OOP-C Bet Quiz Flashcards
Ah5h OVER & FLUSH DRAW
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/RAISE
Interestingly, most players wanted to fire a c-bet here (about 68% of players), but check/raising is the preferred play.
A useful question to ask when holding a draw is “do we want to play for stacks if we hit?” In the case of the nut flush draw in question, we absolutely want to play for stacks if we catch that fifth heart - which behooves us to start building the pot as soon as possible.
As such, our choice should be between c-betting and check/raising. Both are viable lines and should likely be mixed - though we recommend check/raising as the prioritized option. Not only does checking encourage students of the game to avoid c-betting too aggressively when OOP, but the average villain usually makes more mistakes against check/raises than facing c-bets.
6d5d A TON OF OUTS
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/CALL
Many players see the combo draw and immediately either go for a check/raise or a c-bet. However, the most natural option should be to check/call.
Why? Because it’s not the number of outs that determines the strength of a draw but rather the quality of those outs. Although we have 15 outs to make either a straight or flush, none of those outs are to the nuts. We’ll either make a dominated straight or a dominated flush when improving, and dominated straights and flushes typically prefer to play medium-sized pots instead of pots for deeper stacks.
Also, think about the kinds of hands that would continue if you did c-bet and got called. Do many of those hands fold to barrels when we brick the turn? Do many of those hands continue if we improve our draw? And if villain opts to raise our c-bet with whatever hand, do we have a profitable plan against the kind of range that would raise here? These are extra questions that can help you craft your exact line.
We clearly can’t fold the flop, but there is no need for us to inflate the size of the pot here arbitrarily - which makes check/call the preferred option here.
And don’t feel bad if you didn’t get full credit on this question as only 19% of players said they would check/call here (while 48% said they would c-bet and 33% said they would check/raise).
JcTc TOP PAIR WITH A GUTSHOT
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/CALL
This is another example of a spot where most players want to c-bet (56% of players said they would), but an alternative line is actually better.
Spots like these are easier when you keep the following rule in mind:
“While good draws are frequently played aggressively, pair + draw type hands should generally be played passively.”
In this example, we have a pair plus a gutshot so check/calling makes the most sense. But why do we especially like to check/call pair plus draw type hands? Consider the following:
• Pair + draw type hands are less vulnerable than naked pairs making protection is less important.
• Pair + draw type hands make excellent bluffcatchers. Even if the bluffcatcher (pair) is not good, the hand still has suckout potential.
• One pair hands aren’t usually strong enough to check/raise, but it’s rare that we’d want to check/fold them.
Pair + decent backdoor hands are also strong candidates for flop check/calls. Note in this example that we have the backdoor flush to go with our direct gutshot making this combo an especially favorable check/call.
AsTs GOOD ‘OL TOP PAIR
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: FIRE A C-BET
It’s helpful to focus on the difference between this hand and the previous one.
In both cases, we have a pair of tens on similar board textures. The difference? This time we have no direct draws or redraws. Meaning that our pair of Tens is significantly more vulnerable (susceptible to being outdrawn by the river) in this example. Checking and allowing our opponent to potentially see a free turn card would be very undesirable to us.
C-betting is the best option because we can:
• Extract value, and
• Protect our holding
Even if our opponent was to bet the flop after we check, our pair is not strong enough for a check/raise so our opponent will get to see a turn card every time (since we aren’t going to check/fold here). Although we don’t mind if our opponent calls our c-bet, the fact that he sometimes folds live equity against our bet denies his equity chunks, which isn’t the worst thing in the world.
The basic lesson here? Vulnerable pairs should typically get c-bet when OOP.
AA AN OVERPAIR
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: FIRE A C-BET
While our pair is certainly stronger in this example compared to the top pair in the previous hand, the fundamental principles are the same.
We don’t want to allow our opponent to see free turn cards unnecessarily, so it makes sense to go immediately for value and just c-bet the flop.
AA is almost strong enough to consider check/raising on this board texture (this wouldn’t have been a terrible answer, and in fact 18% of players said they would check/raise here), but in many player pools it’s recommended that our value check/ raising ranges start at two-pair or better on average.
8d7d A STRAIGHT DRAW
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/CALL
In reality, this hand will function reasonably well as both a c-bet and a check/call. And interestingly enough, 47% of players were in favor of check/calling here (compared to the 33% of players who opted to c-bet). The last of the 3 major options here, check/ raising, will be discouraged since many of our outs are not to the nuts.
Since we are going to be c-betting vulnerable pairs, it certainly makes sense to include some draws also (we certainly wouldn’t want our c-bet range OOP to be exclusively vulnerable pairs). However, in any discussion on play OOP as the PFR, we should heavily lean towards checking with the majority of our range.
Thus the default recommended play here is to check/call with the acknowledgment that we will mix in some c-bets at a low frequency.
As9s MIDDLE PAIR
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: FIRE A C-BET
This is very simply a vulnerable pair and should be c-bet for protection. We should get comfortable with the idea that we might be check/calling some top pairs while at the same time c-betting some second pairs (and worse hands too).
For all intents and purposes, we are not interested in the absolute strength of our pair - but rather its level of vulnerability.
Ac5c BACKDOOR & LITTLE MORE
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to
act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/RAISE
We don’t necessarily need a direct draw to consider check-raising. In fact, strong
backdoor draws should also be considered viable check-raising candidates.
A5s is an excellent combo for a check/raise since it has a backdoor draw to the nut-
flush. If called, we can always continue barreling on turn club.
It’s especially worth noting that in most player pools, low boards and dry boards are considered “hotspots.” In this context, it means that villains will often overfold when facing a check/raise - making this an especially attractive option that very few players consider. In fact, 40% of players said they would just check/fold here (and only 7% said they would check/raise) - which is valuable information when thinking about how your opponents are playing such spots!
Ah5h THE SAME SPOT?
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/FOLD
It’s true that we have a backdoor nut flush draw again, but that’s pretty much all we have in this hand.
Notice also how the board texture is already very connected especially when compared to the 862 rainbow board from the previous hand. Backdoor equity is extremely important on drier textures, but far less important on mid-range connected textures. As such we have the luxury of check/folding some of our better backdoor equity that might get played on other board types.
On J87ss we should have a decent amount of pair+draw or pair+backdoor draw combos that allow us to pad out our check/defending range. Our check/raising range will typically comprise of decent direct draws and flopped monsters (such as the T9 straight) - meaning this A5s isn’t a necessary defense combo and we can just check and muck if villain fires a bet.
Or maybe villain will be kind, check the flop behind, and give us a free card to see if anything develops.
Td9d LOTS OF POTENTIAL
Preflop you opened to 3bb from the small blind and the big blind called. Being first to act on this flop, what’s your play?
BEST PLAY: CHECK/RAISE
This one is a little tricky, simply because all options are reasonable (apart from check/ folding, which 33% of players wanted to do). It’s so tricky in fact that only 5% of players said they would check/raise here.
If we are looking to compete at a high level, we should get comfortable with the idea that the same hand can be used in different lines. If we were forced to pick a default option though, we should likely go for the check-raise here.
Our T9s has excellent backdoor equity and the average villain is overfolding when facing a check/raise on a low board texture. And since most villains bet a huge chunk of the time on these boards once checked to (thinking we have something like AJ that is just going to check/fold), there is a heap of fold equity to capitalize upon.
As a general tidbit, in any spot OOP as the preflop raiser, if you are ever in doubt, start out with a check.
