PRO ANSWER: We are in the middle stages of a tournament with a big blind ante in play and we are dealt 5d4d in the Cutoff. We open raise first into the pot to 2.5BBs and the Big Blind is the only caller.

We flop three of a kind on the 5c8s5h flop and the Big Blind checks to us. With a 2.5BB standard raise size preflop for the table we should be opening a lot of hands in the Cutoff. The Big Blind should be defending quite wide in this situation with deep stacks getting over 3:1 on a call and closing the action preflop.

In this situation where stacks are still somewhat deep in relation to the size of the pot and both ranges are very wide, we should be c-betting with a small sizing and a very wide range of hands. Using a small sizing at a high frequency allows us to put pressure on our opponent’s wide range of hands while we have position and follow up with a 2nd barrel on a significant number of turn cards.

Since we’re going to be continuation betting most of our range by default in this spot we can’t just remove the strongest hands such as our trip 5s from that range, or in theory we’ll start being vulnerable to check-raises from the Big Blind. We do make a small continuation bet of 2BBs and the Big Blind calls.

The turn is the Ac and the Big Blind checks. This is a perfect bluff card for us even though we don’t have a bluffing hand right now, so we’re going to be firing the turn with a high frequency as a default. In addition, we unblock Ace high combos that make up a reasonable part of Villain’s calling range on the flop.

A common mistake players make in this spot is being content to make small bets in the 4-7BB range instead of considering the ideal sizing to set up an appropriately sized all-in bet in on the river. The default sizing of between 50-75% pot seems fine at first glance.

The issue with using this default turn bet sizing is that if you were to bet 7BBs and your opponent calls, the pot on the river is 24.5BBs and there are 38.5BBs in stacks remaining meaning a river shove would be an overbet of the pot.

The best way to maximize the value of your big hands and the fold equity of your bluffs is to bet much larger with both value hands and bluffs on the turn to set up a situation where stacks can easily get in on the river, even if that means betting slightly over the size of the pot on the turn.

Betting big (a slight overbet around 13BBs) is the best play.