Yet another strategy that you will need to grasp and effectively implement if you want to want to cash in Sit and Go tournaments is the continuation bet. Put simply, this is the act of making a bet after you were the orignal raiser pre-flop even if you actually miss the flop. Here’s an example:
The hero is playing at Cake Poker and gets dealt Ad Kd and with the blinds at 10/20, makes a standard 5X raise to 100. The hero is called by the villain in the BB (Big Blind) and the flop comes all rags – 5h 8s 3d. The BB checks and the hero makes a pot sized bet of 225. Of course, the BB may have actually hit a hand here and check-raise but for the purpose of this example we’ll say he folds, winning the hand for the hero.
There’s no real strategy to a continuation bet other than to use it with restraint. Doing this every single hand that you’re the pre-flop raiser will actually LOSE effectiveness because other players at the table will simply check to you knowing you’re going to continuation bet and then punish you by raising after you bet.
Ideally you will have position when trying to make a continuation bet but this won’t always be the case. The other benefits of continuation betting is that if you are called, you may well hit your hand on the turn or river. If this happens you’ve often disguised your hand well enough by betting the flop that you will bust or at the very least take a fair amount of chips from your opponent.
The one thing to watch is when you’re called during a continuation bet. You have to rely on your read to determine if the villain in the hand actually has a hand or is simply setting up a bluff of his own with his call or raise. So use this move sparingly but timely and have the discipline to lay down a hand if you’re pressed by an opponent who may already have you beat.