Calling in position and taking it away

How to call a c-bet in position with hands that can win later, and how to bet when the raiser checks to you.

The flop drills here are dealt from Rail's flop library: twelve heads-up 6-max 100bb lines, each solved on 100 representative flops. A drill's flop is one of those, so it is graded combo for combo. Your own hands on any other flop are read from the nearest solved flop by hand category, and the analysis marks those grades as mapped.

Approximate: the ranges here are hand-written teaching ranges or rest on Rail's narrowing model, not on a solve of the whole hand. The direction is what to take away.

In this lesson

Call in position with hands that can improve or take the pot later.
Read the raiser's check together with the board.
Bet small and often when the raiser checks on boards that favour your range.
Keep strong hands among your stabs so they are hard to attack.

Read first: Defending against a flop bet · Advice, not a lock: every lesson opens.

Concepts used: Position, Continuation betting

Calling in position

When you call in position, the flop is not the last chance to win the pot. You see the raiser's turn action before you decide, so hands that will often win later can call now: pairs, draws, and overcards with a backdoor. That is the value of position, paid out over the turn and river.

Price it the same way. The small blind bets 2 bb into 6 bb, a third of the pot; you call 2 to win 8, and need 2 / (8 + 2) = 20% equity, before counting what position adds.

Betting when the raiser checks

When the raiser checks to you, its range has fewer of the hands that bet for value, but not none: out of position it checks some strong hands to protect its checks. What decides how often you bet is mostly the board.

In Rail's solves of the big blind in position against the small blind's check, the big blind bets most often on low boards, where its range is strongest, and least on ace-high ones, where the small blind's checks still hold many aces. The check tells you something; the board tells you more.

Keeping your stabs honest

If you only bet when you have nothing, a raiser who check-raises your stabs wins every time. Bet some strong hands too, and let some weak hands check behind and take a free card. A stab that is small and frequent on the boards that suit you, with strong hands in it, is hard to play against.

The flop drills come from Rail's flop library, where the big blind in position against the small blind is the single-raised line with the caller in position. The turn drills are solved on demand from ranges narrowed through the flop.

Rules of thumb

Call in position with hands that win later: pairs, draws, overcards with backdoors.
After the raiser checks, let the board decide how often you bet.
Bet small and often on the boards that favour your range.
Put strong hands in your stabs, so a check-raise does not beat them all.

When they break

Against raisers who never check strong hands, bet almost every time they check.
Against raisers who check-raise a lot, stab less with nothing and more with hands that can call a raise.

Example hands

Examples come from two places only: your own analysed hands in this lesson's spots, and a hand Rail deals and grades itself. Never a hand from outside Rail.

From your own hands

A hand Rail deals

Rail scripts this hand from the lesson's own practice, always the same one, and grades it with the analysis. Decide first, then read Rail's verdict.

Practice

The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.

Exercise 1

Pass: 2 of 3 right

Three flops from Rail's library in position facing the raiser's bet: fold, call or raise.

Exercise 2

Pass: 2 of 3 right

Three flops in position after the raiser checks: check or bet, and how big.

Exercise 3

Pass: 2 of 3 right

Three turns in position after the raiser checks, solved on demand.

Exercise 4

Optional

Your own decisions in position as the caller, on the flop and turn, the costliest first.