Understanding optimal c-betting strategy is not an easy task, and this is exactly why we break it down by different board textures. We already covered GTO strategy for low-card boards and high-card situations, and today, as obviously we will dive deeper into c-betting on paired boards.
If you are wondering how often you should be betting or checking and how your strategy changes based on your position at the table, this article will answer all of your questions.
C-Betting On Paired Boards In Position
Our strategy for c-betting on paired boards relies heavily on the actual pair on the board, so we will break down different spots to see how it change in various situations.
Key assumptions:
- The hand is played 100 bb deep
- We are opening from the button
- Big blind calls and checks to us on the flop
The most straightforward spot is when you have AAx on the flop since you need to bet small all of the time with close to 100% of your range. Let’s take the example of AsAh6d.
This is clearly a much better board for our range, so we can get away with betting all the time and sticking to a one-third pot size bet. Our range does not need much protection since there are no scare cards to come.
It is also worth mentioning that our poker strategy does not change much if we replace 6 with a face card or any other card, for that matter. You still need to bet pretty much your entire range in these situations.
As a rule of thumb, the lower the pair, the less often we will bet. If we have KKx or QQx boards, we then start checking around 10% of our range.
Our c-betting percentage drops further on boards like JJx, where we check around 20% of the time, and this moves further up to 30% on the TTx board.
As far as actual hands go, we always use a mixed strategy of checking and betting the same hands proportionally. In all these situations, you still want to keep using small bet sizing.
When the pairs get really low, the c-bet percentage drops even further. However, even on a low board texture such as 6s6h2c, you will be betting 60% of your range and mostly using small bet sizing.
Key takeaways
- Always bet on AAx boards and use small bet sizing
- Bet less often as the pair gets lower
- Stick to small bets as your general strategy
C-Betting On Paired Boards OOP
Next, we will look at the adjustment we should make when being OOP and use these assumptions when analyzing the hands:
- We are playing 100bb deep
- We are opening from the CO
- BTN calls, and both of the blinds folds
Let’s start with the same example we analyzed while being in position and see how our strategy changes on the AAx board when we have players to act after us. Let’s look into AhAs6d.
As you can see, our strategy changed almost to the opposite spectrum. Instead of betting 100% of the time, as in the previous example, we now have to check most of the hands and only bet around 17% of the time when we are OOP.
Whenever you bet, picking a small size is the preferred option.
The betting is distributed equally throughout the entire poker range, so you just follow the same pattern of mixed strategy, only checking some broadway combinations more often.
AAx boards are more of an exception compared to other high card pairs because button calling range preflop has a lot of Ax combinations. Therefore, our betting frequency increases on different boards. Let’s take a look at KsKh3c as an example.
In this spot, you need to bet 55% of the time and, in most cases, pick a big bet size of two-thirds of the bot.
Just like in the previous example, your betting strategy is distributed between the hands. That said, now you have all of the broadway holdings betting more often while pocket pairs and Ax hands check a bit more.
What is surprising in these situations is that on the boards of QQx and JJx, we are checking almost the entire range with over 90% frequency.
As the pairs get lower, your strategy will depend on whether the card next is higher or lower than the pair. For example, on 6c6dKs, you will bet around 70% of the time, while on 6d6h2s, you will bet two timeless less often, with only 35% frequency.
While these ranges will vary, we can see that game theory optimal strategy clearly prefers using bigger bet sizes in both of these spots. As a rule of thumb, you should be betting twice as often when the board favors your range.
Also, you should use a mixed strategy in all paired board situations. You should bet all of your hands some of the time and check the rest, only adjusting frequencies based on the board texture.
Key takeaways
- Check a lot on AAx boards OOP and use small sizing when betting
- On other paired boards, mostly use bigger bet sizing of two-thirds of the pot
- Check almost your entire range on middling pairs like QQx or JJx boards
- Bet more often when there is a high card with a pair compared to a low one (66K vs 662)
