Puzzles
#06
Flop C-betting
Beginner
30bb effective

Read the highest card first

Two flops, one hand, one seat. Nothing changes between the decisions except the three cards on the felt — and that is enough to move the preflop raiser’s betting frequency from 96% to 62%.

  1. Flop

Hand info

Seats
BTN vs BB
Street
Flop
Pot
5.5 bb
Effective stack
27.5 bb
To call
Nothing — you may check

Single raised pot, no ante. Blinds 0.5 / 1. You opened the button, the big blind called, and you act after they check.

Pot5.5 BB
D
HERO ·BTN
27.5 BB
SB
FOLD
BB
CHECK25 BB behind
UTG
FOLD
HJ
FOLD
CO
FOLD

FLOP · 27.5BB EFFECTIVE

FLOP · BB CHECKS

6-max table. Hero is BTN with 27.5 big blinds effective. FLOP: As, 8d, 3c. FLOP · BB CHECKS. Hero holds Kc and Jd.

Hand history

Pre-flop

  • BTNRaises to 2.5 bb
  • SBFolds
  • BBCalls 1.5 bb

Flop

  • A♠ 8♦ 3♣ — pot 5.5 bb
  • BBChecks

You opened the button to 2.5bb with K♣J♦, the big blind called, and the flop comes A♠ 8♦ 3♣ — rainbow. The big blind checks to you. Your hand is nothing: king-high, no pair, no draw. Hold that thought — the same two cards are dealt again on the next board, so the only thing that will change between these two decisions is the flop itself. Small is about a third of the pot, big about two-thirds.

What do you do?