Once I have some idea how an opponent plays, there are players that I will reraise on the flop on a pure bluff every chance I get because I know they won't bet out on the flop with a monster and they won't call a big raise without one. Think about that for a second. Any time these players make a good sized bet on the flop they are simply putting money in the pot and begging you take it.
Other players will never call a check raise without a monster, but will usually bet when checked to. These poor players will lose piles of money when they have position on you if you just frequently check raise them on a bluff.
There are too many types of player to list here, but those two serve as examples of free money that many tight players don't pick up because they don't know much about bluffing. The key is learning how to actually represent a big hand and knowing what kind of pattern will really scare people.
The most common bluffing situation in no-limit Hold Em is the paired board on the flop. Everybody knows that the pot is usually for sale if the board is paired, and very few people will bet right out if they actually have flopped trips. That leaves us with a situation where a check raise will take down a good sized pot most of the time. Here's a quick example -
The game is 1/2 NLHE, ten handed.
Our hero holds 6
7 on the big blind and checks his big blind with two other players in the pot, both in middle position.The flop comes 2
8
8
and our hero checks.The first middle position player is timid and checks, but the second middle position opponent is known to be loose and aggressive so it's no surprise when he bets out $4 at the $7 pot.
Most players would be happy that they got a free look at the flop but they would muck their hand since they flopped nothing and don't want to be drawing dead against an 8 or an over pair. Fortunately our hero knows better, and realises that the likeliehood of the bettor having an 8 or an overpair are pretty low. The pot was unraised so an overpair is unlikely, and an aggressive player will usually check trips on the flop. A big hand is in fact the only thing that slows down most aggressive players.
Our hero knows that he can buy an $11 pot most of the time with a $10 investment. That makes the check raise an obviously correct play. Hero raises to $10, the bettor folds his 5
5 because he is sure he is beaten, and our hero takes down the pot with nothing.What our hero did there was just a simple example of how you can think about bluffing. You have to be careful that you are bluffing a player who has the ability to fold and you have to make sure you are correctly representing a big hand. What if our hero had bet out on the flop knowing that an opponent holding an 8 or an overpair is unlikely?
An aggressive player like the second MP player in our example will know that most people will check to him if they have flopped trips, so he will raise and our hero will be forced to fold.
Another key to bluffing is taking into account the size of the pot and the size of the stacks involved. If you go to far with a bluff you can lose a ton of money when your complex plan falls apart around you. If our hero bets out knowing that the MP player will raise and then he reraises he stands to lose a huge pot if the MP player chooses to play with him. The general rule that I use is this -
"The more complex your bluff the more certain you must be about the player you are against and the more convincing the bluff must be."
Players like TheBeat or NSXT2 or who run complex bluffs frequently are able to do so because they are very good at it, and even then they sometimes get burned paying off more money than they would like with a big hand. When you are starting to learn more complex bluffs you may want to watch some of the trickier players like Pete or Todd, but you don't want to try to emulate them until you are really sure of your ability and your opponents.
Now go out there and bluff somebody.
In other news things are going well at the 100k project (more internet traffic than we had expected this early) and lots of discussion have started about it all over the internet. As for me, I've been playing more tourneys on Stars and Party lately, doing well in the Steps and MTT's on Party especially.
We also have a new monthly freebie up on pokerfox.net.
I'll see you at the final table,
Fox
fox@pokerfox.net
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