Make it Easy for Your Opponents to Make Mistakes

We all make mistakes. One of the most important things that you can do is to make it easy for your opponents to make mistakes, but strangely enough, many players try to make it as hard as possible for their opponents to make a mistake. There are players who bluff a lot on the river. Many of them bluff way too much. This means that they are making mistakes. You can take advantage of these mistakes by frequently calling these bets. It also means that you should do everything you can to encourage them to keep on bluffing too much, and nothing that will discourage them. Yet, I continually see players snap-call in these spots. Someone picks off the bluff, and sometimes even gloats about it. This, of course, discourages the bluffer. He almost certainly will bluff less, especially against this opponent. The best strategy is to think for a while. Appear to come close to folding, and finally make a “crying” call. When you win the pot, emphasize how close you were to folding. Don’t do anything that might discourage him from bluffing again.

Sometimes an opponent raises or three-bets. Some of these times, you are pot-committed. Not all of the hands with which you are willing to become committed are equal. Sometimes you will be fairly weak, but at other times, you may be quite strong. Likewise, your opponent may have a fairly wide range. When he is at the top of his range, he will almost always get all in with you. When he isn’t, he will have to decide what to do. In general, if there is more money left after your bet, he may feel that he has some fold equity. If he thinks that is the case, he will commit with a much bigger range. This implies that when you want him to commit (you are at the top of your range), you should try to convince him that there is still some fold equity.

Here is a simple example: Stack sizes are around 20 big blinds. Let’s suppose that an aggressive player raises to three times the big blind from early position, the button calls, and you have aces in the big blind. Pretty sweet! You want to reraise. If you overbet, and make it clear that you are pot-committed — say, by making a reraise to 12 or more big blinds — it will be obvious that they have no fold equity. Therefore, both the raiser and the caller will fold all but their strongest hands. If, instead, you make a smaller reraise — say, to only eight big blinds — either one of them may suspect that you are attempting a squeeze play. (This play is designed to force the raiser out, since he has to fear not only your hand, but that of the caller behind him.) And as far as they are concerned, they may have some fold equity. They suspect that you probably won’t want to put in the rest of your stack with a marginal hand. This line allows them to make the mistake of getting all in with a much wider range.

Let’s suppose that you are close to the money in a big tournament. A lot of the players appear to be playing very cautiously, hoping to make the money. You have accumulated a large stack via generally conservative play, and now decide to start picking on some of the medium stacks who don’t want to risk going broke before they cash. One of the players with a medium stack raises from late position. You seize the opportunity and three-bet with 7-2 offsuit. He quickly folds. Don’t even consider showing the bluff. You don’t want to discourage your opponents from folding in the future. You go on to pull the same maneuver two more times over the next half-hour. Then, the floorman announces that it is now hand-for-hand play. You try your reraise play again. Someone is knocked out at another table, and everyone cheers. Your opponent quickly folds. Now, you might consider showing the bluff. Why? Because now that everyone is in the money, the short stacks and some of the medium stacks will start to gamble with very marginal hands. You will be forced to tighten up and go back to your conservative mode. By showing that bluff, some of your opponents may decide that you are a loose player or a frequent bluffer. This will cause them to make mistakes against you — and you always want to encourage them to make mistakes. ♠

Steve “Zee” Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A — Nice Guy Eddie’s at Houston and Doc Holliday’s at 9th Street — in New York City.