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5.5 Semi Bluff
Throughout the course we have talked about the importance of varying your betting patterns to ensure that opponents don’t get a read on you.
Because of this you can’t afford to simply employ the strategy of betting your good hands and checking your weaker hands. We need to mix it up a little. A good way to do this is by a bet known as the semi bluff which is made after the turn card.
A Semi bluff is a bet made with a hand that isn’t likely to be the best hand at the moment, but has the chance to make the best hand on the river.
Illustration
We hold Q
J and the flop has come down A 6 J
. The turn card is 2
Here we are holding 2nd pair and a high flush draw.
We suspect our opponent is holding an ace, so we suspect that we don’t have the best hand now, but we have a number of outs.
Our outs are
- Any diamond to make a flush (9 outs)
- Any Q to make two pair (3 outs)
- Any J to make 3 of a kind (2 outs).
That’s a total of 14 outs, which gives about a 32% chance of making the best hand on the river.
A Semi bluff gives us two ways to win
- Making the best hand on the river
- Forcing our opponent to fold
This is in addition to the benefit of adding variety to our betting pattern. It forces our opponent to make a decision and as always we are hopeful they will make an incorrect decision.
The size of a semi-bluff should be around the same amount of a value bet so about ½ the size of the pot.
When considering a semi bluff you should consider the following factors:
- The Turn card has given me additional outs
- Opponent has shown a weakness after the flop or turn
- The turn card could have helped me from my opponents point of view (even if it hasn’t) the card has to fit in with the story we are presenting to our opponent.
- Opponent hasn’t shown previous evidence of check raising
- Opponent is not pot committed
- I haven’t been seen to bluff in recent hands
CONTINUE TO NEXT SECTION - 5.6
