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Categorized | ADVANCED, POKER TIPS
4 betting as a bluff…
Posted on 28 July 2010
There’s very little in poker that’s more fun, or more powerful than 4 betting light.
A big re-re-raise will almost all the time be viewed as a monster and will earn you table respect. To optimize this play you will need to have an idea of frequency for your 4 bet bluffs. This of course will be different for every table. Against a good Tight Aggressive player you’ll want to be 4 bet bluffing him at least once for three to four 4 bets you make for value. As with all things in poker balance is important and having a balanced 4 betting range will make you tougher to combat while building a healthy chip stack in the process.
For this example you’re in mid position with 6-7 suited, the TAG in Highjack 3 bets and puts you to a decision. This is a spot where you should 4 bet 100% of the time.
Hand ranges for four-betting are very much player-dependent. Generally you want some sort of value to your hand so that you have some chance of winning the pots in which you are called. You might elect to four-bet with A-5 suited because you have an Ace, reducing the chances that your opponent is holding a hand like A-Q or A-K that he can five-bet all-in with, as well as the fact that the hand that can flop big.
Now your hand ranges. What I like about 4 betting is they’re pretty wide. For the most part you want some sort of value to your hand so that when you’re called (And you will be) you have a chance to win the pot and send some one steaming to the rail! No gap suited conecters and even a hand like A-5 suited work. A-5 on the assumption that it’s less likely he’ll be holding AK or AQ allowing him to 5 bet shove you. A-5s is a disaster heads up, let alone out of position so calling a 3 bet is certainly not an option. 4 betting gives you a shot at winning pre flop a good chunk of the time (Most Tags will have a pretty tight call range here) or god willing the villain calls and the flop is kind, allowing for a check raise all in: say on a 3-4-7 Rainbow board giving you a backdoor flush, gutshot and an over card.
Brooke
Facebook comments:
haha, how is this a NIT play? If anything I’m a chip spewing loser lol… A) was supposed to have a gut shot as well, was writing fast, so have changed that lol… b) I’ve just been hanging around these math head freaks… BUT all this is very very new… And new to me… Putting it out there. You have to imagine how that flop plays at the 3rd and 4th level (read 5 levels of poker)
BHS
Hehe now you’ve changed it to double gutshot, that’s much better
Check-shove still sounds dodgy on this flop though.. I mean unless we’re starting this hand with like 200 blinds, by the time your 4-bet pre has been called and you’ve checked and he’s leading out, there’s not really much hope of fold equity by this stage… Especially given that his range is going to be like exclusively overpairs to the board, sets, or AK, and your best case scenario is you have 11 outs against KK..
Ha, it was always gut shot, I just wrote the board down wrong… yes trying to win on the flop is not ideal… As always you should take into account stack size I haven’t run the math but 100 bbs + is probably your ideal starting stack (Can some math nerd work this out, my head hurts). But your goal is to win on the 4 bet and check folding here is pretty poor play. Your worst case is the near flip… It’s not likely he’s spiked the set as anyone calling a 4 bet preflop with 33, 44, or 77 is on the crack. The most likely hands are QQ KK or AA, of course AA is bad but the chances of this with you holding an Ace are slim and the other two are near flips plus fold equity. I understand this is aggressive but you have to consider how thin his calling range is… May be 2 hands max.
Umm it was never a gutshot to begin with. Your first flop was 3 7 8
3 5 6 7 8 – STRAIGHT! :>
Now that it’s a double-gutter + overcard I agree c/f is probably never good by this stage, but if you were meaning to just have a gutshot + ace I really think going nuts there is a bit spastic. It’s just not a dangerous enough looking flop that you’re going to scare off enough of their preflop 4-bet calling range imo
In my notes was a gut shot, backdoor flush and over card… Typed wrong. Nuf said. “you’re going to scare off enough of their preflop 4-bet calling range ” Yes, everything but kings and queens is folding this deep. At least I think they are. Tell you what, I’ll test it soon. The brains behind this are far far better poker heads than mine.
FYI, we’re looking for contributors as let’s be honest, poker tips from me is like watching super nanny hosted by Graham Capel… Interested?
If we’re “this deep” though, I’m not sure why you want to put someone on such a resricted range like QQ+ – you have to be playing with a pretty special kind of nit who will fold everything except QQ+ and then will fold enough on this flop to make that profitable.
The deeper we are (and we’re talking super deep here, if you’re wanting to 4b bluff and then check-bluff-shove with fold equity) – then the *wider* their range is going to be, right? If it was more shallow, then they’re not going to be able to call your 4b with speculative hands in hope for a good flop.
So in the end, you’ve got yourself in a huge pot, out of position with A5, and now you want to check-ship with a gutshot and somehow have FE… I love being aggressive, but that’s pretty ambitious imo :>
Yes, like I said, the check shove is a way out of the corner if they call the 4 bet. I think it will be profitable as really they’re not calling with much if any of their range. I talk about your target selection here. Not NIT’s but TAGs…
I like the aggression, but IMHO, the ONLY hand that risks a check shove on pretty much any board, deep enough for a 4 bet and flat, is AA, so that’s cool if that’s what we are repping, but that’s all we are repping. ( No we are not allowed to consider 88 )
Chris H
Oh so I mean, I prefer just to cbet rather than check jam, and depending on texture maybe check jam turn so I get lots more of dumb floaters chips~
couple of lines id take in this spot are:
say we were 125BB effective(which is prob the min where i would 4bet bluff OOP(in a cash game where my min stake is 100B)).
so the action would be something like, i open to 3BB, he makes it 10BB, i make it 25BB, he flats.
we have 51.5BB in the middle, with 95BB behind.
something I like to do i these situations and especially on this dry board is bet very small, say, 14-16BB.
if he raises, id be a lil frustrated and muck, but if he flat again, the pot will now be ~82BB, with 80BB in my stack-a nice pot size bet on the turn with nice Fold equity.
id take this exact line with my value hands also ie KK+
note: I couldnt be bothered explaining my rational for each move, so just ask/comment/disagree with anything on here and ill get back to you
Very nice… I like the turn move… Will try asap… NOw just need to get 125BB! Lee Nelson deep stack?