The continuation bet is a short-handed player’s best friend, but in limit games it can be a little tricky because your foe is often getting the right price to call with next to nothing – a problem when you’re in there making a continuation bet with nothing!

To solve this problem, consider skipping the continuation bet on the flop, and making it on the turn instead. Say you’ve raised in position pre-flop and now face one opponent on the flop. The pot contains either five or five-and-a-half small bets, depending on the position of the blinds.

If your opponent checks and you bet, he has a very attractive price to call, especially if he rates you to make an automatic continuation bet no matter what cards you hold. He can even be calling with Ace-high – not as a draw but as the best hand! Of course, this works both ways: with pot odds of 5/1 or 5.5/1, you only have to win better than 20 percent of the time in order for your continuation bet to be a profitable play.

But there’s a better way to pick up an uncontested pot here. Simply check behind him on the flop and bet behind on the turn. Now instead of offering 5/1 odds, you’re offering only 5/2, or 2.5/1. Now, draws don’t have the right price to call and weak hands can easily lose the stomach for a fight, since the price of conflict is double what it would have been on the flop.

Use this play in particular if an undercard hits the board on the turn. Even if the undercard hit your opponent’s hand, he can’t be sure that you didn’t check something like middle or bottom pair on the flop, which your foe’s apparent weakness has now emboldened you to bet.

You can also use this line of play when an overcard comes down on the board – perhaps you can represent that Ace as exactly the card you were looking for – but definitely plan on making this delayed continuation bet on the turn any time an undercard or other random brick comes down.