Card Player Pro

In this column, we will take a look at a hand that took place during a $25-$50 session on PokerStars. My opponent was a high-stakes regular who plays $25-$50 and higher on a regular basis and is a very capable player. We both had around $8,000 in our stacks.

Game	Six-handed $25-$50 cash game on PokerStars
Opponent	high-stakes regular "iluvdnfl"
Stacks	$8,000 (me) vs. $8,000
My Cards	K 10
My Position	Big blind

Everyone folded around to the small blind, who opened to $150. Whenever this happens, you can call from the big blind with a fairly wide range of hands. Because you are closing the action and have position after the flop, this is a good spot to play loose and aggressive poker. Part of playing a well-rounded six-max game is knowing when to play tight and when to change gears and play fast and loosely.

I called $100 more with my K 10. The flop came A J 8. The small blind bet $200 and I called. I called here for a number of reasons. For one, I have a reasonable chance of having the best hand. King high is rarely the best hand, but with this action and board texture, it has an OK chance of being the best. I can also bluff on a later street if I call here, and there is always the bonus four-outer to the nut straight.

The turn card was an offsuit 3. My opponent fired out a bet of $555. With this bet, I can no longer call. Part of the reason I called the flop was to possibly get a chance to either take a free card and get closer to showdown or take a stab at the pot myself to try to take it down. Now, I can either fold or raise, if I think I can get him to fold. This is a pretty good spot to make a bluff-raise. The reason is that there are many hands he would bet for value or as a semibluff here that would turn into "bluff catchers" if I raised him. What that means is, the hands are rarely beating any hand I would raise for value; they are beating only hands I would have that are bluffs. Even if he has A-K here and I raise him, he can be pretty sure that I would never raise a worse hand for value, so he is left to decide if I bluffed or not. If he does not think I am bluffing and he can fold a hand as good as A-K here, he is folding a large percentage of the hands with which he followed up on the turn bet.

I decided to raise to $1,450. I felt that this amount would make it look like I was very likely to follow up on the river with a big bet. Part of the value in a turn semibluff is the ability to make it look like you are going to bet big again on the river. That way, your opponent not only is facing the initial raise, but also has to consider that he might have to risk facing another big bet. It is important when making a bluff to always consider how the bet will be perceived from the opponent's point of view. Make sure that you are representing a realistic range of hands. Try not to bluff when you cannot credibly represent a wide range of value-raising hands.

In this spot, I was happy to see my opponent fold, and I won the pot. The "delayed" bluff-raise used here can be easily overused. I had not done this to my opponent at all, so I would not expect him to put me on a bluff very often in this spot. The dynamic you have with your opponent is yet another factor in deciding when to execute a bluff. Staying sharp and focused on all those factors will surely improve your ability to bluff.

To watch Dani Stern comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/ansky6.