Poker Strategy with Full Tilt Poker's Chris Ferguson: When to Semi-Bluff
Team Full Tilt Pro Chris Ferguson explains the difference between a bluff and a semi-bluff and demonstrates the principle with a hand he played at Full Tilt Poker.
I see a lot of players these days bluff-raise with absolute air with no chance to win the pot. When I bluff-raise, I like to have some kind of draw, some kind of chance to win if I��m called. My bluff-raises tend to be much more of a semi-bluff raise. Now, the question is: when should you semi-bluff?
You should semi-bluff when you have a good chance of the opponent folding a better hand. If he��s not folding hands that beat yours, it��s not a bluff. You don��t necessarily need to bet because you could beat these hands anyway. The other ingredient is that you have to do reasonably well against the hands he��s going to call you with. So, first you can get him to fold, and second, even if he calls, there��s a chance that you��ll actually win the pot �C a huge pot.
Here��s a hand where I semi-bluffed rereaised: 9 handed, $1/$2 no-limit hold��em, UTG+3, effective stacks 80BB.
I had the 7?8?. It��s folded to me and I put in a small raise. Not a very strong hand here, and I wouldn��t always do this, but I think it��s important to occasionally play a hand like this in early middle position. I make it two times the big blind, and it��s folded around to the big blind who calls.
Now he could have pretty much anything. I put in a min-raise and a lot of players will call here with a reasonably wide range of hands. But a big advantage I have is the advantage of position and having raised before the flop, so I��m representing a much stronger hand than I have.
Flop comes 9?10?3? �C I have a decent draw here. It is to the ignorant end of the straight (if a jack comes, maybe he has king-queen and I��m in trouble), but it��s still an open-ended straight draw, which is actually a reasonably powerful hand.
He checks it to me, and the obviously play is to bet. You��re really supposed to be when you��re the aggressor before the flop, and this is a clear case where the right play is to bet. So I bet $5, and my opponent makes it $19. A lot of people might consider folding this hand, but I really don��t like folding this hand, and I don��t really like calling here either because it��s kind of a weak hand.
So I put in a semi-bluff reraise, I make it $49. I really want to put pressure on my opponent. I have an open-ended straight draw and I do well against his range of hands �C even if he has a set, I have eight outs.
So I have eight outs against a lot of his hands and I think I can get him to fold a lot here. If he has a nine, I can probably get him to fold that �C maybe some of his tens. And if he��s really got a monster, I��ve still got eight outs.
So this hand turned out well. I semi-bluff reraised and won the pot there on the flop.
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