Here’s Gus Hanen’s poker strategy on youtube for sit and go:
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Posts Tagged ‘Poker Strategy
Though suited connectors can be dangerous cards as you can connect on the flush or straight draws, and rarely on the straight flush draws, playing them can be quite perilous when you are out of position.
What do I mean by ‘out of position?’ Generally, this means that you are the first to bet after the flop. Here’s an example that illustrates the problem:
Your hand: suited jack ten (spades)
Flop:
2/5/J ‘rainbow’
Okay, you now have top pair, but you have no idea what anyone else has flopped. If you bet too much, you might be giving away chips to someone who has AJ or if you don’t bet enough, someone might catch something on the river or turn.
Recently, I made a bet of about 60 chips as it was early in the tournament (start with 1500). I wanted to bet enough to shake off the weak hands, but also not too much that I would be unhappy losing if I got re-raised.
Three players folded and one simply called.
Turn:
6 (second diamond)
Okay, now I was trying to put the other player on a hand. I was pretty sure that they must have a Jack, but was unsure if they had a better kicker. I bet another 100 chips to hopefully get some information. The person simply called which didn’t give me any information. I wasn’t sure whether I was betting into a calling station who may actually have a better hand or get lucky on the river, or if they were slow playing a monster hand like a set.
River:
10 of diamonds!
Wow, again I am out of position and now I have two pair. I really don’t like the position that I am in as folding two pair is very difficult to do if I think the person has ace Jack which would make a lot of sense. Turns out the last hand in the world that I put the player on was actually the hand that he had. Though there were now three diamonds on the board, I was pretty sure that the player wouldn’t calle even 160 chips at this stage of the tournament on a runner runner Queen high flush draw.
I bet 200 chips on the river as I went with my read that he had a hand like ace Jack. The player insta went all in following my bet. Fortunately, I had enough chips to cover his call and still be in the tournament. Since there was no preflop raise, I didn’t put him on pocket jacks or even pocket fives. I thought he may have gotten lucky and flopped a set of ducks, but still didn’t feel that this is what he had. I went with my read that he probably had AJ and called. To my astonishment, he had simply caught a runner runner queen high flush. I would never had suspected that someone who completely missed the flop save for one diamond, would call any amount of betting action to the river. When people make bizarre and generally unprofitable plays like this and get lucky, it can be very difficult to put them on a hand.
To summarize, the problem with playing suited connectors out of position is that you have to either risk betting enough to protect your hand and possibly get re-raised by a better hand on the flop, or you have to bet too little to protect your hand and risk getting sucked out on the river.
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Okay,
One of the most important aspects of my evolving strategy for playing poker is to identify the different types of players at a table. Here’s some insight into different playing styles, how to identify them, and how to play against them. In terms of how to play against them, it depends upon your own style. Currently, I am playing more ‘small ball’ poker which entails playing several hands and requires decent reading skills. It is the most effective strategy, but also the hardest to play as it requires you to make far more decisions. As well, it is can be very ineffective if you are at an aggressive table or especially ineffective at an aggressive table with turbo blinds since you will rarely get a cheap look at the flop.
The beginner:
You can usually spot a beginner from a mile away by these characteristics:
1. They play almost every hand.
2. They usually never make pre-flop raises or bet to protect their hand.
3. They are frequently calling stations.
How to play against them:
1. You can eat them alive by simple strategies like preflop raises as they will call these with any hand.
2. Always becareful not to try to bluff a beginner as they will usually not put you on the hand that you are trying to represent. They can be very difficult to bluff as they will call because they cannot tolerate not knowing what hand you have.
3. When you have a good hand, you can bet hard into the calling station and take a large portion of their stack.
The Rock
How to identify them:
1. They play very few hands.
2. They only play premium hands such has high pocket pairs or Aces with good kickers.
How to play against them:
1. Usually they aren’t much to worry about as they spend most of the time out of the pot.
2. If you are in a pot with a rock, you can be pretty sure that they have AK/AQ/AJ or high pocket pair, so watch out for these hands if you are betting against them.
3. Rocks are usually easy to bluff, provided that there is a good flop texture. If you bet against a rock, be sure that there are no aces or high cards on the board, and they will likely fold as they are very tight with their chips.
The Calling Station:
How to identify them:
1. They have the same characteristics as the beginner, but they differ in that they will actually bet when they have a good hand.
2. They rarely bluff, so if they are betting, you can usually put them on at least some hand.
How to play against them:
1. Never bluff a calling station! I once bet into an open-ended draw as a semi bluff. Everyone folded except for the calling station. I bet again, this time even more chips at the turn to try to shake him off, and he simply called. At this point, I was confused and somewhat worried that he was slow playing me. He checked at the river in front of me. Worried, that he was looking to check raise, I also checked as I missed my straight. To my astonishment, he turned over king five off suit for the win! I couldn’t believe that he kept calling me with high card king given that there was neither a str8 or a flush draw that he had. As well, he hadn’t actually paired either of his cards.
The Chaser
How to identify them:
1. The chaser is the guy who will call any bet regardless of pot odds to chase down his flush or straight draw.
2. They rarely make preflop raises.
3. They play several hands.
4. They will usually bet once they’ve made their straight.
How to play against them.
1. If you catch a good hand on the flop and you bet to protect your hand and the chaser calls without re-raising you, you can be pretty sure they are chasing if their are two suited cards on flop or a possible straight.
2. Though the odds are in your favor that they will miss their straight, be careful of trying to bet them off their chase as they can make a big payout by catching it.
3. I especially don’t like to go all in on the flop against them to protect my hand as they will call and may knock you out with the suck out.
4. My preference is to make a medium bet after the flop. This way if another suited card hits, I won’t lose too many chips.
5. If suited card doesn’t hit on the turn, I will make a larger bet after the turn as even a chaser will not always chase from the turn.
6. Rarely, if you flop a boat, you know that you can cash them out by betting large. To do this, you have to bet very big after the flop, not turn. Or you can try to slow play them and hope that they will catch their flush, but this is riskier as if they get a free look at the cards and miss, you will not get a payoff. Personally, I would rather bet large pretending that I am protecting a hand like top pair/top kicker and additionally hope that they catch the flush and bet hard.
The Maniac
How to identify:
1. The maniacs are the easiest to identify.
2. They often go all in preflop several times, strangely they seem to always win with junk cards.
3. They love to raise preflop with even an Ace with bad kicker to steal the blind.
4. They bad really hard after the flop to steal the pot, often overbetting a hand like mid pair to make it seem like they have a very good hand.
How to play against them:
1. You have to avoid calling preflop raises unless you have a hand like a pocket pair or an ace with a good kicker.
2. If you call a preflop raise with a hand like suited seven/eight and miss flop, they will eat you alive by making a large enough bet that you cannot call even if you have a decent draw.
3. Better maniacs will realize their table image and use it to their advantage. For example, you might be tempted to stand your ground against a maniac betting very large with your top pair/top kicker, and call only to get knocked out by a set that they hit.
4. Maniacs can be the hardest to play against as they are fearless.
5. They only effective way to counter one is to try to trap them. Let the other players battle the maniac until you have really good hole cards. If you manage to hit a really good flop, check and let them hang themselves trying to bluff you off.
6. The only other way to counter the manaic is to call them when they go all in preflop with a high pocket pair or a hand like AK/AQ.
The Shark
How to identify them:
1. The shark is the experienced player who is often quite street smart.
2. The shark plays more on how other people bet/react, than on their own actual cards.
3. The shark has a wide array of tools like check raising/ effective bluffing/ trapping /slow playing/ overbetting hands to steal/ raising to steal blinds / rarely makes a bad call.
How to play against them:
1. The biggest weakness of a shark is simply the card run that they have. If they are getting bad hole cards and missing flops, you can take advantage of this.
2. Be wary of folding agains them as they often will bet to represent a better hand than they actually have. If you think you have the best hand, but are not certain, stick to calling them out rather than pushing all in as they might be trapping you.
3. If you are a beginner, the only effective way to counter a cagey shark is to play ‘big bat’ poker looking to make home-runs instead of out playing them.
4. To do this, stick to playing pocket pairs looking to make sets or hands like AK/AQ/AJ.
5. The best way to bet against a shark is all-in. If they think they are beat, they will have to fold.
6. Pre-flop raises are not a good idea because if you miss the flop, they will smell blood and bluff to make you fold.
The Tight Player
How to identify them:
1. They don’t play very many hands.
2. They almost never bluff.
3. They almost never make a call when they are beat.
4. They always bet when they have a good hand.
How to play against them:
1. Tight players are very easy to play against as their strategy is rarely effective. Though they don’t hand out many of their chips, they generally don’t accumulate very many chips either unless they are having a good run of cards. As well, most players can easily put them on a good a hand and immediately fold to them.
2. Tight players get absolutely abused by maniacs and loose aggressive players who steal their blinds and bluff them off of hands.
3. The easiest way to abuse a tight-aggressive player is by a combination of bluffing and overbetting your hand when you are in a pot against them. They will often fold top-pair/kicker if you bet representing a flush that may have hit on the turn, for example.
4. Eventually, most tight players will get frustrated by a comination of constantly getting bluffed and by their diminishing chip stack. At this point, you have to trap them when you have a really good hand. Instead of their usual fold, they may simply call you out or try to fight back by re-raising you, even all in sometimes.
5. Never be afraid of bluffing an tight player by representing or pretending that you just hit a flush on river or something like that. Early game, if they call or re-raise, simply fold to them because they likely will have a very good hand and will not fold.
The Loose-aggressive Player
How to identify them:
1. In a nutshell, think ‘gus hansen.’
2. The loose-aggressive player is often the most difficult to play against.
3. They will raise action preflop and bluff the pot after everyone misses flop or overbet out of position to scare off other players.
4. They absolutely love to steal blinds late game by raising preflop.
5. They can be extremely dangerous as they are not afraid to gamble. For example, you might go all with pocket QQ short stacked late game. They will call you with a hand like K7 suited and knock you out when they catch a king.
How to play against them:
1. There is no easy answer to this question. You’re ultimate results playing a loose-aggressive player are going to depend more on luck than anything.
2. If you call their preflop raises and miss the flop, you are pretty much in a double bind. If you try to bluff them, they will call if they caught anything on the flop or re-raise you. If you hit a flop and they tried to bluff out of position, they are often smart enough to fold to a bet if they don’t have a hand or any outs.
3. If you try to steal blinds by raising, they will protect their blind by calling.
4. If you try to steal blinds with going all-in, they will call you with a marginal hand and seemingly perpertually get lucky and flop two pair to beat your high pocket pair or suited ace king.
5. In a nutshell, I like to play pretty tight vs a loose-aggressive player. Knowing that they want nothing more than turning the game into a coin toss–except maybe running you over with aggression, I try not to give them what they want.
6. I am willing to call pre-flop raises with a good hand or better yet, call all in preflop if I know they’ve been raising to steal quite frequently.
7. At the core of an effective loose-aggressive player, you will not find a complete idiot. They will fold to bluffs and generally not call if you push back against them if they think they are beat.
8. Loose-aggressive players are also susceptible to smart bluffs. For example, if they bet hard on the flop and you simply call. Then a third suited card hits and they check, if you bet representing the flush and they don’t have it, they will likely fold.
9. Though they seemingly play wild, they are usually pretty smart and try to put you on hand. You have to represent a better hand to bluff them back or simply trap them with a very good hand.
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15
Nov
07
Unlucky flop
Okay,
Here’s a brutal flop for pocket tens vs a10. Many people on the you tube comments suggest that Hudson played like a donkey. I certainly would be more sympathetic. Others would call this type of hand the cooler hand.
On the one hand, it’s pretty hard to walk away form tens full of aces, especially vs a player like Sammy Farha. One could look at this hand many ways. Though Sammy Fahra won the hand, if Hudson was playing AQ or AJ, the end result would have been different.
Whether or not Hudson played like a donk or just got unlucky is subject to interpretation. If anything. he didn’t seem to put much thought into what hand Sammy had. I’ve lost enough hands being on the wrong end of the full boat, that I may not want to lay this hand down, but I certainly wouldn’t want to go all in on it.
At the turn, with Sammy Fahra raising 1200 chips, you pretty much have to put him on a very good hand. Let’s look at the action…
Preflop:
Sammy raises 200 [A, 10]
Hudson re-raises to 450 [pocket ten]
[I would be nervous about playing a hand like pocket tens, the first hand of the worlds series of poker. Sammy called the re-raise which suggests that he probably has either a pocket pair or an ace with a decent kicker.]
Flop: AA10
Sammy checks the nuts
Hudson checks
[Sammy checks which was the necessary slow play. However, had Hudson been holding an ace with a better kicker, Sammy would've given him a chance to win the hand--probably a risk worth taking. Hudson, should have worried that Sammy might have been in the pot with an Ace with a decent kicker.]
Turn: AA10, Q
[Hudson bet 300 out of position. Sammy raised to 1200 (Pot was now 900+1200). At this point, you have to ask what hand Hudson thought Sammy had. It's hard to believe that Sammy would risk1200 chips to bluff a 900 chips pot the first hand in the WSOP main event. This is especially hard to believe since there is a pretty scary combination of cards on the board. As well, Sammy probably knows that it's pretty hard to bluff an amature player--which Hudson is and proved by pushing all in.
To me, my pocket tens wouldn't look very good, especially at the turn. Sammy may have had the pocket AA--I've seen quad aces on flop before online, A/10, AQ, pocket QQ all of which would beat pocket tens.
The lesson here is to pay attention to dangerous flops. Whenever the board pairs a single card, there is always a possibility that someone has a full house. As well, when you have the a full house, if you are on the wrong side of the boat (tens full of aces vs aces full of tens), you can get into a lot of trouble.
At the turn, I would certainly consider the possibility that Sammy had a full house given his large raise. I would know that if he did have a full-house that I was beat. It's certainly possible that Sammy had a str8 to ace and with KJ overbetting his hand. If that's what I thought, I would have simply called. When the jack hit on the river, I would feel very uncomfortable about my tens full of aces simply because players love to play hands like AJ/AQ/A10. About the only hand that I would think that I could now beat that would make anysense still being in this hand would be KJ or AK.
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As I’ve pointed out, I am relatively new to playing poker. However, I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into different aspects of the game. What do I mean by playing big BB poker? Quite simply, I am referring to playing turbo blinds. My first experience with playing turbo blinds was in the Daniel Negraneau Poker Stars freeroll.
I managed to place around 455th. When I think back to that tournament, I got eaten alive by aggressive players when the blinds were around 1200 chips and I had about 12x BB in my stack. Even then, I realized that the large blinds can put you into a situation where the next hand you play could very well be your last. As a result, I sat back waiting for a premium hand. The blinds whirled round and round and my stack got chewed up pretty fast as I had a run of very bad cards. Thinking back to this first experience, waiting for a premium hand was a very reasonable decision.
However, how I actually played my premium hands could have been better. The last few hands that I did play were AK off suit (big slick) and big chick, AQ. I recall raising about 2x the bb as at this time blinds were about 1200 chips and I only had about 12k in chips. Of course, there is only about a 36% chance of pairing one of your cards on flop and I missed. Two players had called my raise and were in the pot with me. The player out of position went all in and I reluctantly folded. It turns out he had absolutely nothing but KQ that missed. The player that called him had AJ and had paired his jack–first card on the flop. He won with a pair of jacks-ace kicker and had I called I would have lost.
Again, thinking back, in the situation that I was in, you can’t afford to not play a hand like big slick. My tight play did enable me to escape elimination, but left me with only about 8xBB stack. Though it may seem like I played the hand reasonably well. The end result was that I was left with only 9k in chips and again a run of very bad cards to play ensued. The only otherway that I could have maybe played the hand better was to simply go all in preflop. Sure the player with AJ probably would have called me and won, but I still had enough chips that he may have thought twice about risking 1/3 of his stack on AJ. If he folded, then I would have either stolen the blind or ultimately beaten the other player that played that hand.
I played AQ in virtually the same exact way. Raised 2400, missed flop, and folded to post flop betting action that would have put me all in. This left me virtually crippled in terms of my chip stack and I eventually was all in on the BB with K9 suited and lost.
Of course, hind-sight being 20×20, I now realize that in that same position, a premium hand like AK is not likely to come around again before I even have enough of a stack worth doubling. I would have played both of those hands reasonably well if I had had a large stack at the table. However, when you are short stacked, you have to increase your tolerance for risk in order to survive.
I know clearly believe that the risk of going all in with AK to either steal the blind or maybe win a horse race is far less than raising to fold, or going all in after missing the flop completely. Nothing creates greater risk in a tournament that being completely exposed at the table with a low stack as your only option is to go all in preflop at that point anyway and by the time you make that decision, it will ultimately be with a far worse hand than AK.
My final thoughts are quite simple. Part of my new strategy is quite simple again… I start off the tournament playing very tight–unless I get a hand like pocket KK/QQ/JJ in which case I will try to push someone all in preflop to get a chance to double or triple up. I am always willing to gamble with one of those hands and occassionally with AK/AQ. If this works and often it does, if I double up, I will force myself to keep accumulating chips either by carefully bluffing if I have a run of bad cards, or maximizing the play of my good cards. Once I am in the top 3 in stacks of say a 45 player tourney, I will really switch to a very tight game to hold on to my chips.
There have certainly been occassions where I’ve been the chip leader in a 45 player tourney only to hit a very nice card rush. This can often be the worst time for it to happen. as there are often only 25 players left in the tournament, many of which are very desparate and fully willing to gamble. In the times that I have been willing to continue to play aggressively with the chip stack lead, it doesn’t take long to lose half your chips to people who are willing to gamble and get lucky.
In a nutshell, it’s a simple strategy… whether ultimately it means ocillating or vacillating between playing loose aggressive to accumulate chips and tight to hold on to them, it is generally very effective. Play tight until you make the bubble. After that, if you want to actuall win, you have to be willing to gamble again. Playing head’s up in a turbo tourney is extremely dependent on luck. If you get a run of bad cards vs an aggressive player, you will get run down very quickly. Too many times head’s up, I’ve had to call an aggressive player all in head’s up. Even though I’ve made the right call and had huge preflop odds–I’ve lost some brutal horse races.
e.g. JJ vs 78–player hit set on flop.
10 10 vs q3–player hit deuce to six with runner runners on turn and river.
Ak vs 72–player paired their deuce.
88 vs A3–paired the ace.
Kk vs J3–player catches to seven to J on river.
Hence, if I am looking for the ‘w’ in the tournament, I will choose risking getting knocked out in forth to build a massive stack before I will want to be ends up head’s up with a short stack.
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13
Nov
07
Life Lessons From Poker
Playing poker can be incredibly frustrating. We all know the times we flop top pair/top kicker and make large enough bet to deter someone from chasing their flush draw. They call anyway and miss it on the turn. Then you increase the bet to the point that they have absolutely no pot odds on calling, but of course, they do anyway and catch the flush on the river.
Other frustrating times in online poker include the reality that you can only ever play the cards that you’re dealt. There’s always tournaments where you get a run of incredibly bad cards–you know, the seven deuce off suit, nine three, queen deuce, jack five, ten six, suited deuce three, three eight, king three, jack four… run that seems to repeat itself forever. I know I’ve been there and I’ve actually checked to see that I’ve once played 100 hands in a tournament without catching one pocket pair (The preflop odds are about 1/16). Most recently, I was in a tournament where I ace jack twice, no pocket pairs, and maybe ace four/five a couple times out of about 100 hands.
When you go through these moments, it feels like walking in the desert thristing for water. You almost start to see mirages… It’s not long before a suited A3 starts to look like pocket aces to you. By now, you’re chip stack is so low that you go all in, merely hoping to steal a blind, only to get called by a big stack with a hand like five ten off suit. Of course, everytime the 63% preflop odds that you have crumble when he pairs his five first card on the flop.
The opportunity in these moments is that it teaches you a little about bluffing–and ultimately, hopefully you learn the most important lesson about bluffing in poker. Though it plays an important role and can greatly augment your chip stack, ultimately, if you’re suffering a run of bad cards and worse flops, bluffing alone is not going to win you the tournament. If you flop the worst hand with enough consistently, you’re not going to win the tournament–period.
Bluffing in poker suffers on inevitable reality–the odds! The more you have to bluff, the less likely you are to make a profit. What can be even more frustrating than a run of bad cards or getting a bad beat, is watching a horrible poker player make a series of really bad calls and get lucky. When you are staring at his massive chip stack and thinking about how poorly he has played, the only realization that you can make is that luck may or may not be random, but it certainly isn’t usually fair.
Given all the possible frustration inherent in poker, the only solution is to learn how to deal with this frustration. With the dealing of a single card, odds can turn on a dime and anything can happen. The sooner you accept this, the less frustrating poker becomes. The easiest way to accomplish this is to try to focus more on the decisions that you actually made rather than the final results. After all, it’s the decision alone that really matters even though you can make a good decision and lose or a really bad decision and win.
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Rules of On-line Poker Bluffing
1. The absolute most important aspect of bluffing is getting an understanding of the type of players that are at your table and the overall characterization of the table that you are playing at.
a. If you’re at a table with a predominant group of beginner or novice players…forget about bluffing! Novice players are the most difficult to bluff for a variety of reasons. Number one, they are only focused on what type of hand that they have and they put almost no thought into which cards you are holding. If they have top pair and 4 suited cards are on the table by the river and they don’t have one, they won’t likely consider the possibility that you might have the four card flush which will beat their pair of kings. Secondly, novice players can’t tolerate no knowing which cards you are holding.
b. Forget about trying to bluff loose players. I’ve made this mistake myself. There have been many times where I haven’t put a loose player on much of a hand, so I’ve simply re-raised them when I am quite sure that they are bluffing. However, this strategy is generally unprofitable as they often try to buy their way out of the bluff. Even if they don’t have a very good hand, they will put end up putting you in a situation where you end up risking most of your chips on a hand that may not be any better than theirs.
c. The best type of players to bluff are players that play pretty tight and seem to only play good cards. The caveat to this is that you have to get some idea of whether or not they are holding a good hand.
d. Another very bad type of player to bluff is someone who likes to slow play hands. I’ve made this mistake too. You bet after the flop and they simply call. Then you make a continuation bet after the turn, then they simply call again. Now you are on the river without a hand and you either check and lose, make a small continuation bet and hope for the best, or try to buy the pot with larget bet. Unless you feel like they were chasing a flush or straight draw that they missed, increasing the bet on the river is not a good idea.
2. The second salient question is, ‘what is your table image?’ Once you get caught bluffing a few times, you creat a ‘loose’ table image. Once you have a loose table image players are much more likely to call your bluffs.
3. The next most important question is what type of hand do you put your opponent on. For example, you have to have some idea of what hand your opponent has before you try to bluff them. If someone has flopped a set, no bet is going to scare them away from calling you.
4. The next rule is simple. Bluffing is most effective when there is only one other player left in the hand. It’s usually a bad idea to try to bluff four players as the probability is quite high that at least one of them will have a playable hand.
5. Bluffing in late position is usually the best scenario. If you are first to bet after the flop, you have no clue as to what the other players have. If you do see a number of players check or fold, then you can take a stab at the pot by betting at it.
6. I’ve already said that the best and in my opinion the only profitable scenario for bluffing is when one other player is in left in the pot. In addition, you NEVER WANT TO BLUFF A BIG STACK! I’ve tried this unsuccessfully many times… When you try to bluff someone who has enough chips to even call you when all in and walk away in decent shape if they lose, it is quite likely that the will, in fact, call you if they have a playable hand.
7. The easiest target for bluffing is usually the smaller stack players as they have to play their chips very carefully.
8. Later in the tournament, it can actually be an advantage to bet out of position. Many times if there are three players in the pot when the blinds are quite high, the minimum bet is actually quite high and enough to make most players that missed the flop fold. Later in tournaments when the blind are high, most players are unlikely to chase flushes or straights as the cost of seeing the next card is often very expensive.
9. From most of the tournaments that I’ve done, loose players can accumulate a few chips early on by playing aggressively and bluffing several pots. However, eventually the always put themselves in a situation where they are bluffing someone who has a very good hand and calls them. This results in two problems–one they instantly create a loose table image and secondly, they can end up losing a large portion of their chips. Usually, bluffing is not profitable early on in the tournament as the blinds are relatively low. The only time bluffing is profitable early on in a tournament is after a large preflop raise. However, it can be very dangerous and sometimes stupid to try to bluff the pot after a large preflop raise. At the beginning of the tournament, you don’t start off with very many chips (1500 on ps). If the raise is 5x bb (120) and you bet only 100 on the flop, many of the other players will call you as they had a decent enough hand to call the preflop raise. As well, if they hit the flop then you are only throwing away chips.
10. Bluffing very small stacked players is also ineffective. If you try to bluff someone who is pretty much pot committed simply by calling, generally they will have to call your bluff. As well, it is also very difficult to bluff when you are low on chips as you clearly do not have enough chips to scare other players from calling. Plus the low chips stacked players generally look pretty desparate when they try to bluff.
10. The are occassions where you can buy your way out of a pot by bluffing. For example, if you have AK and raise 3x the bb. The flop comes with all low unsuited cards. You now have a 24% chance of pairing one of your cards. It’s not always a bad idea to make a reasonable bet after the flop if everyone checks. However, once you get re-raised by someone then you have to reconsider your options. Most players that re-raise after some bets after the flop usually have a pretty good hand unless they know that you are a loose player.
11. When is the best time in the hand to bluff? I would say generally after the flop or turn. Betting on the river always looks like an attempt to buy the pot.
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