Card Player Pro

When we were children, our parents sat us down to tell us a story before bed each night. While some had ogres and some had magic, the lone unifying factor in all of them was quite simple: The plot made sense. Bluffing in poker is extremely similar. Even the best intentions can fail miserably if your story does not make sense. In tournaments, we usually find ourselves in situations where our bluffs manifest themselves in the form of preflop steals; thus, the only thing you need to worry about is your opponents' opening and calling ranges. In other words, the story does not really matter preflop. However, when you are lucky enough to get extremely deep in a tournament or a final table, the stacks usually get deeper. In deep-stack play, more post-flop bluffing opportunities arise.

This column should help you in two ways. First, it should help you find spots to bluff for yourself, and second, it should help you in the task of picking off bluffs from your opponents.

Game	Final table of a PokerStars $100+$9 no-limit hold'em tournament
Blinds	3,500-7,000 with a 700 ante
Opponent	Aggressive player in the small blind
Stacks	921,000 (me) vs. 441,000
My Cards	6 6
My Position	Big Blind

In this hand, we were five-handed in a $100 freezeout, and I was holding the 6 6 in the big blind. We were playing extremely deep, and I had more than 100 big blinds. It was folded to the small blind, who raised to 2.5 times the big blind. I decided to flat-call with position. The flop came K Q Q and my opponent checked. When he checks in this spot, we should be able to take this pot down quite often, as his range is basically any two cards. I bet approximately 28,000 into a pot of more than 40,000. However, my opponent then check-raised, making it 77,000 to go. Now, let us analyze this bet. His check-raise makes sense in four scenarios:

1. A semibluff - Hands like A-10, J-10, A-J, or a flush draw might try to push me off a lead here.

2. Turning a king into a bluff - Hands like K-8 and lower may try to turn a weak king into a bluff here by raising.

3. A queen - A queen likely would check-raise this flop, especially with two hearts out there.

4. Air - I do not think this is terribly likely here, although there is always a possibility that our villain is raising with air to try to steal this pot.

As you can see in three of these four scenarios (including the two most likely), I am either behind to a king or I am an underdog in the hand if we go to showdown, to a flush draw with straight outs (such as the 10 9). Even flush draws without the added straight outs (such as the 8 7) are ahead of me mathematically.

However, many of these hands are either weak or speculative, and will likely fold to another raise. Let's take a look at what my most likely scenarios are on a four-bet:

1. A queen - A queen of any strength (outside of K-Q) would likely play this hand the same way.

2. A huge draw - The J 10, A J, A 10, and possibly the 10 9 would all likely play this hand the same.

3. A slow-played monster - In this hand specifically, this would likely mean A-A.

4. A bluff - There aren't many semibluffs out there, so a total bluff would be our only option.

As we can see, all of my hand scenarios except a pure bluff are very strong, so we should elicit a fold from our opponent the majority of the time. In addition, and just as crucial, our stacks were deep enough to reraise and fold if faced with an all in from our opponent. However, it gains extra strength by reading our opponent's story. The main idea is not to start bluffing nonstop, as that is far from optimal. But, listen to the stories your opponents are telling, and when they do not make sense, take advantage.

To watch Justin Rollo comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/jurollo-6.