We have discussed how to c-bet on high-card boards with a full 100bb stack, so today we’ll concentrate on analyzing 40bb and 20bb stack sizes in a tournament environment.
With PeakGTO at our disposable, we will dive into both in-position and out-of-position situations to learn about c-betting on dry high-card boards.
C-Betting On High-Card Boards In Position – Ks7d2c
Here are the assumptions we will be using:
- The hand is played 40 bb deep with an ante
- We are opening from the button to 2.3bb
- Big blind calls and checks to us on the flop
Let’s start by looking at an example of Ks7d2c for an ultimate dry board, and see how we should be playing in this exact spot.
Just like on ace-high boards we analysed in the previous article, we will be c-betting here almost our entire range. To be more precise 99% of the time, and usinga 25% pot size bet in all of these situations.
The good news is that our strategy is straightforward, making it easy to play dry high-cad boards in position. Simply stick to a small c-bet and fire it every time you are in this spot.
Our approach remains largely unchanged up to 60bb, but we need to make slight adjustments when we go down to 20bb.
With a shorter stack, we bet less frequently. We should fire a c-bet around 73% of the time, but still stick to the same 25% pot size bet in those situations.
We mix our checking hands throughout the entire poker range, skipping the bet some of the time with our strongest holdings like sets, some weaker top pair combinations, a few pocket pairs, and Broadway combinations.
Key takeaways
- C-bet 100% of the time with 40bb in position
- Always pick a small bet sizing of 25% of the pot
- Bet less frequently as the stacks get shorter, but still stick to 25% pot size bets
C-Betting on High-Card Boards OOP – Ks7d2c
If we look at the same example, but when we are playing out of position, our strategy changes a lot. Let’s look into a situation using these core assumptions:
- We are playing 40bb deep with an ante
- We are opening from the CO
- BTN calls, and both of the blinds fold
To start, we will analyze the exact same board texture of Ks7d2c.
In this situation, the GTO strategy suggests firing a bet only around 32% of the time and mixing our bet sizing.
We should be balancing our bets between 25% of the pot and 68% of the pot, giving a slight preference to smaller bets. Our strongest hands, such as top pairs, tend to lean toward bigger bet sizing, followed by some bluffs to balance things out.
That said, we will be checking the majority of our hands distributed throughout our entire range.
As the stacks more down to 20bb, our strategy becomes almost the opposite.
In this spot, we are c-betting 70% of the time and only checking with 30% of the hands, which again is distributed fairly evenly throughout the range.
As for bet sizing, we can stick to 25% bets in almost all situations, making this part of the strategy significantly easier to follow.
Key takeaways:
- Bet only around 32% of the time OOP with 40bb
- Mix between small and big bets, preferring small bet sizing a bit more often
- C-bet more aggressively by betting around 70% of the time when stacks drop to 20bb
