Continuation Betting And Double Barrelling In Holdem PokerWith the recent trend in poker for aggressive play, which is very popular amongst the often televised scandinavian pros, the phrase "double barrel" has worked its way into the poker language. So what is double barrelling and how should you use it? Continuation Betting It's normal practice in holdem to make a continuation bet after raising pre flop. The reason for this is if you raise pre flop, you're representing a strong hand, and anybody that calls your bet rather than re raising your pre flop bet usually has a drawing hand or a small pair. Now if the flop comes ragged, for example 7 2 2 of different suits, you know that the odds are in your favour that your opponent hasn't made anything, so it's worth your while to make a continuation bet with your perceived strong hand to try to make your opponent fold there and then. Double Barrelling How your opponent reacts to your continuation bet will go a long way towards dictating whether you double barrel or not. To double barrel is to make a further continuation bet on the turn when you haven't made anything yourself, with the purpose of bluffing your opponent off the hand. Now when you made your original continuation bet on the flop, there were obviously only three possible responses from your opponent. To fold, call, or raise. If your opponent folded, you obviously won the pot so no further discussion is needed. Double Barrelling After A Call On The Flop If your opponent called, your read on your opponent will have to come into play before you decide whether to double barrel or not. Do you think your opponent called because he's drawing to something? Is there a possible straight or flush draw on the board? If you have a good read that your opponent is drawing to something, and no card comes on the turn that's likely to have made his draw, then you should definately double barrel. In fact, make it a very good sized bet, more than the pot size, so he/she doesn't have the odds to call your bet and draw to the river. If on the other hand your read/part experience/hub stats tell you that your opponent is a very safe but trappy player, and you think that he may be slow playing you with a set/house/quads, then i'd be alot more careful about double barrelling. A slightly more difficuly situation is if you think that your opponent may have called your flop bet with a not very strong made hand. For example, he may have a pair of eights when the flop shows 7 2 2, but he may not have raised your flop bet as you'd been showing strength from the beginning and he's not sure what you have. In a situation like this it's definately correct to double barrel, as for one, he's already shown weakness and a lack of confidence in his over pair, and for two, all you need is a high over card on the turn to put further doubt into his mind and force him to fold. Click here for page 2 |
