Poker Skills – Backing Off Bluffs
When you get caught bluffing, your poker ego will often feel like it has taken a punch in the stomach when you are forced to give up the hand. Even though it’s against your natural instinct to back off, sometimes you just got to do it. Let’s say you’re in a hand with two big cards and you raised the pot from late position. The big blind calls you and you both miss the flop. Normally, he’s going to check to you, the attacker in a hand.
If he does, this is a fairly standard play for you to make a continuation bet. Usually this means a good chunk of the pot, and hopefully the pot will end right there – but sometimes it won’t! Sometimes your antagonist will call your continuation bet. He is extending you position with his call, still on a ragged low card flop, you have to always be aware these are precisely the hole cards your opponent may have called you with. Of course you don’t know that, as he might’ve called you with an ace king and have your king and queen dominated.
What matters is that he did call you. Now, you can expect a few things from this call such as, he does have a really good hand whether that be from help from the flop or him slow playing you, it really doesn’t matter. He may also think you can be bullied off the hand, to be planning a bet or check raise on the turn or river. He could simply be playing on the assumption that this flop completely missed your high cards, and you cannot afford to make this pot grow with an ace high hand. He may also just be playing with a small pair, or maybe he has a draw.
What you choose to do here will depend largely on how you have profiled your opponent. You may want to three bet him if he raises you, but that will mean playing a big pot when you have at best a marginal hand. This is something that you truly must consider as to be a pricy situation long term. Simply put, if you don’t have the balls or the cards to bet out on the turn or river, then you may likely be reconciled to saying to yourself, “that’s all I’m going to put into this hand, I’ll have to check it down or fold”.
Laying down a hand when you think you’re beaten can be one of the hardest things to do at the poker table. This is simply because we are in conflict with a human tendency to protect oneself and fight for survival. Folding a hand, is more closely associated to feeling like a coward, not a scrapper.
So backing away from a bluff never makes you feel good, but for players who realize that it is simply a calculated move and actually has nothing to do with your personality or character, will be able to walk away unscathed – at least emotionally. The good, knowledgeable players will be able to patiently wait for a better opportunity. Denser players, on the other hand may have a chip on their shoulder about having to fold, and may be leaning towards tilt after just a single hand.
So when you have to release your hand as a result of reraising behind you, just know that there will be better times to bluff in less costly situations.
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