Most poker players would suggest that the size of the continuation bet should be in proportion to your pot size in such a way that you would have good odds. What this means is that you would want to bet an amount that is as small as possible to have an overlay against the opponents. However, you wouldn’t want to bet very little to give the opponents the odds to improve or draw. It is said that if you bet one half and two thirds of the pot size, you would maximize the continuation bet value by giving the best possible overlay on the bet. Your goal should be to find good balance for your continuation bets.
Make a logical decision
What most poker star people do not understand about continuation bets is that they cannot really be examined and evaluated in vacuum. Rather than focusing on the hands, quite a lot of players end up focusing on how they can maximize the value given the chances that they would miss and then fold on the flop. When putting a continuation bet, you cannot just consider your bet profitability based on the number of times the opponents fold. Instead, you should also consider what would happen if your opponents continue. Those hands on which your opponents continue are always more important than the ones they fold on.
In order to be really successful, you should think about the broader perspective and use continuation bets as a part of the larger puzzle. You would want to put your opponents in tough spots when they would continue after the flop rather than maximizing your missed flop value. You would want the later streets for every hand to be easier and higher value for you since they would offer you better expected value than the continuation bet.
The goal of continuation bets
The goal of continuation bets is to maximize the expected value of the hand and what this means is often betting more and sometimes even betting larger than the value of the pot. One of the most important things to consider is that the continuation bets should be similar size for similar situations. For the flop, your goal should be to keep your hand hidden from the opponents for longer. This would make your opponents misread more and you would get better advantage.
Some of the things that you should think about when making continuation bets is flop texture. The larger bets would be for the wetter boards and the smaller bets would be for the drier boards. You would want to change your bet accordingly. The stack size is also an important factor to consider, your own stack as well as your opponents. It would be your goal to have the option to bet flop, turn and then river if you are a preflop raiser, whether you are value betting or bluffing for your entire stack. You would want to have the option to size the river bets and keep them larger than the stacks of the opponents.