Nice Bluff! - Part II

On one of my recent trips, while playing in another big live tournament, I again got myself into a very marginal situation - just as I did in the hand in my last column. Again, I had tried to unsuccessfully reraise someone off a hand, and when my move got called, I reached the river with a hand that could never win in a showdown. Here's what happened:

It's the middle stage of a tournament, and I have an average stack. We are at the 150-300 level with a 25 ante, and I have around 13,000. A few rather weak limpers get into the pot, and with the 8 6, I complete my small blind. Five players see the flop, Q 10 4. Having just a small flush draw, and with two cards in the "playing zone," I decide to check. It gets checked around, and the turn is the 8. I now have third pair, and even though that is a very weak holding against this board, there is of course a slight chance that my opponents don't hold much, either. I choose to make a smallish 450 bet into the 1,725 pot. Everybody folds to the button, who quickly raises to 1,425.

I quickly decide that this player almost certainly doesn't have much. With a queen or a 10, he definitely would have bet on this flop, being the last player to act. And with J-9, he would have had an open-ender on the flop, and given the characteristics of this player, I think he would have bet that more often than not. All in all, I don't sense much strength, and I am fully aware that my opponent might think that because I'm in the small blind and have bet just one-fourth of the pot on the turn after the flop was checked around, I am not necessarily loaded for bear, either. Since I figure that he could very well be raising me for this exact reason, rather than because of having a premium hand, I decide to represent more strength than I actually have. I reraise to 4,100, specifically representing J-9, and fully expecting that my opponent will fold to my semibluff.

However, he calls. And when the awful-looking J comes on the river, I suddenly have absolutely nothing. Even if it was
possible that my opponent was just drawing on the turn and that my pair of eights was still good, this jack on the river has completed every draw that he could possibly have had. In other words, with my fourth pair, no kicker, it is back to the old question, should I go for the bluff or not?

I take my time, and start yapping to my opponent about whether or not he has seen that the last card is a pretty scary one, and that if he has just one single 9 in his hand, he has a straight. Sensing that he is a little bit uncomfortable, and just trying to show faith, I decide that he does not have a straight. He still might call my bet with a one- or two-pair holding, but I am quite certain that he doesn't have a straight, let alone the nuts (A-K).

Knowing that he has exactly 4,750 left, I decide to bet an even five grand, enough to put him all in. And, indeed, just as was the case with the bluff in my last column, my opponent thinks my bet is a bit suspicious - but doesn't have the courage to make the call and see if he is right.

So, I win a very nice pot when things did not exactly go my way. After I made a good semibluff reraise on the turn, my opponent did something that I didn't want him to do (call). And then on the river, a card came that I'm fairly certain must have helped him. Given the way he talked and acted on the river, I think his most likely hand was J-10 or J-8, for two pair. But the combination of my solid image and taking the time to get a good read on my opponent helped me come to the conclusion that despite the fact that this was not a board that one could easily bluff into, it was still the proper choice.

After I won the hand, my opponent asked: "You really did have the straight?" No fewer than two players at my table answered: "Well, I am pretty sure he already had it on the turn." Feeling rather pleased with myself, I raked in the pot. Not only had I successfully bluffed my opponent out of a huge pot to obtain more ammunition, it also seemed that my tight, solid, and reliable image had remained intact.

With the above-average stack that I now had, I could get far into this event, of course, and maybe even pull off another successful bluff in the future.

Rolf has been a professional cash-game player since 1998. He is the author of the successful Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha, and the co-author of Hold'em on the Come. He is the creator and presenter of the hold'em four-DVD set Rolf Slotboom's Winning Plays. He is the first-ever Dutch Champion, and maintains his own site at www.rolfslotboom.com.