Fearsome Check-Raise Bluffs Made Easy
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Playing out of position in no-limit hold’em puts you at a big disadvantage. Consequently, I recommend avoiding it as much as possible. Does that bully in the four seat keep raising your blind? For the most part, I say let him have it. When you’re playing with $200 stacks, a measly $2 blind isn’t a big deal. And it’s quite easy to lose a nice chunk of your stack trying to “take a stand” with a hand like J-7 after a seven flops. So I usually just fold the J-7 and wait until I have the button.
But you can’t help but play out of position sometimes. Say you have K-Q in the big blind, and a loose-aggressive player raises from the cutoff. You have too much hand to fold. Calling is good, as is reraising. (I would choose one or the other depending on the specifics of the situation.) Say you call. Now you’re playing out of position.
The hand will continue most commonly as follows:
- You will miss the flop
- You will check
- Your opponent will bet
Aggressive players will continuation bet the flop a large percentage of the time. Some players will bet every time. If you simply fold every time you miss, you are playing into your opponent’s hands. To win your due, you sometimes have to check-raise bluff.
But you definitely don’t want to check-raise bluff every time. If you try that, your opponents will catch on and your success rate will plummet. So you have to pick your spots. Here’s my guide to choosing the best situations.
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Tags: bluffing, card player, checkraise bluffs, coordinated flops, dry flops, flop texture, out-of-position, poker, stack-sizes
Nice article, Ed. I have been using the c/r bluff a lot lately in blind defense. Against an aggressive player who is attempting to steal like 40% of the time I am very apt to c/r bluff.