Picking Your Spots

A major component of any poker session is being able to pick the right spots. This aspect is especially critical in bluffing. As stated before, you should never bluff just to bluff; it should be profitable to do so. If it doesn’t seem like it would be profitable, you shouldn’t do it. There was a hand that I witnessed recently where there was a total of 4 bets in the pot. No one seemed to be especially interested in the pot, as everyone was checking. On the river someone decided to put in a big bluff by betting $130 into a $20 pot. I am sure this guy was thinking he would just put a big bet that no one would call. Unfortunately for this guy, someone did call with bottom two pair. Not only was this a horrible bluff, but there was no reason to bluff at this pot. There wasn’t enough in the pot to justify bluffing as much of his stack as he did. In cash games, it isn’t as important to protect your blinds and bets because there is time to pick better spots where it would be more profitable to make a big bluff.

This can be a bit of a touchy subject in tournaments because every chip counts in a tournament. There are a lot of elements to consider in a tournament because of timed blind constraints. This theory applies to the tournament setting in bluffing postflop. In post flop play there should be risk/reward assessment when bluffin. If the pot is not worth risking a portion of your stack on a bluff, it may not be worth it to bluff in this situation. The best situation in cash games and in tournaments is to bluff when the pot is sizable enough to add to your chip stack, and when it seems probable that your bluff will succeed. In terms of tournaments, it would not be very profitable to bluff all in just to steal the blinds when they are at 25/50. It would be a better situation to bluff when there have been at least a few bets in the pot, and when the chips in the pot are going to add to your stack. Now, this doesn’t mean that you can only bluff at huge pots, but the pot size should be considered and the size of the bluff should be assessed in relation to the size of the pot. It could be very profitable to make small bluffs at smaller pots, but there is no reason to risk your entire stack for a pot that is going to do very little for your chip stack.

The same rules apply in cash games, but can be applied more stringently because there are no timed blind constraints. In cash games, players have the ability to wait for long periods of time for a good situation to bluff. The easiest bluffing situations arise in heads up play. However, don’t be afraid to take stabs at multiway pots. A few months ago I was sitting on a $2/5 NL table, and it had been raised $50 with 6 callers in front of me. I was in position, so I called. The flop came one over and two unders. It was checked around to me, and I made it $150 with no pair no draw. This was enough to take down the pot while not risking very much of my stack, and it was a generous pot to add to my stack. When choosing a good position to bluff in, the pot is the reward and therefore should be worth the risk you are putting your stack in.