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The PokerSnowie Video Quiz series aims to answer the question: "what is the right play?" It is a set of poker coaching videos presented by French professional poker player Sharp. In each video, Sharp sets up an interesting hand in the "Scenarios" tool of PokerSnowie and explains how to analyse the situation and learn from PokerSnowie's advice, based on the Game Theory Optimal model.

Should you ever turn your hand into a bluff?

Apr 01, 2014  |  Posted by PokerSnowie  |  6

Should you ever turn your hand into a bluff?

 

A6 off suit mid pair top kicker

Pre Flop hero opens from the cut off. Post flop he checks down with mid pair top kicker.
What it is his best plan on the river? 
  1. Since he holds the nut blocker, he should bet pot to make vilains fold better hands; 
  2. He should make a blocking bet for half pot for thin value and to avoid facing a larger bet;
  3. He should keep on checking and fold to a bet;
  4. He should check to induce a bluff and call;
  5. He should check raise all in as a bluff.
“Don’t turn your hand into a bluff!” is a motto we have all read at least once on a poker forum.
In this Video Quiz, Sharp is putting PokerSnowie through the task of showing how true this old advice holds.

 

 

Johannes

PokerSnowie Video Quiz

Sharp is a French maths postgraduate and a probability engineer turned professional backgammon player in 1999. French number 1 for 4 years, having won all the largest Backgammon tournament titles, he moved on to Poker in 2004. He has since then built an impressive record and stands amongst the best French MTT players. Nowadays Sharp spends most of his time coaching and producing coaching videos, in particular for poker-academie.com, where he is one of the lead instructors.

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Comments

Arty Smokes (not verified)

Wed, 04/02/2014 - 15:13

Another great video, Sharp! Using the hand strength feature seems like a good way to work out when calling is clearly not a good option, so check-shoving and then saying goodbye seems like the best idea this time! :)

Sharp

Sat, 04/05/2014 - 03:27

Hi, Once again thank you for your nice comment. Trust me this tactic allowed me to win a lot of pots both in tournaments and in cash games. It is not a wild card to go with anything with the plan to shove on the river. The keys of success are: 1/ villain range should be capped 2/ we represent a made hand and not a busted draw

Buggits30 (not verified)

Thu, 04/03/2014 - 19:41

You dont bet the river initially because you arent repping anything, but you check/shove when you still arent repping anything??? Anyone with a clue will realize this is a bluff 95% of the time.

Sharp

Sat, 04/05/2014 - 03:43

Hi, Both situations are different and the bluffs are not targeting the same range. Hero has a pair and a single bet would not be enough to make any pair to fold therefore bluffing would not be profitable in the first situation. In the second situation hero has much more information. After their betting action we know for sure villain ranges are very weak. Especially the player in the small blind who is the most likely to have us beat. I repeat myself but but as surprising it might sound I had a lot of success with this move. Having a clue or not I don’t think someone who would bluff catch 95% in villain shoes would be a winning player and at least he would be very exploitable.

gyre (not verified)

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:54

hey sharp, really enjoying the vIds. my question is a general one: why are you setting up your scenarios with players opening to pot from UTG, MP and CO? Snowie advises opening to .5 pot in all those positions, and only potting it on BTN and SB. is it simply because this is a more accurate representation of how people play in real games?

Sharp

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 10:32

Hello, and thanks for enjoying my videos. In my quiz I am trying to explain specific topics in a way that can be helpful for people in their game. I am not trying to describe how should no limit Hold’em should be play in pure theory. For example in that quiz I used a hand that is not in PokerSnowie range. I could have used AsTo or AsKo, but I thought turning a pair into a bluff is more surprising and therefore more instructive for the viewers. According to preflop advisor there is a very little difference between ranges either we open for pot of for half pot. You are right I usually set to pot size opening for having pot size post flop similar of what they are in most of the games today.