All About Semi Bluffs
ADVANTAGE OF THE SEMI-BLUFF
First, the semi-bluff tends to make your opponent play incorrectly according
to the Fundamental Theorem of Online Poker Games. When you semi-bluff, you
presumably do not have the best hand, if your opponent could see your cards,
his correct play would be to raise. However, since you are representing
something with your semi-bluff, opponents will nearly always only call.
Sometimes they will make the worst play of all by folding the best hand.
Second, when the hand with which you are semi-bluffing is 111 facts the best
hand at the moment, by betting you are not making the mistake the mistake of
giving worse hands free cards. As we saw in the previous page, it is critical
to bet the best hand with more cards to come in order to avoid giving people a
free card. Not only will a worse hand usually fold, which is fine, especially
if the opponent is getting proper odds to call, but a better hand might fold.
If the better hand calls, which is more likely, you still have the chance of
improving to the best hand. If, instead of betting, you check and a better hand
bets, your hand probably justifies a call. So you have gained nothing by
checking. You do not get yourself a free card. Hence, you are more likely to
semi-bluff in first position than in last, where you have the option of giving
yourself a free card.
A third advantage of the semi-bluff is that, used correctly, it adds an
enormous amount of deceptiveness to your games.
This is a good spot for a semi-bluff raise even if you are almost certain your
opponent will call you. Why? Well, notice what happens when you catch certain
cards on Fifth Street.
If you catch a card such as the or for that matter any card that looks as if
it's given you a straight or a flush, your opponent will very possibly fold, if
not a better hand, certainly a hand that was justified in calling against a
measly pair of 7s. Suppose you catch a jack or a queen, making a pair on board.
Now your opponent almost has to fold because of the strength you showed by your
earlier raise. However, if he in fact has two kings, he is making a mistake
folding against two smaller pair. Finally, notice what happens if you catch the
one card that will make you root for a call, namely a 7, which gives you
three-of-a-kind. Because of your previous bet, that 7 will look completely
harmless, as though it didn't help your hand one bit. Now when you bet, your
opponent will keep coming just as you want him to. In sum, your semi-bluff
raise on Fourth Street
has made subsequent cards that help you only moderately look very dangerous,
while it has made cards that give you a big hand look insignificant.
This last point is an additional benefit of the semi-bluff in stud games but
especially in hold 'em. When you do hit the card that makes your hand, your
opponent will often misread it because of your bet on the previous round
(except in the cases where you were straightforwardly betting on the come with
a flush or a straight draw). Thus, you may win a larger pot than you would have
otherwise expected.
Both the semi-bluff and betting a marginal hand rather than risking giving a
worse hand a free card are cases of the general precept that it is usually
better to be betting than calling. By betting as a semi-bluff you have a chance
of winning the pot right there, something you are usually hoping to do, and you
have shown greater strength than you really have. If you catch scary-looking
cards after you have been called, you are still likely to win pots you wouldn't
otherwise have won. When you bet now, your opponent is quite likely to fold. On
the other hand, when you don't improve and are caught in a semi-bluff, which
can be of value as an advertisement for the future.
A final advantage of the semi-bluff is that you can sometimes use it to get a
free card. Let's say an opponent in hold 'em bets on the flop, and you raise
with four-flush. If that player calls your raise, it is likely he will check to
you on fourth street.
If you haven't made the flush, you have the option of checking behind him for a
free card.
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