Calling a bluff - PokerTraining.org

Catching a bluffer
Conspicuous betting behavior - part 3/3

I once was involved in the following situation: During a SNG and out of the SB I limped into the pot with A4o. Nobody raised, the pot rose to 100 in chips and I had to go up against 4 opponents. The flop came and showed A J 5. Despite the fact that I had top-pair, I wasn´t really sure of what to think of my hand, so I decided to check in order to see what my opponents would do. Everybody checked to the player sitting on the button and that player went all-in with 700 chips. I would like to stress that move again: The pot contained 100 in chips and the “button” put in 700. Now I had to make a decision, whether or not this opponent had a hand or not. The main question for me was if he really has a strong hand, why is he over-betting so much? If he flopped a set (probably 555), wouldn´t he try to make the call for someone like me a little bit easier in order to squeeze as much money as possible out of me? The same holds in case he flopped two-pair.

The board didn´t look dangerous at all, so I decided to pay attention to the other option. Maybe my opponent wants to squeeze me out of the pot by betting so much. He´s probably bluffing or he flopped middle- or bottom-pair (such an aggressive player would raise every A from the button), so I decided to call. Everybody else folded and the other guy showed J3, a middle-pair with poor kicker meaning I was pretty much ahead.

Most players who show such a betting behavior are usually semi-bluffing with a middle- or bottom-pair or they hold a low pocket-pair like 44, 55 or 66. Their goal is to make their hand look incredibly strong by betting so much, forgetting that this behavior tells more about the weakness than the strength of their hand.

2)   Betting the minimum on flop, turn and river

Always betting the minimum is the opposite of the behavior being described before. Players who are following this route are scared of losing their bet. They want to bluff, maybe because they´re sitting in good position or the other players on the table showed some weakness by only checking. Perhaps they´re drawing to a flush, a straight or hold over-cards, but they don´t feel comfortable by betting because they know of the absolute weakness of their hand. Often those guys continue to bet the minimum on turn and river even if their situation didn´t improve.

Not only are they scared of getting called or raised, they may even thinking that their hand looks really strong by betting so little because you might think that the minimum-better is trying to lure you into the pot. The problem with this “strategy” is that even if the minimum-better holds a hand, calling the bet doesn´t display much of a problem to you, since you only have to pay a small fraction compared to the pot size and your chip-stack.

3)   Decreasing bet-size

When you play on micro-limits, regardless whether we´re talking about SNGs or ring-games, decreasing bet-sizes is something you see regularly. Consider the following situation: You´re playing against one opponent and the pot consists of 100 in chips. You decide to check and your opponent bets 100. For whatever reason you choose to call the bet and see what turn and maybe even the river holds. The turn-card doesn´t change the situation at all and you check again. The other player takes time to think about his hand a little bit and bets 50.

When playing against weak opposition, this is a clear sign of weakness. There´s the possibility that your rival is on a draw that didn´t improve on the turn. Another option is that the other guy simply tried to bluff you out of the pot with one or two over-cards or a good-looking kicker and is now about to get cold feet. He knows that you must have something, otherwise you wouldn´t have called his bet. Additionally, he knows that his hand is not strong at all, making it difficult for him to continue betting because of his fear of losing his chips. Another thing he thinks of is that checking on the turn after betting on the flop would make his vulnerability very obvious. All these aspects lead your rival to making a compromise by decreasing the bet-size instead of increasing it. When you´re facing such a decision, you can be pretty sure that the other player doesn´t have a strong hand if he even has a hand at all.

4)   Promptly “betting the pot”

Now things get a little tricky. Sometimes aggressive players on micro- and medium-levels like to bluff you by betting the pot on flop, turn and river. The size of their bets is not the only suspicious aspect, it´s the quickness of their bets. I´ve seen it quite often that these opponents try to bluff you by betting so quickly that it only takes a second or so for them to hit the “bet-the-pot”-button. Now, let me get this straight: Not every player that bets the pot on flop, turn and river is a bluffer. Not every player that makes quick decisions is doing that in order to fake a strong hand. However, if you know that a certain opponent is playing aggressively, likes to bluff in certain situations and built up a bluffer´s image throughout the playing session, keep my advice in mind.

To finish this section let me express that all these patterns and behavior-types have to be combined with the circumstances you´re playing in. Strong competition is not going to commit these rather “stupid” mistakes. However if you go up against weak opponents who probably have no clue about what they are doing, the points I previously mentioned regarding the betting behavior might be a well working indication of somebody trying to bluff you.

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