Inducing Bluffs on the River in Poker
When you are playing in a hand out of position and have a made hand, the most common situation you will find yourself in is deciding whether to value bet the river or trying to induce a bluff. Having the ability to put your opponents on a range of hands and knowing their playing style will enable you to make better decisions.
This mistake new players tend to make is they just bet their strong hands without much thought as to what their opponent could have. This is not extracting maximum value from your hands because your opponent can’t call when they have nothing, and you are not giving them the opportunity to bluff.
Here is an example of where I decided that inducing a bluff on the river was the best play.
Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
CO: $28.74 (115 bb)
BTN: $43.69 (174.8 bb)
Hero (SB): $44.15 (176.6 bb)
BB: $26.49 (106 bb)
Pre-Flop: Hero is SB with Qd Qh
CO folds, BTN calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1, BB calls $0.75, BTN folds
Flop: ($2.25) 3c 7h 3d (2 players)
Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50
Turn: ($5.25) Th (2 players)
Hero bets $3.25, BB calls $3.25
River: ($11.75) Qs (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $8, Hero raises to $38.40 and is all-in, BB folds
Results: $27.75 pot ($1.38 rake)
Hero mucked Qd Qh (a full house, Queens full of Threes) and won $26.37 ($12.62 net)
Preflop I raise which is standard with a premium hand like QQ in the SB in an unraised pot. The BTN was always limping in and I wanted to get the fish heads up, however the BB decided to flat call and the BTN folds.
On the flop I make a continuation bet which gets called. Considering it’s a dry flop villain would call the flop with pretty much their entire range. Although it was a small sample size, my opponent had a low VPIP/PFR so I felt that their continuing range on the flop consisted of medium pocket pairs and they could also be floating the flop with overcards.
I bet the turn for value. Medium pocket pairs would continue on this turn card and if they were floating the flop and picked up more outs with a possible flush or straight draw, I wanted them to pay to see the river card. After my opponent called the turn, I was still putting them on a pretty weak hand such as a draw or weak pair.
On the river I make the top full house. All the draws missed. I didn’t see much point in value betting the river, because a medium pocket pair could not call a river bet on this board and would likely just check back the river because they have showdown value. Also, missed draws made up a big part of their range in this spot. Even though I didn’t have much history playing against this player, due to the fact that missed draws made up such a big part of their range, the only way they could win the pot was by bluffing the river, so I decide to check the river card to set a trap with the plan of check raising. The plan worked, villain makes a big river bet and I move all-in and they fold.
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