The Last Line of Defense

Your best bluffing opportunities usually come in heads-up pots, but there are certainly times that you should try to bluff through several opponents. However, when you do so, a very critical concept comes into play, which I call "The Last Line of Defense." I will discuss it while recounting a hand I played recently, in which that concept actually affected the hand in multiple ways.

The Hand
I had the small blind in seat No. 2 in an extremely loose, 10-handed $15-$30 hold'em game. Seats No. 4 through No. 8 all limped in. Seat No. 9, one of the few solid players, raised. Seat No. 10, also a very solid player, called. After seat No. 1 folded, I looked down at the A 7and made the call. When the action got back to seat No. 4, he three-bet it. Everyone called, so before the flop we had nine players in for three bets each.

The flop came 7 3 2, which was a lot better than I could have hoped for. With so many opponents, I knew that I probably needed to improve to win, but I was also happy to add some money to the already large pot. I bet out. Seat No. 3 raised me from the big blind. Seat Nos. 4, 7, 9, and 10 all called two bets cold. I three-bet it, and everyone called. Now, there were six players in for the turn.

The turn was the 3. I wasn't entirely sure how good that card was for me, but I was also not going to give a free card to anyone who was hanging around with mere overcards. I bet out again. Seat Nos. 3 and 4 called. This time, it was seat No. 9 who raised. Seat No. 10 called, and now I had to reassess my position.

Seat Nos. 3 and 4 were way too loose to try to put them on hands. Seat No. 9 was not a maniac, and he had raised preflop, so an overpairseemed like his most likely holding. There was a slight chance that he had gotten lucky and flopped a set, but I figured that was unlikely. Iwas still fairly confident that a 7, ace, or club would win me the pot. As far as seat No. 10 was concerned, I thought it was extremely likely that he was on a draw, probably a worse flush draw. While that would be great for me if the club came, it also meant that two of my outs weregone, so reraising for value seemed like a bad idea. I made the call, seat No. 3 actually folded for the one extra bet, and seat No. 4 called, sowe were fourhanded going to the river.

The river was the K, clearly not what I was hoping for. I checked, and seat No. 4 checked. Seat No. 9 also checked, and then seat No. 10 came out betting. With little hesitation, I check-raised him!

Huh? Did I lose my senses? Well, sort of, but at the time, I saw a definite logic to my play. There was a huge pot at stake, and I thought there might be a chance that seat No. 10 had a busted draw and was making a desperate bluff attempt. If that was true, my pair of sevens could be good. But if I just called, seat No. 9, who had clearly defined his hand as a pocket pair higher than sevens but lower than kings,would probably overcall and take the pot. By check-raising, I could hopefully shut seat No. 9 out of the pot, and if seat No. 10 had the busted draw that I hoped he had, I could score a major coup with my check-raise.

The main consideration when attempting my bluff was that seat No. 10 was The Last Line of Defense against my raise. In other words, even if seat No. 4 and seat No. 9 somehow deduced that I was out of line, they still had to worry about seat No. 10 sitting behind them. If seat No. 9 had the medium pocket pair that I thought he had, and we were heads up, he almost certainly would call me with such a huge pot at stake. But, it became much tougher for him to call two bets cold when he had to beat both seat No. 10 and me after we both had shown strength.

Seat No. 10, on the other hand, had no one left to act behind him. So, if the action was folded to him after my check-raise, he'd certainly call me with any made hand. The premise behind my bluff was that he didn't have anything with which he could keep me honest, in which case I'd be home free. I was getting more than 15-1 odds on my $60 bluff attempt, and my initial instinct was that it was worth the risk.

Upon Reflection
The problem is that I couldn't spend a lot of time making my decision. If I wanted my bluff to be believable, I had to do it quickly and decisively. But if I had been able to take some time and think about it, I would have realized that my bluff was destined to fail, for two mainreasons:

1. My hope was that seat No. 10 could have a busted flush draw. But being a solid player, it was unlikely that he called two bets preflop with two small clubs. Since I had the ace, it was extremely likely that if he had a flush draw, he had the K in his hand. So, even if I thought he could have a busted draw, his most likely busted draw gave him top pair on the river, with which he'd obviously call.

2. But the main reason my bluff couldn't work is that as a knowledgeable player, he was also fully aware of The Last Line of Defense concept! In other words, he had some moves to his game, and would sometimes attempt a bluff into multiple opponents, but he would never have done it in this case with seat No. 9 as The Last Line of Defense against him. Since seat No. 9 clearly had a pocket pair, he unquestionably would have called seat No. 10's bet if the action was folded to him. Calling $30 into a $900-plus pot would have been a complete no-brainer. Seat No. 10 would have realized that, and never would have attempted a bluff in that spot. In my haste, I overlooked the obvious.

In case you are curious, seat No. 4 folded immediately after I check-raised. Seat No. 9 looked like he knew something was fishy, but he also folded. Appropriately enough, seat No. 9 turned out to have had pocket nines. Seat No. 10 looked at me and said, "Pocket kings? No way. I think I've got you, but I'll just call." I meekly turned up my A 7, and he produced the 2 2 to take the pot with his full house.

When applied correctly, The Last Line of Defense concept can lead to some great bluffing situations in multiway pots. Unfortunately, this was not one of those situations. Hopefully, I'll get it right next time.

Matt Lessinger is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker, available everywhere. Go to www.CardPlayer.com in order to find other articles of Matt's.