No Bluffing Means No Chips

Bluffing is a necessary evil in tournament poker. The need to win some pots when you don’t have the cards makes bluffing a requirement to winning events. Below are a couple of types of bluffs.

You can steal the blinds. You can fire twice at a pot with absolutely nothing. Whatever the type of bluff, you are trying to get your opponent to fold the better hand.

One of the easiest bluffs to run is stealing the blinds. You raise with a weak hand hoping everyone folds. You should be the first to act in this bluff. Short stacks will push all in to make this steal. Bigger stacks can push the small stacks around by constantly stealing the blinds.

Another bluff is the check raise bluff. Let’s say you are the big blind. You call a raise from the button with 78 of diamonds the flop comes AJ4 no diamonds.

You check and he bets the pot. You come back with a pot sized, or more, re-raise. If he doesn’t fold, you will stop betting and cut your losses.

You can also use the semi bluff. You have KQ of hearts. You have called a raise.

The flop shows J74 with two hearts. When your opponent raises you have to decide how to play this. I think here you can go all in, and put your opponent to the test.

If he folds, this is fine. If you get called you still can win. You have at least nine outs. This is a typical semi-bluff.

The post oak bluff is quite different. You have been calling some moderate raises with a speculative hand. When the last card hits you know your only chance to win is to get a fold.

Now on the river you come out with a small raise. This raise is intended to induce a fold. The small bet is to convince your opponent that you have a huge hand, and have been slow playing it. You need to believe your opponent will think this way.

There are a lot of other bluffs out there. You need to make moves like these, and others, if you want to win tournaments. You have to be able to make chips without the cards sometimes.

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