River Bluff-Raise

Introduction

In this Article

• A starter hand.
• Deliberations about the hand.

A hand as a starter

PartyPoker 20.00/40.00 Hold'em (10-handed) link

BB ($172.00)
UTG ($1026.00)
Hero ($662.50)
MP1 ($790.00)
MP2 ($980.00)
MP3 ($997.40)
CO ($1018.50)
Button ($1057.00)
SB ($1468.00)

Pre-flop: Hero is UTG+1 with Q , K .
1 folds, Hero raises, 2 folds, MP3 calls, 3 folds, BB 3-bets, Hero calls, MP3 calls.

Flop: (9.50 SB) T , J , 5 (3 players)
BB bets, Hero calls, MP3 calls.

Turn: (6.25 BB) 5 (3 players)
BB bets, Hero calls, MP3 folds.

River: (8.25 BB) 7 (2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB folds.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB.
Results in white below:
Hero doesn't show.
Hero wins 11.18 BB.

Deliberations about the hand

With his 3-bet pre-flop, the Big Blind announced a premium hand.
Naturally, I put him on "AK or better".

Usually, I'd
muck my hand almost instantly if an opponent shows so much strength
and I don't hit the flop with such a weak raising hand. Luckily
though, I flopped an OESD.

The turn call seems to be logical
as I can hardly hope to bluff both opponents out of the hand
(especially not the BB).

On the river, I plucked up my
courage and made a bluff-raise. Everything happened very quickly, but
my considerations were: The pot is quite big; it'd be a
shame to give up on it. Of course, my opponent could be on a made
hand, but what if he has AK or AQ? When I raised the river, I was
suddenly scared: my opponent only had 12 dollars left on the table.
In the heat of the battle I had overlooked this. Thus he only had to
invest a quarter-bet to get to the showdown. After some pondering he
gave up. It took a load off my mind.

The tool: River
Bluff-Raise should only be used sparingly in my opinion, as it
doesn't work very often. There are situations, though, which favour its use.

1. Busted Draw

If one puts the opponent on a busted draw that one cannot beat,
the river bluff-raise is an option. My example was such a case. As I
couldn't beat A high, my hand had no showdown value. A similar
situation appears when a draw to a low flush doesn't hit and one puts
the opponent on a busted flush draw as well.

2. Your opponent is a Maniac or a Notorious Bluffer

There are many players who love to fire off a bluff-bet on the river
out of position when their draw busted. If your own hand has no
showdown value (e.g. JTs), a bluff-raise is a strong possibility.