Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 02 June 2009 / Leave a comment

Big bet bluffs are one of the most important areas to understand in no limit and pot limit games.

For the most part, big bets indicate big hands amongst capable players. However, as you are looking to get lots of action on your big hands, you have to be able to make big bet bluffs to keep your opponents unsure as to what you are up to when playing for stacks.

You do not need to be caught very often making big bet bluffs for players to pick up on it. Once that element of doubt is in their mind, they will usually start calling far too much, led by the part of the human mind that leads us to be influenced into buying a certain brand of car or MP3 player through subtle hints, just as quickly as it does into making thin calls.

Picking good spots to make big bet bluffs is also important. Firing out a big bet when a flush or straight is made on river is much more dangerous than firing at a very blank looking river and your opponent has played their hand like a draw. This also holds true for when the second or third card pairs on the river.

Say you fire at an AcJs4h board and are called. You fire at a 7s turn and are called again. The river brings another jack. This is a much more dangerous board to fire a big bet at than if the jack does not pair, as a large part of your opponents range includes a jack here, with them calling in case you are bluffing or to make two pair or three of a kind and crack your supposed top pair. Although you might have been able get them off their second pair had the river not been a jack with a big bet bluff, it is near suicidal trying to force them off such a hand here.

In very weak games you should basically never make big bet bluffs - your opponents will neither notice it or respond to it. As you climb the stakes you have to start including big bet bluffs to balance your game, but by being able to identify the best situations in which to fire you can make your life much easier, and over the long run this will make you a lot more money.

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