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The Powerful Semi-Bluff
While bluffing can sometimes be one of the most thrilling plays in poker, it can also be one of the scariest. Especially for cash game players who are risking real money when they put their chips into the middle with nothing but air. Semi-bluffing can provide many of the same rewards that bluffing can, but with the added benefit that you still may be able to make a winning hand even if you get called. Semi-bluffing means that you are betting with a hand that would currently lose at showdown, but the hand also has the potential to improve.
For example let’s say you are holding the 10H and JH and the flop falls 7H, 8H and A-D. Even though you are technically behind if you bet, your hand still has a chance of winning at showdown if you catch a heart or a 9. Even better, you could win the pot immediately if your opponents aren’t carrying an Ace.
You can semi-bluff your hand either in or out of position, and each option offers different risks and benefits. The first benefit of semi-bluffing from out of position is that sometimes by leading out, you can take the pot right away by forcing your opponents to fold. In cases where your opponent does not fold, a semi-bluff can work as a defensive bet. You take control of the game by enticing your opponent to call for a smaller amount that he would have eventually bet on his own. Also, semi-bluffing from out of position can be very deceptive since your opponents will often give you credit for having a made hand rather than some kind of draw. If your opponent raises your semi-bluff on the flop, you may want to call and reevaluate your hand on the turn, but occasionally you can continue your semi-bluff and put in a big re-raise. You can do this either when your draw is very unlikely to hit or when you suspect your opponent does not have a huge hand. If you think your opponent is very strong, you can check-call hoping to make your hand on the turn. If you think he’s weak, you can lead out with another semi-bluff on the turn.
Your semi-bluffing options are slightly different when you are in position. In this case, betting your hand when your opponents check to you can often be enough to just take the pot down right away. Remember though that by doing so you are re-opening the betting and giving a tricky opponent the chance to check-raise you into folding a hand that could have improved with a free card. With this in mind, take careful note of who you are up against in the hand. If you are up against a weak or predictable opponent you can semi-bluff without much fear. Against a tricky or more aggressive opponent, then you need to think about whether or not your hand can stand up to a check-raise before you bet.
Preying on the Tight Players
If a loose player gets involved in too many hands pre-flop, a tight player doesn’t play enough. That’s how you can tell the difference between your opponents at the table. This can make determining their range of hands fairly easy as tight players are often unwilling to play with anything less than a premium holding. Because tight players are opposite of loose players when it comes to their playing strategies, it only makes sense that you will need to alter your approach when playing hands against these tight players.
When you play tighter against a loose opponent, you stand to profit by playing more aggressively against tight opponents. During pre-flop play this means that you should raise more hands against tight opponents. For example, if you have an opponent in the blinds that is playing really tight, and you are in late position, you will probably want to raise every single time. If you see an opponent who likes to limp into the pot with marginal hands, like Q-10 suited or a medium pocket pair, you can often push them off their hand by offering a pre-flop raise. By the same token, if you see a tight player who doesn’t defend his big blind with anything other than a big hand, don’t be afraid to open up your game and steal the blinds by raising pre-flop. Many players like to raise with weak hands like 10-7 or 6-4 in these spots rather than mediocre hands like Q-J or 10-9, because they are easier to get away from if they are re-raised. If by chance you do call a raise from a tight player while holding a mediocre hand, be careful if you flop top pair and your tight opponent is putting in a lot of money. It’s probable that your opponent has you beat with an over-pair or a set, or even with a better kicker.
Another key to this strategy is to watch how a tight player reacts once they become involved in hand before the flop. Some tight players will open-raise the pot with a good hand, but fold to a re-raise because they are not willing to risk their chips with anything less than a premium hand. Other tight players will become ‘sticky’ once they’ve opened a pot and their stubbornness will force them to not want to lay down their hand to anything less than a huge re-raise. Only re-raise tight players who will show that they can lay down a hand that they really wanted to play.
After the flop the best way to profit against tight opponents is to bet or raise them off their hands or in other words, bluff them! While this is a very effective play against a tight and timid opponent, you need to be careful when you are facing a tight and talented player. The tight and talented player is very skilled in trapping aggressive opponents and inducing them into bluffing off their chips in bad times.
As the game gets short-handed, you will need to become a little more careful against some tight opponents. Some of those tight players will not be able to adjust to a shorter table, which means that you can continue to play aggressively against them without fear. But the talented tight player will be changing up their game as the situation changes and they are likely to loosen up their ranges, just as you are. Pay close attention to these players and exercise caution if they start to play back at you more frequently in short-handed situations.
Finally, remember that position is always your friend. If there is an all-in raise during a particular hand, make sure you are the one making it! Where a loose player will often fold because they have a weak hand, tight players are likely to fold in these spots because they fear they have an inferior hand.
Play the Player!
There are professional poker players that have claimed that you do not need to be a math magician to be extremely good at poker. Sure, playing the percentages certainly works to your advantage, but what good is that if there is always another player trying to knock you off your hand when you actually have the better percentages; you just do not know it. That’s when being able to read your opponents and not the cards come into play.
Being great at poker means being more than just the type of player who only plays the best of cards. The crushers are great, but they usually don’t come as often as we’d like. The best of players know how to play with terrible cards. You have to learn to prey on the weak and take advantage of the strong. You have to learn how to bluff someone off a decent hand and hone your skills at tricking your opponents into thinking that you have the worse hand. Playing your opponent is just as important, if not more than learning the math.
Not only do you have to think about the strength of your hand and your table position, but you have to realize that any poker player with experience is probably thinking the same way you are. Whittle your way down to the facts you do know about your opponent since you can’t see their hand.
What is their table position? Did they call, bet or raise pre-flop? Are they confident when they bet or are they making a show of it? How did they react when they looked at their cards? How big is their stack or bankroll? Learn to notice when a player is on tilt and cannot control their emotions. Keeping alert, focusing and remembering things that go on around you on the felt and even online, will help you to learn more about the player you are facing off with.
Bluffing is very hard to master and if you are not confident you are better off trying to spot signs of weakness from your opponents. If you’re playing online poker, being able to spot calling stations is an important trait to have. It’s sometimes easier to bluff a good player than a bad one because a good one will fold two pair when a bad one will call you down with a pair of Queens with a five kicker.
There is really no point in bluffing a terrible poker player who is a calling station because he is going to call you down all the way to the river. In a lot of cases you need to have the ability to categorize the type of players your opponents are very quickly, then use their strengths and their weaknesses against them
All In with a K4?
Usually late night television holds no appeal for me, especially since we’ve relocated to Europe. I couldn’t sleep, and didn’t feel like logging on to my favorite online poker room, so when I happened upon a re-play of last November’s Partouche Poker Tournament telecast, I decided to sit down, have a brandy and watch again how this one turns out.
The Partouche Poker Tour is the biggest orgainized poker event in France. With over 2,460 ‘Satellite’ tournaments, it was fun watching the winners of the second level ‘Super Satellites’ take a seat in the Partouche Main Event. With a €1.3 million prize, the tour ended with the final heads up match at the beautiful Palm Beach Casino in Cannes.
The champ, Vanessa Selbst was seated at the final table with six other players when I settled in to watch. I quickly became fascinated with Ibrahim Raouf, who went in under the gun with 4S-6C. Totally bluffing. I could not get over his ability to just crack his opponent’s tough veneer with a long hard stare, making them wonder what he had, if they could beat him. He was so good at it! And sure enough, after calling, then betting, then raising and even re-raising, he got his opponents, one by one to drop and fold leaving him to rake in the huge €250,000 pot with nothing in his hand. Finally after the cards were re-shuffled and the next hand was about to be dealt he looks over at the last one to fold and says, “Yeah, I didn’t have a thing.”
As the remaining players one by one put all-in and lost, it was down to Selbst and Raphael Kroll. Heads up play was mediocre at best with Kroll taking down the first few pots. On the fifth hand Selbst picked up pocket queens and Kroll had a K4. She opened and bet high and then Kroll went all-in. All in? With a K4? I just couldn’t believe it. A K4? Pre-flop. His face showed it all as the cards were flipped over. He knew it. He had three outs, the remaining kings. The odds were against him this time.
I went to bed wondering why the hell he went all-in with a K4 at the final table with €1.3 million at stake. I’ll bet you that even he doesn’t know.