always the turn.
I'll give an example of when you miss a flop and when you hit a flop as well.
Here's an example of how the delayed continuation bet works when you miss a flop.
Lets say the game is 5-10 NL and stacks are 1000 for ease of explanation.
Its a HU match and you opponent can be aggressive and loves to checkraise flops.
You have the button/sb and raise to $30.00 with As Jh. The BB calls.
Flop comes Ts 8s 4h
This is a draw heavy flop for a HU match and your opponent like we said earlier likes to check raise flops.
Your opponent checks, you check behind.
Your opponent can think one of two things, he can either think you're weak, or you actually have an overpair, a pair, or a draw or some combination of both.
The turn comes Tc
If the habitual flop check raiser bets the turn and you don't improve you can usually get away from your hand here. However.....
If he checks again, its a perfect time for the delayed continuation bet. If he doesn't have anything, its hard for him to call and if he calls you're in position on the river anyway.
usually when an opponent checks to me twice, I'm betting at the pot to take it, pretty much regardless of what I'm holding.
Now, an example to delayed Continuation bet when you hit.
You raise to 30 with As Kh, opponent calls.
Flop comes Ks 4d 4c
Nice time for a delayed continuation bet to throw the opponent a curve ball when on this flop he's expecting a fast ball.
He's not likely to catch up if he is behind, if he flopped a 4 by some miracle, you're not going to go broke unless you get extremely nuts. if he manages to make a pair on the turn he may pay off your delayed continuation bet on the turn and your value bet on the river. Where he quite likely would have folded on the flop when he whiffed his hand, you extract more value with a delayed continuation bet.
There are many other times that you can use this play to keep the pot small and put pressure on your weak appearing opponents while not exposing your stack to a strong offensive attack. The small pots that you pick up with this play will make a difference in the long run.
Obviously this is not a play you want to use all the time, it is in baseball terms a change up. If you throw a lot of fastballs people will get used to the speed of them and eventually get slammed. With this play its keeping the opponent guessing from the usual continuation bet play.
As far as players who use the delayed continuation bet alot that I've seen?
Daniel Negreanu uses it quite a bit in cash games and tournaments.
Gus Hansen uses it often but its more so a byproduct of him sensing weakness
Michael Mizrachi also employs this play a bit more than others do
However, it is a play that is in every solid players "No-Limit Toolbox". Hopefully now, it will be in yours as well.
