Bluffing Your Way To The Top
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.
The bluffs you might see can be as ordinary as an attempt to steal the blinds, to very complex schemes. You’re behind or have no cards, but you want those chips. You need to get a fold.
When you are the first to act, any raise with a weak hand is an attempt to steal the blinds. When the blinds get big, you will have no chance to win the tournament without stealing some of the blinds. This is the nature of tournament poker.
One of the most powerful plays in poker is the check raise. You are in the big blind and call a raise from the button. You miss the flop completely.
You check your hand and your opponent bets the pot. Now you pause for a moment, and re-raise. This bluff will usually get a fold right here. If he doesn’t fold, you will fold to any other betting.
Another play is called the semi bluff. You look down to see KQ of hearts. You call a raise from an early position.
The flop shows J74 with two hearts. Your opponent makes a big raise. Now you make a semi bluff by pushing all in.
You might get a fold. If he calls you have outs, at least nine of them. If he has AJ you will be a mathematical favorite. This is a classic semi-bluff.
Here’s a different type of bluff. You are on an open ended straight draw and have called a raise on the flop and the turn. You are first to act and the only chance to win the pot is to get a fold. Your opponent has raised twice so this is tricky, he might be very strong.
In this situation you make a small raise. This bet looks like you want to get called. If you try this play you need your opponent understands that this small bet represents a big hand that wants a call.
These are just a very small sample of the bluffs you can try. You need to creatively win chips some of the time. You can’t expect to get enough big hand to avoid this need.
