The Five Best Bluffs In Poker

Last month, we discussed the Five Worst Bluffs in Poker. If you have successfully rid your game of these mistakes, then you've taken a step forward. This month, we will discuss what I consider to be the Five Best Bluffs in Poker, and if you can incorporate these into your repertoire of poker moves, it should enhance your presence at the table and your stack at the end of the night.

First, a disclaimer. Some tables are easier to bluff at than others. If the stakes are low enough, or the players are green enough, you may be at a table that you should never bluff at. But if they are high enough so that players think twice about calling big bets, and at least some of the players are smart enough to know when they are beat, then you've got some bluffing opportunities. Maybe not against everybody, but against the players who are willing to fold. In the long run, these will be the players with most of the money. Here are a few moves to try at them:

1. The Check-Raise. I like this one, especially on the flop when I'm out of position. Let's say that there are two or three of you in a raised pot, and the flop is checked around to the player in last position. For some players, this is an automatic bet, especially if it is he who raised before the flop. He may have a hand, or he may bet with nothing. If you come back and raise him three or four times his bet, the odds are very good that you can take down the pot right there, even if you have absolutely nothing yourself.

I don't like to run this play against more than one or two opponents. With more than three or four players seeing the flop, the odds are pretty good that one of the other checkers is also trapping, and will call your raise or even raise you back. This move works best when it is used against a player who is merely taking a stab at the pot, hoping to take it down.

2. The Semi-Bluff. This is no longer a terribly sophisticated play, but I include it here because it is one of the most useful bluffs in poker. I'm sure that you've heard this before, but it bears repeating. If you call, you can only win if you finish with the best cards. If you raise, you can also win if your opponent folds. If you semi-bluff, you can also win if one of your outs comes home. This third element is why the semi-bluff is so effective. Even if your opponent reads you like a book, you can still win if the turn or river save you.

There are two dangers with this play. One is doing it too often, especially when you don't act the same way when you have a hand. Imagine if your opponent ALWAYS checks when he has a hand, and ALWAYS tosses in a pot sized bet or raise when he is on a draw. After awhile, you will have a read on him that will benefit you when his outs don't come in for him. Well, don't be this player. Bet your draws aggressively but check-call with them too. And don't be afraid to take a free card when it is given to you.

The second danger is treating any draw, no matter how slim, as a semi-bluff. If you raise with bottom pair and no kicker, you are bluffing, not semi-bluffing. If you open with an inside straight draw, you are bluffing, not semi-bluffing. In my opinion, you need at least eight outs before your bluff rises to the level of the semi-bluff. If you have less than eight, you can still raise, but know that you are bluffing, not semi-bluffing.

3. The Scare Card. Another time for a bluff is when a scare card hits the board. You are calling your opponent's small flop and turn bets down, and then when a third diamond hits the river, you come out swinging with a big bet or a raise. Your opponent will put you on a flush and will likely fold his hand. The other time I like to use this one is when the board pairs on the turn and it is the second or bottom pair. My opponent figures I called with second pair, then got lucky on the turn when the perfect card came for me. I don't show him that I was on a straight draw the whole time.

This move works especially well against better players and pros who have a talent for getting away from calling bets when they are beat. They won't give you credit for making this play, so they will feel good about making a tough laydown against you.

Conversely, this play doesn't work at all against weaker players who don't have such a talent. If you see one of your opponents making a questionable call against a scary board, cross him off your list of candidates for this bluff. If he can do it once, he'll do it again, especially if he is ahead in chips. Make a note to bet heavy when you make your hand, and find somebody else to pick on when you don't.

4. The Big River. For this move, you check and call all the way down to the river, while you assess how much your opponent likes his hand. If his hand is good but not great, you may be able to make a huge raise on the river to take down the pot. You are representing a trap -- that you've been waiting for him the whole time, and now that the river is here, you are finally going to make him pay. But be sure to be enough to sell it. It should be the size of the pot at least.

Again, this works best with better players, those who will give you credit for slow-playing a monster. If a player demonstrates that he'll call a big bet with a mediocre hand, then find somebody else to try this one. Mr. Calling Station will just call you down too.

The other thing for this move is that you need to make sure that river bet is significant, and that your opponent is not already pot committed. If there is already $400 in the pot, and your opponent only has another $100 in front of him, this is not the time for a Big River bet. If there is only $10 in the pot by the time you get to the river, same story. Even if you make a double-pot-sized bet, your might get called just out of curiosity. Make sure that you are forcing him to risk a significant number of chips in order to call you. Give him every reason to fold.

5. Blind Steal. This one might surprise you. It's not terribly creative. It's not terribly profitable. It can even get you into trouble from time to time, when you find yourself in a huge pot with a lousy hand and are wondering how you got there. But mark my words. IF YOU WANT TO WIN A TOURNAMENT, YOU MUST STEAL BLINDS. Unless you can somehow catch a run of cards early, blind stealing is the only way that you are going to be able to play a solid, tight-aggressive game and also stay ahead of the blind increases. Otherwise, you will find yourself in an uncomfortable but all-too-familiar position in the third or fourth level of the tournament: needing to win the next pot you enter in order to have any chance of surviving.

The basics of blind stealing are known to anyone with a decent amount of tournament experience. The best positions to steal from are on or near the button, when there are fewer players behind you who might catch a hand that they can call you with. Unless your table is unusually tight at the start of the tournament, wait until the blinds have gone up a few times before attempting too many steals. If everyone has 10000 in chips in front of them, and the blinds are 25 and 50, you aren't going to win very many uncontested hands by raising to 150, which is only 1.5 percent of their stack. But if you wait until later, when the blinds are 200 and 400, you those behind you will probably think twice about calling your 800 chip raise, since they are risking twelve percent of their stacks to see the flop.

The other thing about stealing blinds is that you shouldn't be afraid to get away from your hand if you are caught. If someone comes over the top, fold. If the flop misses you, and somebody bets into you, fold. Both of these are very strong moves, and are probably being made by some very strong hands, so the correct move is to get out of the way. Yes, you may appear weak, but you will also be able to keep your chips. And before long you will have a hand to raise with, and your opponent will not know what hit him.

The Art of the Bluff is less about art than about putting yourself in the position of your opponent, and making him think he is beat. Who and when, how much and how often depends on the table you are sitting at. But if you can create a balanced attack of all five of these bluffs, you can find away to win, even when the cards aren't coming.

Good luck at the tables.

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