Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
There are numerous types of small bluffs.
There are numerous types of small bluffs. When you raise from late position and an opponent calls, you should bet the flop with your entire range. You will miss 2/3 of the time, and when that occurs you will be bluffing. This is fine, because these continuation bets will be for small amounts. As the pot grows larger, you will only continue betting if you have a strong hand.
To semi-bluff is to bluff when you have outs
To semi-bluff is to bluff when you have outs to improve if called. I love semi-bluffs because they balance your range while allowing you to bluff and put pressure on opponents. Here’s an example. You raise K-Q to 2.5BBs from middle position and your opponent on the button calls. You both have around 50BBs. The flop comes J-10-3. You make a continuation bet of 3.5BBs and he raises to 10BBs. This is an excellent spot for an all-in semi-bluff raise. Your opponent will fold a wide range of hands, and if he calls, you still have around 40-percent equity, even if he only calls with sets, A-J, K-J, Q-J and J-10. So, after he raises to 10BBs, there are 20BBs in the pot and you are bluffing around 34BBs more into it.