Bluffing the Turn: Jonathan Little Barrels Again When Board Doesn��t Change
Today I��m sharing one more hand from the same World Series of Poker event we��ve been looking at over recent weeks, last summer��s Event #25: $5,000 No-Limit Hold��em Eight Handed where I managed to make the final table and finish sixth.
By this point the money bubble has just burst and there are a little over 50 players left in the event. The blinds are 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante, and I have a stack of about 200,000 to start the hand (around 50 big blinds).
Having been dealt A?9? in the small blind, I decided to make a fairly standard reraise versus a cutoff raiser. After missing the K?Q?7? flop I made a continuation bet with nothing, then decided to fire again on a 3? turn card that did not appear to help either of us.
It is important to figure out how wide your opponent will call your flop continuation bet. Most players have a specific point in each hand where they revert to playing straightforwardly. Some will play straightforwardly on the flop, some will call with a wide range on the flop then play straightforwardly on the turn, and some will go all the way to the river before playing in a straightforward manner.
If you constantly focus on your opponents�� strategies, you will be able to make educated guesses as to when you should continue betting as a bluff, even when the board doesn��t change.
Watch as I describe my thoughts both before and after the flop in this hand, and see what happens after I fire that second barrel on the turn:
How would you have played this hand? Let me know your thoughts in a comment below.
That wraps up the hands I��m analyzing from this $5K WSOP event. You can check out the earlier ones here:
- ��How to Get Full Value After Flopping a Set��
- ��Jonathan Little Flops a Marginal Top Pair in a Three-Bet Pot Versus Tuan Le��
- ��Responding to Weakness: When the Preflop Raiser Checks Behind on the Flop��
- ��Tournament Hand Analysis: Protecting Your Stack vs. Maximizing Value��
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,200,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
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