CHAPTER 04 BLUFFING

“When I’m bluffing...I don’t really care if they call me or not.

I’ve already made my decision. It doesn’t matter to me.”

CHAPTER REVIEW

B luffing is an integral part of poker: If you’re not

trying to convince people that your hand is better than it
actually is, then you’re only playing half of the game (a poor
The river is the . You check, and your opponent bets. You
shove the rest of your stack.

strategy overall). If you’re a player who never bluffs, getting In this spot you didn’t consider that you have a capped range
value for your good hands will be tough, if only because your and no possible value hands that want to take this line.
opponents will know that you always have a good hand. , , and would all three-bet preflop. There
Bluffing is a way to trick your opponents into tripping up. are also no five-card hands possible, so you can only seriously
represent third set at best. This is a ham-fisted approach
typical of novice players who have yet to learn about
TABLE TALK hand ranges.
DOES THE BLUFF ADD UP?

When executing a bluff on the river, you must always have a A great time to make a bluff is when you are holding a
clear expectation of which better hands your opponent will blocker in your hand, or a card that helps make up some of
fold. This is highly player-dependent, and you must be sure of the strongest hands in the game. Imagine that you hold the
your analysis because your actions on both the flop and turn ace of a possible flush. This opens up an opportunity to bluff,
affect your perceived range and bluffing randomly is a recipe knowing that your opponent may be susceptible to some pres-
for disaster. Attempting a bluff representative of a specific sure because they can never have the nuts. When a blocker
hand that would normally be ruled out by a previous action is is in your possession, the number of strong hands that your
a fast way to blow up your strategy. opponent can hold is reduced. Mathematically this makes
your bluff more likely to succeed and more profitable overall.
Consider this example of bluffing gone wrong because the
story doesn’t add up: Your opponent opens on the You should always be aware of how many chips your oppo-
button, and you call. Effective stack sizes are 100 big blinds. nents have before the start of a hand, but this is of particular
importance when you’re considering bluffing. If your oppo-
The flop comes . You check, and your opponent nent is almost out of chips and the pot is large, you have no
bets. You call. fold equity—the pot odds on offer will be so attractive that it’s
unreasonable to expect your bluff will succeed. For example,
The turn is the . You check, and your opponent bets. consider a short-stacked player who calls an open raise and a
You call. flop c-bet and now only has a chip stack measuring one-third

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of the pot. If they have any kind of made hand or a draw, comes. Phil’s check-call ticks all the boxes for a flush draw
even ace-high, they are unlikely to ever fold to any future bets in his opponent’s eyes, making this an ideal way to balance
because the pot odds are so good. his range.

In a live setting, the rules allow you to ask for an accurate chip Phua folds.
count. If the player insists on remaining silent, then the dealer
will take care of this for you. If you’re playing cash games The turn is the . Phil leads the turn as planned.
online, take note when an opponent starts the hand with less Newey folds.
than the maximum buy-in (usually 100 big blinds). It’s sound
advice to always have the maximum chips stack possible to If Newey had called on the turn to reassess his situation on
be able to put the maximum pressure on weaker opponents. the river, Phil would have based his next action on many
If a player does not have the auto top-up function enabled, different factors. These would include how Newey had played
chances are they’re a novice and probably a poor target for a flush draws previously, how aggressively he had been playing
bluff beyond a continuation bet. recently, and any physical read from how he called.

Wet boards—a texture that offers many possible draws and Phil warns that this is not a play to be made at every opportu-
fits many made hands from your opponent’s range, like two nity, and checking the turn is more standard.
pair—require added caution. The situations where a bluff is a
reasonable play also change slightly. If you’re already betting Hand Review:
bluffing and a scare card comes (a scare card being a card Tom Dwan limps and sets off a chain of five more limpers,
that completes a draw and changes the board considerably), with Phil overlimping in the small blind with .
this may be an excellent opportunity to bluff. For example, if
the turn or river brings four to a straight on the board, it’ll be The flop comes . Phil bets. Patrik Antonius calls
difficult for your opponent to call with two pair when so many with , and David Benyamine calls with .
better hands are possible. But the most important factor
when executing a bluff here is who you are playing against. With two callers, Phil thinks it likely that one has a king, while
Beginners will often never fold two pair or better regardless the other has a flush draw.
of what the board looks like, and you don’t want to bluff that
kind of player. The turn is the , giving Benyamine a flush. Phil and
Benyamine both check, and Antonius bets. Phil and
Hand Review: Benyamine both call.
Phil opens , Paul Phua three-bets with , and
Paul Newey cold-calls with . Phil makes a stan- Phil correctly reads that Benyamine is likely to have a
dard call. flush here, and Antonius a king with a better kicker due to
the action.
The flop comes .
The river is the .
Phil and Phua both check. Newey bets almost the size of
the pot. Phil assesses that Antonius is unlikely to have a full house
because he wouldn’t usually limp with those hands. Coupled
Phil’s read on Newey’s range is that sets are possible, but a with Phil’s correct assessment that Benyamine is likely to have
made straight is unlikely. Hands such as and a flush, Phil goes ahead and turns a strong hand into a bluff
also make sense. by leading into the pot.

Phil calls with a pair and an open-ended straight draw. When Phil would suggest using this strategy more often, seeing as
he makes this call, he does so with a plan for the turn, which how it’s pretty effective. Weak players usually try to see a
is to bet some of his made hands and to bluff when a spade

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15 CHAPTER 04: BLUFFING
MASTERCLASS
cheap showdown if they have any kind of made hand when it a call, while others will see it as an attempt to win the pot and
would be a more profitable line to bluff. never fold. You must know who you are playing against when
making moves such as these.
Antonius and Benyamine both fold.
Hand Review:
Phil ably capitalizes on these rare strategies by remaining Phil opens pocket nines, and Brian Altman three-bets
alert and focused at all times. In three-handed pots, the . Phil calls.
ranges are usually more clearly defined, meaning there’s an
opportunity for the savvy player to squeeze out extra profit The flop comes down .
instead of taking a more passive and less profitable action.
Phil checks, and Altman bets. Phil calls.

The turn is the . Both players check.

Phil doesn’t usually plan a triple-barrel bluff on the flop
because there’s almost never enough information available. The river is the . Phil checks.
Instead he prefers to reassess what his best plan for the river
will be on the turn. The plan will change again depending on Phil thinks that his check-call on the flop was probably the
which cards come down on the final two streets. If you find wrong decision with two overcards. Once the turn goes check
yourself already planning a triple-barrel when the flop comes check, Phil assesses Altman’s range to be heavily capped and
down, your actions will be too random to actually be useful containing very few strong hands. This is due to the danger-
to you. ous texture of the flop and the need to bet for value.

Once you pull the trigger and decide to bluff, try not to react Altman bets, and Phil decides to bluff raise. His reasoning is
emotionally to the outcome. Going on tilt, or losing your cool, that he holds a blocker, the , which prevents the straights
when you know that a bluff can’t work 100 percent of the time and the flushes, along with a perceived capped range. Phil
is illogical and could hinder the remainder of your playing also reads Altman as someone who is capable of laying down
session. Even the most well-thought-out bluffs are destined a strong hand.
to fail some of the time. The only guarantee you get in poker
is that things will not always go your way at the table, even Looking back, Phil thinks his blockers were not strong enough
when you make the right play. This is especially true if you are to bluff raise (he would have much preferred the or ).
playing low stakes and are frequently surrounded by weak What’s more, a TV feed showed Phil bluffing Altman on an
players who will make erratic decisions. earlier hand. When you’re the most recognizable player in the
world, such information sticks easily in a player’s mind and
Bet sizing is a crucial aspect to bluffing. Key information is makes future bluffs less likely to succeed. Even so, he still feels
unlocked when you observe hands that you’re not involved in: this line will be profitable over the long term.
Some players will see a small bet as an attempt to guarantee

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 UP YOUR GAME

Observe a skilled player on Twitch.tv, and see how they TABLE TALK
work out which turn and river cards are good to attempt DOES THE BLUFF ADD UP?
a bluff. Pay close attention to factors such as how the
opponent is playing, blockers, and any previous history Choose which hands make the most sense to bluff on the
with that particular opponent. Past a flop continuation bet river in this hypothetical hand.
it is difficult to accurately assess what your bluffing range
should be, especially when combined with planning for your You open in the cutoff, and your unknown opponent calls on
action on the river. This exercise is aimed at improving your the button.
range-assessment skills.
The flop comes . You bet, and your oppo-
Dedicate some playing sessions to assessing a player’s nent calls.
range after they have c-bet all three streets. See how often the
hand they show up with is better than one pair. The turn is the . You bet, and your opponent calls.

When you make a bluff yourself, you have the added benefit The river is the . You bet:
of fold equity. This is the profit you make when your opponent
folds. However, when you are facing the bet yourself, you A. and
have no such luxury. Be particularly cautious when calling
large bets. B. and

This exercise will train you to remember this tendency for all C. and
of your regular opponents. It’s incredibly useful to know the
a. Correct. Both of these combos block possible good value
likelihood that an opponent is bluffing when they fire all three
hands that our opponent might want to call with, such as
streets. At lower stakes you’ll find many players who either
, , , . They also both block flush-
bluff the river too much or never at all.
es. Having these blockers in our hands when executing a
bluff is instrumental when it comes to maximizing profit.
Train yourself to spot poorly thought-out river bluffs by
checking whether you think your opponent should have b. Incorrect. With a king hitting on the river, you no longer
a capped range according to the line they took. Try out have top pair or an overpair. The flush hitting also sig-
range-guessing exercises when you are not involved in the nificantly reduces the strength of your hand. Taking both
hand. When another player at your table is facing a large of these points into account, you can no longer bet the
bet, try to work out if it makes sense. You’ll find this exercise is river for value against most opponents. That said, you do
more effective if you are not involved in the hand and know at have showdown value that beats an opponent holding a
least a little about how the players involved tend to play. pair smaller than a nine. This makes these combinations
unsuitable for a bluff.
c. Incorrect. Neither of these combos has a blocker to any
value hand your opponent might have been calling with.
You should always try to block your opponents value
range when considering a bluff. If you block some combos
that will call a bet, then this makes it less likely that they
appear in your opponent’s range.

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