I should actually start off with the rare case where I don’t make a cbet at all. I think you should be cbetting around 75% of the time at the micros so this shouldn’t happen too often. However, the situation where I don’t cbet is usually one where I am OOP against a fish or SLP and the flop comes with one of those coordinated, wet boards that hits their perceived range and I have no piece of it.
By no piece I mean two overs or an underpair at best. Basically anything that has very little chance to improve and has very little strength right now as well. And I say against fish and SLPs specifically because on average they will have the lowest fold to cbet% of any player type. Here are a few examples of this.
Example:
I am OOP with,
And the flop comes,
Example:
I am OOP with,
And the flop comes,
I don’t expect to get folds very often on these types of boards against most players because it smacks their perceived range. I expect to get even fewer folds against bad players who often have a low fold to cbet%. And lastly, I don’t have much equity in the hand.
I will also often check these types of boards when OOP against an active TAG or maniac player type as well. These are the two player types that will play back at you more often than any other. Against these types of players it is usually better to just check and fold in these spots and not waste a cbet.
So for all of these reasons I think the most “profitable” thing to do in these situations is to just check/fold against most opponents. Now if they bet some silly amount like the minimum, or double minimum, as will often happen at the micros, I am not folding. So I should say instead that my intention here is to fold to any reasonable sized bet. And by reasonable I mean anything roughly 1/3 pot or more.
If they check behind however, I may take a shot at the pot on some turn cards, especially the ones that improve my hand or hit my perceived range. I will discuss that more in the turn section.
