We continue our discussion of bluffing in limit hold'em by examining the following issues: Balancing your play, Being prepared, Knowing your image, Psychological factors (embarrassment, discouragement)
When we were children, our parents sat us down to tell us a story before bed each night. While some had ogres and some had magic, the lone unifying factor in all of them was quite simple: The plot made sense.
"No one can bluff in limit hold'em." How many times have you heard that? Do you believe it? While there may be a few limit hold'em games in which bluffing is too unlikely to work to even try, in general, bluffing can still increase your profits and separate you from the field.
When your opponent makes a bet and you call that bet, you are making an investment. And when you make an investment, you are looking to get a return on that investment. The question is: What do you get in return for your call?
An obvious time to run a bluff is when you are last to act and nobody has shown any strength. On the initial betting round, the last person to act is the big blind. When in this position, you should always be alert to the possibility of bluffing with a preflop raise when everyone who entered the pot limped in with a call.
The Harvard-based Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) continues its mission of promoting poker as an important educational tool with an ambitious project that will give students at schools with GPSTS chapters access to a free online poker curriculum.
In this column, I am going to discuss some of my favorite no-limit hold'em bluffing situations. But before I do, let's discuss bluffing in general terms. You need two things going for you in a possible bluff situation to make a bluff attractive. One of them is the table image of a tight player who does not bluff very often. In my case, this comes naturally as a result of not entering many pots.
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I was recently in a $215 Sunday Million tournament online. I had been doing well and maintaining an above-average stack of 19,000. But suddenly I lost a big all-in confrontation against a slightly smaller stack, and, just like that, I was down to only 2,000. The blinds were 300-600, and I had only two hands remaining before I would be forced to post the big blind.
Your opponent -- perhaps sensing weakness or perhaps taking leave of his senses -- pushes out a huge bet and dares you to call. If he has the hand he's supposed to have, you're crushed. But you think something is amiss and decide that this is it. You're going to take a stand. Just after you say, "Call," your opponent shakes his head and says, "You win," as he tosses his cards into the muck.
