PokerCoaching.com Quiz: Bluffing Off In Multi-Way Pot

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You are seven-handed playing a $1,000 live tournament. You have a 90,000 stack with the blinds at 1,500-3,000 with a 3,000 big blind ante. The lojack raises to 6,000 and the cutoff calls. You are in the big blind with 10 8.

Question 1: Should you fold, call, reraise to 24,000, or go all-in?

Answer: While your hand certainly is not strong, it is not so weak that you fold. Similarly, the fact that you are unsuited, out of position, and down in your range, means you should never reraise this as a bluff or for value. Given the pot odds and the connectedness, check and see the flop.

You check, making the pot 22,500. The flop comes K 7 5 and everyone checks. The turn is the 6.

Question 2: Should you check, bet 10,000, bet 20,000 or bet 30,000?

Answer: Because action checked through on the flop, you can begin to discount many value hands your opponents might have. In general, in multi-way pots, you are heavily incentivized to bet your value hands (like top pair) and high-equity hands (like flush draws). Therefore, you have actually shifted to having a range advantage because you can absolutely have flushes that got there on the turn as well as straights and two pair type hands.

Your exact hand is still only 10-high, but you have an open-ended straight draw, a bit of a range advantage, and you can easily fold if your bet gets raised. Therefore, betting small is the preferred option because it achieves all of your goals while minimizing your risk.

You bet 10,000 and only the cutoff calls, making the pot 42.500. The river is the J.

Question 3: Should you check, bet 20,000, bet 40,000, go all-in?

Answer: This is a great spot to over-bet jam all-in to apply maximum pressure on your opponent’s likely marginal range. Continuing the assumption that your opponent is extremely capped and the fact that you could easily take a similar line if you had a flush, going all-in continues the story you have been telling and forces your opponent to make a massive decision for all their chips.

You push all-in and your opponent tanks for a while before folding, showing pocket queens. Nice bluff! ♠

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