Know how to set up a bluff.

[iamkidpoker]

One of the biggest mistakes I see novice players make is that they bluff in situations when it just couldn't possibly work. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this an excuse, "Well I had to try. I couldn't win if I didn't." To that I say, "Did you ever think that maybe you couldn't have won anyway?"

Wasted, desperation bluffs are like cancer to your bankroll. In order to bluff effectively you have to set up a bluff by thinking it through beforehand.


Let's take a look at how all this relates to playing a hand of poker: You raise before the flop in a $5-$10 Texas hold'em game with 10h Jh and one player calls your bet. The flop comes Kh 9h 4d and you bet $5 with your flush and straight draw. Your opponent raises you another $5 and you call.

The turn care comes the 7d and you check to your opponent who bets $10- you of course call the bet. Now the river card comes the 2c. Or in poker terms, "A big fat brick!"

This is not the time, nor the place to attempt a bluff. You certainly can't win if you check, but what I'm trying to explain to you in this column is that you aren't going to win if you bet either. Your bet makes no sense.

So how do you set up a bluff? The key thing you need to do is to set up the bluff earlier in the hand by playing the hand from the start in such a way that your opponents might actually think you have a very strong hand. In this particular hand, there would have been several ways to do that:

1) Re-raise the bet on the flop.
2) Check-raise the bet on the flop.
3) Check-raise the bet on the turn.

Had you done either of these things, taking control of the hand, your river bet when the 2c comes might look like it makes some sense.

The great thing about poker is that there are so many variables and so many ways to play different situations. If you chose to play it cautiously that's fine. Simply eliminate the desperate river bluff and you'd be eliminating a huge hole in your game

[EdTeach]

Kid, in your opinion would you describe the check-raise as the "strongest" move in poker? As in, a move that makes your opponent completely re-think what you might be holding?

I would say so, I love doing it in lives games. Your opponent is just completely caught off guard.

[iamkidpoker]

The check raise is so powerful because you are making someone put money in the pot, then you go over the top and they have to make a big decision because they may be pot committed now, but know they are behind. The check raise bluff is dangerous because if you check raise bluff, and they go back over the top again, you are dead to rights and now have to fold even thought you put in a ton of chips.

Here is my favorite way to check raise and i did it last night in the freeroll and won a huge pot. First, to do this you have to be first to act. I flopped the nut flush so i bet very low, first off i do this so if someone flopped two pair of top pair i might get a raise, and if someone else would have had a big flush card, they might call Basically trying to build the pot with this bet. Then when the next card came, which was a nothing card, i check. Trying to look really weak like i dont have a flush card and i can be bought out of the pot. YOu get so many bluff bets by doing this but when they bet and you raise they almost always call thinking you are bluffing now or are not that strong. Then when the last card comes, if you both were not all in before, i go all in to try to make it look like i am stealing and pray for a call, and even if i dont get it, i still gained a lot of chips.

[cracker]

Great info, Kid. Can't wait to try it out at the tables next time.

[iamkidpoker]

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