TOP #11 - The Semi-Bluff

[wallenborn]

A semi-bluff is a bet with a hand which, if called, does not figure to be the best hand at the moment but has a reasonable chance of outdrawing those hands that initially called it.

Types of Semi-Bluffs

Betting on the come is the most commonly used form of the semi-bluff. But semi-bluffs can be much more varied and often more complex than that. They can range from almost pure bluffs, when your hand has little chance of catching up when your bet is called, to a bet that may possibly be the best hand.

Betting is particular important when you are in first position, in which case you should apply the following rule: If your hand is worth a call or almost worth a call when someone else bets, it is better to bet yourself, especially when you have little fear of a raise and when there is some chance you will win right there by making your opponent fold.

Advantages of the Semi-Bluff

[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] The semi-bluff tends to make your opponent play incorrectly according to the Fundamental Theorem of Poker.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] If your hand is the best hand right now, you don't give your opponent a free card.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] It adds deceptiveness to your game by making subsequent cards that help you only moderately look very dangerous, while making cards that give you a big hand look insignificant.


Semi-Bluffs and Pure Bluffs

There are numerous situations where a pure bluff would not work often enough to be profatable, but where a semi-bluff is more profitable than simply checking and hoping to draw out and win in the showdown. In these situations, both a pure bluff and a value bet by itself would be wrong, but the combination of the two possibilities, winning with a bluff or winning by improving to the best hand, makes the semi-bluff not just a good play but a mandatory one.


When Not to Semi-Bluff

A semi-bluff can be profitable because it sometimes works as a bluff and sometimes lets you improve to the best hand. It is the combination of these circumstances that makes the semi-bluff profitable. Therefore, it is important ti realize that you usually don't semi-bluff if you are sure you are going to be called, bevause then the bluff aspect of your bet has vanished, you are only betting for value, and this is clearly wrong if you are the underdog.



Older threads:

TOP #1 - Beyond Beginning Poker
TOP #2 - Mathematical Expectation and Hourly Rate
TOP #3 - The Fundamental Theorem of Poker
TOP #4 - The Ante Structure
TOP #5 - Pot Odds
TOP #6 - Effective Odds
TOP #7 - Implied Odds and Reverse Implied Odds
TOP #8 - The Value of Deception
TOP #9 - Win the Big Pots Right Away
TOP #10 - The Free Card