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Give the Illusion of Fold Equity

Give the Illusion of Fold Equity One of the best ways to gain a lot of chips is to induce your opponent to bluff when he knows he has nothing but bluff equity. Checking on the river with the nuts from out of position is usually bad, but making a bet that makes your hand look mediocre will either get you calls from weaker hands or induce your opponents to try to bluff you off your hand. The best way to do this is to make a bet that leaves your opponent a stack size that makes him think you will usually fold to a raise. You need a fairly aggressive image to make this play, which should not be too hard if you are playing a fairly wide range of hands pre-flop, as you should in a large-buy-in tournament. Ideally you will raise a hand like 7-6 and see a flop like 7-6-2. If you are deep-stacked and you continuation-bet often, you should bet every time, as this board is unlikely to hit a standard raising range. Few opponents will fold on this board, as they will assume you are trying to pick up the pot with something like overcards. But sometimes your opponent will raise. When this happens, it is usually best to look a little sad and then call, hoping he bluffs the turn and river. Notice that if he has an overpair, there are few cards that will kill your hand. Sometimes an overcard to his overpair will peel off and cost you some action, but even then, you can value-bet the river when the turn checks through.

You should seldom re-raise the flop in these spots

You should seldom re-raise the flop in these spots because it is usually a disaster for your opponent to fold a large hand, like 10-10 on 7-6-2, as some tighter opponents will do if you show lots of aggression. He will assume you have a big pair or a set. Also, if your opponent is bluffing, he will fold every time if you go all-in, whereas he might fire again on the turn if you just call the flop raise.