Mini Bluffing

This is a basic strategy that I read somewhere or another and it can be very effective when used correctly.

Let me give you an example. Say you are in a tournament and the blinds are 100/200. Someone raises to 600 and you look down at TJs. You decide to call this raise and everyone folds, so it's just the two of you in the hand. The flop comes 279. This hand doesn't help you at all but you have to figure it doesn't help your opponent either. It does give you an inside straight draw, but you don't want to try to chase that. Your opponent bets the minimum, 200. This is a weak bet and is probably telling you that he has two over cards and he missed this flop completely. Now two over cards means he's probably got you beat. So you can lay this down or bluff at it. Now a good bluff would be to come over the top by a good chunk. If he truly missed the flop and has only 2 overs then he'll toss it away. But if you bet 200 more, the minimum, he'll probably call hoping to improve on the river and because your minimum raise is likely going to confuse him if he has any experience at all. Let's say the turn comes 7 and pairs the board, this doesn't help you at all and again probably misses your opponent. Your opponent confused by your small reraise checks to you and you fire out a big bet of 600. This causes him to lay his hand down because you are representing a hand and have been.

Now let's look at this same scenario another way. Let's say you decide he missed the flop just the way you did before and want to bluff at it. Instead of raising just the minimum you fire out a big overraise, say 600. This causes him to fold at the flop because it is too expensive to see the next card now. So you just lost 200 extra.

Let's say instead of two overcards he has a high pocket pair like QQ. This is a great flop for him because there are no scare cards. You still think he missed the flop and you fire out your 200 raise to his 200 bet, instead of calling this time he comes over the top and reraises you. You can now put him on the pocket pair and lay down your hand. But if you had thrown out a large bluff trying to buy the pot right there and he came over the top now you've lost a lot of chips that you didn't need to.

Mini bluffing can really give you a lot of information without a big risk to your chip stack. It's not something you want do very often, but adding it to your bag of tricks can pay big dividends in the long run.

I love this concept and have been trying to use it for a long time. IF someone bets out the minimum and i have some chips to play with i almost always raise 3x and even if they stubbornly call this one a bet of 5X the blind will normally get them off their hand assuming they did not hit on the turn.

This can also be used in reverse. If you know you are playing an agressive player and you have a big hand bet out the minimum and let them raise you. If the flop is a spread rainbow just smooth call check the turn then check raise the turn. If there are draws on the flop come over the top for a good portion of yours (or his) chips right then and there.

It works most of the time but be careful when they come right back over the top of you.

I was playing a SnG when I read your post. I got AJs and called the raise 2x BB. Flop comes 345 and I (just read you post) bet 200 and got called. Turn comes 4 and I think: hey the board paired. So I make a 1,200 bet and got called. River comes 9 and I think what the hey and go All In with 595 left and got called. Maybe my opponent had A with a lower kicker and I would win. I was correct about the A but the lower kicker was a 4!!! I got slowplayed!! I think you forgot to mention that in your post.

"I got slowplayed"...lol....you sound like a chick that never got called the next day....haha..

Back to the post...yes, this can be very effective and is very good to have in your Bag o' Tricks but I would not recomend using more than once at the same table....Good players will catch on and it is very easy to trap someone using this strategy......Or, you can also use this strategy to get a free card if you are up against a tricky player.....By taking the lead in the hand on the flop, if your opponent has a strong hand ( and is a tricky player) they are likely to check to you on the turn, hoping that you raise, but you just check to get a free card.....I often bet in late postion with Flush draws for this very reason but you have to be confident that the other player has a made hand for this to be truly effective.

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Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.

These are some very good posts. Very informative. Us novice players have this happen to us all the time. I know you said not to do this more than once at a table but I was in a game yesterday when this guy with the chip lead was doing it like every other hand. Now unless I wanted to risk a good percentage of my chips I just bowed down if I didnt hit the flop. Eventually his lead got bigger and he became more aggressive. Any suggestions on how to battle this sort of thing?

Well, this is a problem that everyone has ( and BTW, most of us here are novice players also, we have varying degrees of skill, but novice just the same). It is very hard to play against a player with a ton of chips and is bashing people with them....The only thing you really can do it TIGHTEN up...I mean real tight....and then the rest depends on your postion in relation to the aggressive player....If he is acting after you, I would probably just limp or min raise and hope he comes over the top. This is not a good situation though. Ideally, you want the aggressive player to act before you ( although you have no control of this is a tourney), that way you already know what his action is on the hand and can act accordingly. If I have position on the Aggresive player and he folds, then you can loosen up your starting hand requirements a bit.....If he has raised and you have a very good hand ( TT, pocket faces or aces, AK, or MAYBE AQ) then you just push and one of 2 things will happen.....he will fold and be less aggressive with you or he will call with a lesser hand and it is up to the Poker Gods ...now if you are getting really, really shortstacked, then you are in bad shape. You basically need to push on the next marginal hand you get, even a hand like T9 suited or Ax suited.

That is just my personal opinion on how to deal with a bully...I am sure others may play it differently but I think we all will agree on this: A poker bully is just like a bully on the playground. They often act super-aggressive because they dont want to get played back at and use the aggression as a scare tactic but once you stand up to them and beat them, they tend to settle down a bit.

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Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.

When playing against a bully who is pushing everyone around with his chip stack there is very little you can do except play extremely tight as Franky said. When I get in these situations I don't come into a hand unless he's already folded the hand or I have a hand that I'm willing to risk all my chips for. This generally works pretty well as long as you get one or two hands that qualify before you get blinded out, but sometimes you don't get so lucky. I've sat at tournaments like this and watched the bully knock player after player out with crap hands. Someone would finally catch something they want to call with like AKo and the bully pushes them all in with 72 and catches the board. I've never seen any stats to confirm this but I swear I think the cards favor those with a larger chip stack.