Let Him Bluff

One of my friends recently told me about a situation that illustrates an important concept that you must master if you want to experience substantial success at poker. With blinds at 200-400 with a 50 ante, a tight, passive player limped from second position with a 60,000 (150 big blind) effective stack, another tight, straightforward player limped from third position, and my friend limped from the lojack seat with A 9. An overly aggressive player limped on the button, and both blinds came along as well. Multi-way pots are always fun!

Some people think that you must always raise the limpers, but I like my friend’s limp against tight players. Raising to about 2,200 may be the best play if he expects the first two limpers to fold a decent amount of the time, or if he expects them to call and then play straightforwardly after the flop.

The flop came A 8 2. Everyone checked to the overly aggressive player on the button who bet 1,400 into the 2,850 pot. Only the initial limper and my friend called.

I like my friend’s check if he got the vibe that the overly aggressive planned to bet. Notice that even if the flop checks through, his hand is not susceptible to many draws. If he is ahead on the flop, he will probably be ahead on the turn. The same applies to if he happens to be behind. When you are either way ahead or way behind, checking is a fine play when there are not many inferior hands that you can extract value from and there are few obviously bad turn cards, which is often the case on uncoordinated flops.

When facing a bet and a call, my friend is in a tricky spot. While the overly aggressive bettor can have anything, the caller must have something reasonable. Even against these two ranges, I think my friend should call. If his kicker was weaker, folding becomes an option because it is too likely one of the two players has him dominated.

The turn was the K. Everyone checked to the overly aggressive player, who bet 3,000 into the 7,050 pot. The first caller folded and my friend called.

At this point, calling is the only play that has any merit. While my friend loses to essentially all value hands, many overly aggressive players feel inclined to continue bluffing whenever given the opportunity, especially when they think their opponents are capped at top pair with a marginal kicker (because most people bet or check-raise their premium made hands on the flop). If the overly aggressive player is betting every or almost every hand in his range, my friend’s top pair with a marginal kicker is in excellent shape.

The river was the 7. Both players checked and my friend won with top pair.

My friend was wondering if he messed up on the river by checking instead of betting, but I think checking is the only play that makes any sense, given his read on the opponent. If my friend bets, his opponent will only call with top pair and better made hands. Notice that the overly aggressive player will certainly value bet with top pair and better made hands, meaning that by betting, my friend wins roughly the same amount from his opponent’s strong made hands while taking away the overly aggressive player’s opportunity to bluff. If your opponent has a wide range and is capable of bluffing, you should do everything in your power to give him a chance to bluff. Leading into him on the river takes it away, unless he is absolutely crazy and will make a large river raise with all sorts of junk. ♠

Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT champion with more than $6 million in tournament winnings. Each week, he posts an educational blog and podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com, where you can get a FREE poker training video that details five things you must master if you want to win at tournament poker. You can also sign up for his FREE Excelling at No Limit Hold’em webinars at HoldemBook.com/signup.