Texas Holdem Bluff Tricks

Texas Holdem Bluff Trickster
Texas Holdem Bluffing
Texas Holdem Tricks And Tips
Texas Holdem Tricks

Texas Hold'em Bluffing. Guide to bluffing with your cards One of the most important arts to master in poker play is the art of bluffing. Here are some tips and tricks as to when and how you should attempt to practise this art! But remember, if you get to that these tricks then don't come crying to us if they don't work!
As a bluff – to get better hands to fold so we can win the pot with a poor holding. For example, you may be QJ on the A72 board to get hands such as non-paired Kings (KQ, KJ) to fold. As a semi-bluff – A semi-bluff is much like a natural bluff only that when we are called we will still have a good likelihood of winning the pot.

There are very few things in Texas Hold’em that feel better than correctly calling a big bet on the river with a weak hand. Successfully catching a bluff can both give you a confidence boost as well as make other players at the table less likely to try and bluff you in the future.

Unfortunately, the bluff is a move that is all to often overused and abused by beginner players, which in turn costs them a lot of money. Use this bluffing strategy to help you master the art of bluffing in Texas Hold'em.

However, to catch a bluff, you often have to make a fairly tough decision with a weak hand that really can’t beat much.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to make your calls more profitable. In this article we bring you three tips to help you make better decisions in these situations and successfully catch more bluffs when playing poker.

1. Always think in terms of ranges

One of the most important things to consider when trying to catch a bluff is how much logical sense your opponent’s actions make.

If you have a clear range advantage on a certain board texture and your opponent keeps betting into you, you might be in a situation to bluff catch. When someone’s betting into you without any fear, it would appear that they’re basically representing the nuts. However, in some spots, the story that they are trying to tell might not be very convincing, and this is where you should put on your bluff catching hat.

For example, if your opponent 3-bets you from the blinds and keeps firing multiple streets on very connected boards, what are they trying to say?

They are likely to 3-bet big pocket pairs and a strong range in general pre-flop, but would they fire three streets on a board of 7 8 9 J 2 with pocket Aces? Probably not, and that is why it is vital to put your opponent on a realistic range to make your final decision.

Reconstruct the hand in your head, think about pre-flop actions, their position at the table, and other important factors. How does all of this correspond with the texture of the board and their actions? If the story does not add up to a logical picture, you are likely to take that pot down even with a medium-strength hand.

2. Take advantage of blockers when making your decision

Blockers are another vital thing to consider when bluff catching. When you have a card that prevents your opponent from having the nuts and they’re still betting out as if they had the nuts, you might be in an excellent spot to pick off a big bluff with mere Ace high or a small pair.

Here’s an example: Let’s say the flop comes 5d 7d 3s and you c-bet with 6d 5s after raising from the button. Your opponent calls and the turn comes Qh. The action proceeds check-check, and the river brings a third diamond. Your opponent confidently fires a big bet of around 2/3 of the pot.

Since we’re holding the 6d, we know the opponent is just a bit less likely to have a flush, as we have one of the diamonds in our hand. Also, 6d blocks straight possibilities as well as a hand like 76.

With a big bet on the river, your opponent is representing a strong holding, but since we block a lot of those combinations, you have a great spot for bluff catching and can easily make the call.

3. Know your opponents

When trying to bluff catch, it is important to know your opponent well. Make sure to make your thin calls against players who have a propensity to bluff and to avoid hero calling in spots where other players are very unlikely to turn up air.

Even if their likely range doesn’t correspond with the story they’re telling and even if you’re holding blockers, you must have some discipline to give up against players who (almost) never bluff. This is especially true in passive live games, where my experience has been that many players call down against a nit, who is very unlikely to bluff, just because the math says to do so.

Aggressive poker is winning poker, but you must know your opponent.

— Jason G. (@JGoulet75) April 9, 2019

You’ll find much better spots against opponents, so there is absolutely no need to force the issue and call down players whose big river bets gravitate heavily towards the value range of the spectrum. Obviously, you will need some time and experience to identify such players, but when you do, these exploitative adjustments will help you boost your win rate.

An Example Bluff... Viewed from Both Sides

Learning how to bluff well is not a simple task, but players generally get practice bluffing early on in their poker development — sometimes out of necessity.

Finding yourself deep in a postflop situation without a good hand, you realize a bluff is your only way of winning a hand and fire away. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and by trial-and-error you learn what tends to work when bluffing and what does not.

Texas Holdem Bluff Trickster

Hopefully (eventually) you learn how to make your bluffs believable, with smart bet sizing and/or giving the appearance of logical 'lines' or sequences of action leading up to your bluffs. The well-made bluff comes after having established credibility, usually through 'telling' a believable 'story' that starts with your image and extends through the actions in a particular hand.

Let's walk through an example.

Having shown yourself to be a tight-aggressive player, you decide to raise from the button with and get a caller in the big blind.

You continue with a bet after the flop and are called. Then after the turn your opponent bets, you decide to raise with your big draws, and you get called again. The river is the , and when your opponent checks you don't wait long before confidently firing a two-thirds pot-sized bet as a bluff.

It's a credible story. You appear very likely to have the strong hand you're representing, and not just the ace-high you actually have.

Now imagine yourself on the other side of this situation. Say you're the one in the big blind with . You check-call the flop with second pair, then decide to lead on the turn only to get raised. You warily call that raise then check fifth street, then watch your opponent fire a big river bet.

Whether or not you are able to build up the nerve to call the bet, you should understand that holding on a board is what is called a 'bluff catcher.' That's a hand which by definition (probably) can only beat a bluff.

A player with a medium-strength hand on this river — hands like like , , — probably will check behind. Even players with stronger hands like two pair or a set might check, fearing the third diamond might have made you the flush you appeared to be chasing by calling the turn check-raise.

That leaves very strong hands (like a diamond flush) or bluffs (like busted straight or flush draws) as hands with which the player would bet. As you have a bluff catcher, you can call if you believe the bluff to be more likely than the very strong hand.

Three Necessary Criteria for Bluff Catching

Looking at this example, we can isolate the necessary elements that need to be in place in order to call a bluff with such a 'bluff catcher' hand:

your opponent has to be capable of bluffing
your opponent's bet size makes it inviting to call
you have to have a hand that can actually beat a bluff

First off, your opponent has to be capable of bluffing. If the player falls into that small category of never-bluffers, or even if the player has demonstrated extreme tightness and a seeming unwillingness to get out of line, you needn't bother talking yourself into making a thin call with a subpar hand. He's not firing that river with something your second pair, weak kicker can beat.

Typically you're going to target loose-aggressive players who are more than willing to bet and raise with subpar hands — or nothing at all — when calling with a bluff catcher.

Secondly, you need to consider carefully the amount of the bluff and whether your opponent's bet size makes it inviting to call.

If you have some history with the opponent and have recognized any patterns with bets or bluffs, use that information to help you evaluate the bet amount. If the player routinely bets big amounts (i.e., a large percentage of the pot) with strong hands, a big bet will be less inviting to call, but if the player likes to make smallish value bets and then bets big, that might indicate a bluff.

You can also use pot odds to help make this decision. In our sample hand above a player made a river bet of two-thirds the pot — let's say a bet of $60 into a $90 pot. That would mean you have to call $60 to win $150, which is pot odds of 2.5-to-1.

If you estimate your opponent is bluffing more than once every 2.5 times this situation arises, a call would be profitable from a mathetmatical point of view. (See '10 Hold'em Tips: Pot Odds Basics' for more on this topic.)

Finally, you can be almost 100% sure your opponent is bluffing, but you have to have a hand that can actually beat a bluff in order to call.

Bluff catchers tend to be weak pairs (if you think your opponent has no better than ace-high), or even sometimes ace-high (if you think your opponent has king-high or worse). But if the board shows and you have , even if you know your opponent is bluffing you can't reasonably call. (You could bluff raise in such a spot, however.)

Bottom line — if the 'story' your opponent is trying to tell isn't adding up and you suspect a bluff, and the situation meets all of the criteria for bluff catching, consider making that call.

Texas Holdem Bluffing

Be smart, though, and not overly paranoid that everyone is bluffing you on those rivers. The fact is, whether playing live or online poker, most players bluff very little. With many opponents you're going to find their bets and raises — especially the big ones — often are not bluffs but made for value.

Also in this series...

Texas Holdem Tricks And Tips

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Texas Holdem Tricks

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