Total bluffing

Bluffing is perhaps the most famous and most misunderstood aspect of poker. It has been a part of the popular lexicon almost as long as the game has existed. But, the actual mechanics and reality of bluffing are still completely alien to most people who have never played the game (as well as many who have).

Certain types of bluffs may be small or big, frequent or infrequent and you may find yourself semi-bluffing or on a stone-cold bluff. But what all bluffs have in common is your understanding of an opponent’s hand range and what they are likely to do with certain parts of it based on the board and your actions.

Hand ranges have been discussed in previous articles, so all that remains is for you to apply these skills in order to bluff and value bet at the right time and, with the right frequencies. We will look at bluffing street by street shortly. But, it is important to note that until the river you will rarely be on a pure bluff as your hand will have at least some way to improve (so technically you will be on a semi- bluff). On the river, you will always be either betting for value or as a bluff.

In practice, this makes for more creativity and risk taking in the early parts of a hand. Bluffing on the river is an expensive business in a no-limit format and so it is important the bluffs you make at that stage are built on your earlier actions in a hand and are well balanced.

STREETS AHEAD

Bluffing pre-flop largely consists of stealing the blinds and making re-steals against other players who have already raised. However, even the term semi- bluff is barely applicable at this stage as so much of a hand’s value is defined by the flop.

The blinds are of negligible worth compared to the overall image you convey, but once someone else enters the pot there is suddenly more money to go after and more incentive to semi-bluff by re-raising with hands like suited connectors, or re-stealing against players trying to isolate a limper.

This has become standard practice online (particularly in six-max games). Most players play aggressively pre-flop. So, if you open raise with a lot of hands and suspect players are re-stealing against you, then you may consider four-betting marginal hands some of the time in an attempt to re-resteal.

The flop
By now most people know that ‘continuation betting’ on the flop after a pre-flop raise is a mathematically sound move. This is probably the most obvious and frequent of all bluffs in modern day poker. However, whilst it is usually correct to do so 80-90% of the time, certain situations are more favourable than others.

For example, a flop like Q-6-2 rainbow has so little texture that it is ideal. Meanwhile, on a draw heavy flop like 10- J-Q suited you might just want to give up against some players if you miss. If you notice players who continuation bet close to 100% of the time you might also start bluff-raising or ‘floating’ them. And, you should certainly watch out for tougher players who are likely to do this to you and adjust accordingly.

The turn
The turn is the street that average players make the most mistakes on. Errors can range from giving up on hands too easily and allowing other players to bluff them or not betting their bigger hands strongly enough. If you play the turn aggressively with your big hands, your draws and a few bluffs, you will give opponents a hard time – although the correct frequencies will depend very much on your opponent and your image.

In terms of bluffing, this might mean continuing to bluff on the turn because your hand improved in some way (perhaps picking up a backdoor flush or straight outs), or a scare card or an overcard to the board came that might worry your opponent.

Also, most players fail to check-raise on the turn enough, and by doing this sometimes with big draws and made hands you will prevent your opponent from knowing whether you have a hand or not when you do check.

Remember, if you routinely check the turn after continuation betting the flop with no hand, you will quickly find players exploiting this flaw to win the pot. Likewise, if you check the turn and then try to bluff the river, good players will often pick you off. In most circumstances, the range of strong hands they would do this with is very small compared to those when they might try a last ditch bluff attempt.

The river
Assuming you get to the river, you will now have a good idea of whether your hand has showdown value, or whether you would need to bluff to win the pot. Against bad players you must always take into account their tendencies when considering bluffing. It goes without saying that you should never bluff a calling station.

However, against good players your goal at this stage is to bluff and value bet with frequencies that put your opponents in a tough spot. Assuming you play the turn well, you will often get to the river with a wide variety of hands. You need to consider at this stage what portion of your hands you would bet for value and others that are clearly not strong enough to bluff with in a profitable ratio.

For example, let’s say there is $500 in the pot. You have reached the river and you bet the same amount. Your opponent is getting 2/1 to call. If he calls every time and you bluff 25% of the time, while value-betting the rest, it’s a win-win scenario because you will a) win $500 three times and b) lose $1,000 only once. If your opponent folds every time, he is forfeiting a pot that should be his 25% of the time!