Bluffing In 2-7 Triple Draw

I’ve been playing mixed games regularly lately and it’s been a great break from the monotony of no-limit hold ‘em. We start a new table, pick which games we want to play (Usually limit hold ‘em, Omaha eight-or-better, Stud eight-or-better, 2-7 triple draw, Badugi, and Razzdugi), and get going. We play eight hands of each game and since almost every other game in the room is hold ‘em, our game turns some heads. Stud is a novelty to see and the draw games look like some sort of alien game to a hold ‘em player.

I was playing in another game while I waited for the mixed game to start and one of the players who noticed I’ve been playing that game quite often was asking me a few questions about it. After some rules explanations and discussion of some basic ideas about a few of the games, he said this: “The thing I don’t like about limit games is that you can’t bluff because the pots are so big and nobody ever folds.” Ah yes, I’ve been hearing this one for ages. It is definitely more difficult to get a bluff through in limit games, but it happens all the time. I’m going to discuss some good examples from one of my recent sessions. I’ll discuss one hand this week and one in my following column.

Both of these hands are from 2-7 triple draw. In this game, you’re looking to make the worst possible five-card hand by the end, with aces being high and straights and flushes counting against you. The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 with at least two suits. It is played with a button and blinds and after everyone is dealt five cards, there are alternating rounds of betting and drawing new cards.

The first hand is from a four-handed game and Under-the-Gun raises, the small blind calls, and I call in the big blind with 3-3-5-6-6. Yes, 3-5-6 isn’t a premium hand, but getting 5-1 is wonderful and my two discards are good for me because there are two fewer cards in the deck that can pair me on future streets and I’m getting rid of two cards that others in the hand would possibly want. Everyone draws two cards and I now have 3-5-6(7-5). Not a great draw for me, but still pretty good, as I have improved to a one-card draw (a mediocre one, but one nonetheless) and I’ve paired another crucial card. Both of the blinds check and the original raiser bets. Both blinds call and we’re off to the second draw, where everyone takes one card. I catch a 7 for 3-5-6-7(7). I’ve caught bad news/good news again, as I paired a card in my hand, but it’s a crucial card to my opponents that they can no longer catch. This time everyone checks, so we get to see the last draw for free. We all draw one again and I catch a 3, making my final hand 3-5-6-7(3). A pair is not usually a winning hand in this game. The small blind bets and I raise. He calls with 2-4-5-6-7 (The fourth-best possible hand) and wins.

I don’t usually like to bluff when I’ve paired my lowest card, but this was a special circumstance. First of all, it was a three-way pot. One of the reasons not to bluff raise with your smallest pairs is that if your opponent is bluffing, it’s probably with a worse hand than you have and perhaps they’ll fold some of their worst value bets like a good jack-high, but most of the time that they’re folding, they have a worse hand. Because of the presence of that third person though, I don’t really care if the small blind is bluffing with worse than my hand and he only folds when he’s bluffing because I might be able to get the third player in the pot to fold a better hand than both of ours and I have an extra bet to leverage that situation. For instance, if I can get him to fold a mediocre 10 low or even a decent 9 that he would have overcalled the river with, I’ve made a ton of money for myself when the small blind is bluffing with worse and even more if I can get them both to fold better hands.

The second major component that plays into bluffing in this situation is the extra information I have in the form of discarded cards. By the river, I know that there are only one 3, two 2s, two 5s, two 6s, and two 7s left in the deck. Of the twenty-four cards that are needed to make a 7 low, thirteen remain. This significantly decreases the possibility that our opponent has a 7 low. We also cut pretty deeply into their ability to make an 8 or 9 low. As such, their value-betting range is considerably smaller as well. Since they are more likely to have a hand that is a bluff in this situation than usual because of card removal, I felt my raise with my bottom card paired was a profitable one.

This week we took a look at an interesting spot where card removal and a three-way pot made for a good situation to bluff. Next time we’ll look at another common bluffing situation where my opponent attempts to get me to break a better hand than his with one draw to come. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG