Poker Strategy

Bluffing
Last week we looked at Hand Reading. Following on from that discussion we will now take a look at bluffing. Being able to hand read is vital for most bluffs, as one of the most important factors in deciding whether to bluff will be your assessment of the quality of your opponent’s hand. The weaker his hand the more likely he is to throw his hand away.

I like to categorise bluffs into two simple and discrete situations and handle each very differently. Firstly there are small bluffs. A small bluff is a small bet into a small pot. Typically you want to do this in pots where no–one has yet shown much interest. You aren’t representing any particular hand, you are asking if anyone else has a hand. This includes bets into un–raised pots from any position, or a continuation bet when you are the pre–flop raiser. These should be attempted as often as possible. These type of plays are very successful for a number of reasons. Firstly the chances are that no–one has much of a hand to contest the pot you with. Secondly most players don’t pay enough attention or care about small pots, and will just fold without expending any thought. When you bet most players will throw their hand away if they didn’t connect with the flop, never wondering what hand you have. You will have the most success with this if you can correctly judge when it is likely that no–one has much of a hand. So if there are two limper’s, its better to attempt a steal with a board of 23K rainbow, than J98 with 2 hearts.

The second type of bluff is the big bluff. This is when your opponent has in some way signalled that he has a hand, and despite this, you try and take him off it anyway. These are much more tricky and need to be approached carefully, and attempted rarely. There are a number of factors that I feel are important, and need to be in place before attempting a big bluff.

1. Your opponent’s hand must not be that strong. So if you think your opponent has AA, then a flop is K25 is not the flop to take him off it. Try a board of 789. In fact its not usually a good idea to try take someone off Aces.

2. our opponent must be capable of folding a strong hand if he thinks he is beaten. There are a lot of players who simply will never fold Aces after the flop. And then there are players who will fold bottom set if they feel they are beaten. Knowing your customer is paramount. Never assume a player is capable of folding until you have seen them do it.

3. Your hand should be clearly represented, and identifiable. A bluff has much more chance of success if there is an obvious hand like a flush that you can represent. Your line should make sense, and your line should be totally coherent. The hand you represent should tie in with your actions on earlier streets. Opponents will take note and call you more lightly if your hand makes no sense. Usually when something seems very strange about an opponents play they are either bluffing or have a monster.

4. You should be able to bet enough to make your opponent fold. It seems obvious, but make sure you have enough chips to make a bet against which it’s possible for your opponent to fold. This means that the earlier in a hand the better it is to bluff; as your opponent has future bets to worry about. Usually I will follow up a bet with a secondary bigger one in order to convince my opponents. Most opponents will be willing to call a single bet to see if their hand is good, but not two.

For an example, let’s say you call a raise with QJo, in position. The flop comes up TK2, with two hearts. Your opponent, who is tight, bets the flop. You call. The turn is a 5 of hearts. He bets. You raise, (as a bluff, remember you still only have Q high!). He calls after some pause. The river is a blank and you push all in for just more than the pot. This is an excellent bluff. You have managed the pot so that you can make a realistic looking bet on the river that is big enough to be called, and your hand looks exactly like a flush.

Be very careful of bluffing on the river after obvious draws miss. Even mediocre opponents will recognise this as a time where they are likely to be bluffed.