In this post we are going to have a look at what makes some of the best hands to bluff with, we are going to want to counter aggression from our opponents with occasional re-bluffs or we run the risk of just playing too tight and only ever playing with value hands.
So we are going to look at when to get aggressive and try and win the pot with not much in our hand…
Gutshot straight and backdoor flush draw
$1/$2 $200 Deep
BTN: Raises to $6
Hero in BB: calls with Q♠ 7♠
Flop: 8♠ 4♥ 6♣
Hero: Checks
BTN: Bets $4.25
Hero: ?
This hand makes a good check-raise bluff, let’s look at why…
We have almost no showdown value with our Queen high, but we have a draw to the nuts and we can hit good cards on the turn where we can continue betting without having hit our hand because we also have a backdoor flush draw.
Let’s compared this to a hand like A♠ 7♠ for example…. well with this type of hand we would have more showdown value with the Ace high, so there would be less incentive for us to choose this type of hand as a bluff and we could more easily just call a C-bet on this board.
Flush draw Combos
$1/$2 $200 Deep
BTN: Raises to $6
Hero in BB: calls with 7♠ 8♠
Flop: 9♠ 2♠ 6♦
Hero: Checks
BTN: Bets $7
Hero: ?
This hand makes a great check-raise semi-bluff candidate, let’s look at why this is…
We don’t actually have a good hand right now, but we have great equity in this pot… even when we are up against a hand as strong as top set!
So with this type of hand, we are going to want to bloat the pot as large as possible right now whilst we have solid equity, this way we stop our opponent making a hand with their equity on later streets and we can just win the pot on the flop with our 8 high holding.
Raising With Open-Enders
$1/$2 $200 Deep
BTN: Raises to $6
Hero in BB: calls with T♠ 9♣
Flop: 8♠ 3♠ 7♦
Hero: Checks
BTN: Bets $6.50
Hero: ?
Once again this will be a good bluffing hand for us to use…
We would much rather use a hand like this to check-raise with rather than a hand with a pair on this board, with those hands we will just be able to call and try and get to showdown.
But with this type of holding, just having Ten high in this pot is not too good for a call, however, if we try and raise with this hand we can possibly win the pot with a raise and even when we are called we have a draw to the nuts and a back door spade draw.
Nut Flush Draw
$1/$2 $200 Deep
BTN: Raises to $6
Hero in BB: calls with A♣ 9♥
Flop: Q♣ 2♣ 5♣
Hero: Checks
BTN: Bets $5
Hero: ?
Many people make raises on board like this one, but calling is better, here’s the argument why…
If we raise a board like this every time with our draw we will be over bluffing, so working in some calls with our nut draw is a good idea as if we are 3-bet by our opponent here we will not be in a good spot against any hands that will happily continue on this board.
Calling here is good, we keep in some hands that might make good second-best hands where we win a lot of money like 2nd or 3rd nut flushes, also we have showdown value with our Ace high and hitting our overcard could be good for us. So with plenty of equity and showdown value, we are going to want to try and realise this, so keeping the pot smaller on the flop will benefit us here.
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