Team Full Tilt

Beginners come to poker thinking that the bluff has one simple purpose: To take pots when you don’t have a hand that can win at showdown. In No-Limit Hold ‘em, however, the bluff can be used in many different ways. As a recent tip by Huck Seed pointed out, a good player can use the threat of a bluff to force an opponent into making a very bad call.

For this tip, I thought I’d show another way you can use the bluff to your advantage. Using this technique, you’ll neither be bluffing nor threatening to bluff, but rather, you’ll be convincing an opponent to bluff in a situation where you almost certainly have the best hand.

Say you’re playing a game of No-Limit Hold ‘em and you raise in middle position with Kh-Qh. You’re called by two players – one behind you and one in the blind. You’re thrilled to see the flop: 2h-7h-Th. You flopped a flush. The big blind checks to you and you bet. (Note that I highly recommend betting in this sort of situation. Betting the made hand often does more to disguise the strength of your holding than slow playing does.)

Your bet is called by the late position player. What’s he calling with? Maybe he has a Ten or the Ah. The turn is a blank, the 3c. You bet again, and once again are called. Now the river is another blank, the 4d, making the board 2h-7h-Th-3c-4d. What’s your play?

On the river you should consider checking – but not because you’re worried that your opponent has a better hand. Rather, since your opponent called on the river, you have to consider what he may have. It’s hard to bluff on three consecutive streets, and most players won’t launch that third bullet. So, after calling you on the flop and turn, your opponent may look at something like top pair and give up, thinking that you must have him beat if you’re willing to fire at this pot three times. Or, if he only has the Ah, he’ll have no choice but to fold. Either way, there’ll be essentially no way for you to get any value out of the hand by betting.

If you check, however, you let your opponent stab at the pot. If he’s got just the Ah, he may be inclined to see your check as a sign of weakness. He’ll fire at the pot in desperation, hopeful that he can force a fold. Then you’ll call and take a nice pot.

Remember, your opponent’s broken draws offer great opportunities for you to induce bluffs. When you have a hand and you appear to be up against a draw that doesn’t get there by the river, you stand to make the most by checking to your opponent, who can then do his best to pick up the pot by betting. It’s a great technique, and yet another way you can use the bluff to your advantage.

David Grey

I play in some of the biggest cash games in the world. Usually, these games are loaded with pros – folks who know the intricacies and advanced strategies of pretty much every poker game. We normally play a mix of games that can include Hold ‘em, 7-Stud, Omaha, and one or more of the Hi/Lo variations. Most of the time, we play with a fixed-limit betting structure.

In a recent session, I had a stretch where I was pretty card dead, so I spent most of my time folding. To my knowledgeable opponents, it must have appeared that I was playing especially tight. Then in a game of 7-Stud, I was dealt an Ace as my up-card. The bring-in bet had been raised and I re-raised.

Then, two top-rate pros with no more than their antes in the pot called my re-raise. There are only a couple of hands that might justify their calls. However, as the hand proceeded with me as the aggressor, it became clear that the callers of my third-street re-raise didn’t have much at all. One held three unconnected hearts, the other had a middle pair with no kicker.

What were these guys thinking? It’s hard to know, but my guess is that one of them let his desire to gamble get the better of him. Though that can pay dividends in well-chosen spots, this wasn’t one of them. The other might have thought he could outplay me later in the hand.

In the end, neither of their strategies makes much sense. I made it expensive enough that it was a lousy spot to gamble, and given that I’ve declared that I have a pair of aces, there’s little chance that I’m going to get bluffed out of the pot.

I think this hand highlights a couple of the mental traps that sometimes snag advanced players. As players improve, they inevitably see more opportunities for profit, and thus, see potential in a greater number of hands. But it’s a slippery slope, and a player can easily lose the long view and convince himself that he can make any starting hand work out.

This just isn’t the case – especially when playing fixed-limit games. Even at the highest levels, profitability in limit poker is largely determined by a player’s ability to choose the right starting hands. If you fail in this regard or somehow lose your discipline, it’s nearly impossible to recover. Fancy plays and good decisions on later streets cannot overcome early-hand mistakes. If you’re throwing money into a pot when you shouldn’t, you’re going to lose money. There’s no way around it.

If you find yourself in a stretch where things aren’t going especially well, take a step back and make sure your hand selection is all it ought to be. Review the previous tips from the other Full Tilt Poker pros. Jennifer Harman has written on hand selection in Stud-8, Omaha-8, Razz,and Perry Friedman has written about third street decisions in 7-Stud.

Always remember that in limit poker, hand selection is the foundation for your entire game. You can’t build a solid game on a weak foundation.

Huckleberry Seed

Deception is a vital tactic in poker. Usually, when a player talks about a deceptive play, he’s referring to a bluff – a time when he represented a hand of greater value than the one he held. But this isn’t the only deception available in poker – not by a long shot. If you study your opportunities thoroughly, you can use the threat of a bluff to engage in another type of deception, one in which you’re trying to convince an opponent that you are bluffing when, in fact, you have a great hand.

Say you’re playing in a No-Limit cash game and things are going well. You’ve been playing actively and aggressively. You’ve been firing at a lot of pots, using a combination of good cards and well-timed small bluffs to pick up a number of them. To your tablemates, it seems as if you’re trying to capture every chip on the table. They’re starting to grow suspicious and feel you’re getting greedy.

With the table in this mindset, you call a middle position raise from the big blind. You’re holding modest cards – 6d-8d. The flop comes 7c-4h-Qs. You now have a gutshot straight draw and check. You’re opponent bets half the pot and you call, feeling that if you hit, you can win a big pot. The turn is the Tc. Now you have a double gutshot draw – any 5 or 9 will make a straight.

At this point, put out a large bet. If your opponent holds Jacks or Ace-King, he’ll likely fold. If he’s got Aces or Kings, he’ll probably call. And, if so, you’ll know he holds a good hand that he’s willing to defend.

The river brings a 9, completing your straight. Now you can use you’re aggressive image to your advantage. Move all-in, even if the bet is two, three or four times the size of the pot. To your opponent, it’s bound to look like a bluff. Your bet will seem ridiculously large and impulsive. If you had the nuts, he’d reason, you’d bet smaller, trying to get some value. He’ll look at his big pocket pair, feeling that he needs to make a stand against your relentless play. This deceptive play where you’re actually representing a bluff will give you a chance to win a huge pot.

If your opponent folds, you’ll want to make a note. You’ll know he folded a big hand and might be willing to make other lay downs in the future. But, you don’t want to push this guy too hard. If you force him to make two or three big lay downs, he’s sure to call you down later. When he’s reached that state of mind, make sure you have a big hand the next time you play a pot together.

No-Limit poker offers some great opportunities for deception. As you develop your game, look for spots where bluffs and the threat of bluffs can win you big pots.

Howard Lederer

In the middle and later stages of tournaments, there are often times when you’re forced to make a pretty big commitment on a relatively weak holding. These are uncomfortable spots because you never want to risk a large percentage of your chips with a mediocre hand. Things get even more difficult when you’re playing from the blinds and out of position.

For example, say you’re playing late in a tournament. The blinds are $500 and $1,000, and there’s a $100 ante. You’re in the small blind with $18,000. It’s folded around to the button, an aggressive player who raises frequently in late position. He has $30,000 in his stack and he raises to $3,500. You look at your cards and see Ad-9s.

You know that A-9 isn’t a great hand, but you can’t ignore it in this situation. First off, given your opponent’s history, he may very well be raising with a hand that is far worse than yours. In fact, in this spot, he could very well have two rags. Another consideration is that there are a lot of chips in play. Between the blinds, antes, and your opponent’s raise, you stand to pick up over $5,000 in chips if you can take down this pot, which would be a nice addition to your short stack.

So, you’re probably going to want to play this hand. But what’s the best action?

At first, it might seem that calling is a reasonable course, as it would keep you from getting overly committed on this marginal hand. But calling has some pretty big downsides. With a hand like A-9, you’re usually not going to like the flop very much. In fact, you’ll fail to make as much as a pair about two-thirds of the time. If you do flop a pair of 9s, how are you going to proceed if the flop also has an over card? Even on an Ace-high flop, you’ll have a tough time knowing if your hand is good.

What’s more, if you miss the flop completely, you leave yourself vulnerable to being outplayed. It’s going to be very hard to bet if the flop contains three cards that don’t help your hand. If you check, your opponent will likely make a continuation bet, and you’ll be hard-pressed to continue, even though Ace-high might be good.

In spots like this, your best move is to press an edge while you have it – before the flop. Re-raise all-in pre-flop. Your opponent probably won’t have a hand that he can call with and, if he does, you’ll have plenty of outs. You still have about a 25% chance against AK, for example. Not good, but not dead.

The important thing to keep in mind is that, in the later stages of a tournament, you don’t want to make many decisions after the flop when you have a medium-strength hand like Ace-middle kicker or middle pocket pair, and you’re playing out of position. Put your chips in while you think you have the best of it, and hope for the best. If you let these marginal but good situations pass you by, you might regret it later when your stack has been whittled down even further.