You bluff-raise rather than call when you don’t have a hand to call with. If you have a bluff-catcher yourself then calling is typically better.

tunit,

I would probably have folded to a big river reraise in this hand because the flop was so dry and my opponent called a bet. It’s hard to believe that he would have called the flop bet with nothing out of position with the intention of checking the turn and then bluff 3-betting the river. If he min 3-bet me I’d probably pay off grudgingly… but really I make this play with some frequency and only rarely get 3-bet at all.

If there had been more draws on the flop I would be more inclined to call the 3-bet because he would have more busted draws in his range and therefore more hands to run a bluff with. But if there had been more draws on the flop I likely wouldn’t have checked the turn.

Roman,

I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re saying.

Pim,

Well, I don’t know what you call this guy then, but the regulars at $0.50-$1 play hands like this all the time. I don’t remember what his preflop stats were, but I’d guess they were quite tight (nitty even) like 17/14. As for not being aggressive… well he did find a river value bet with a hand weaker than top pair. I know a ton of (weak/bad) players who would never value bet a hand less than top pair, so this guy is at least more aggressive than them.

Again, I don’t remember who my opponent was in this hand, but I’m pretty sure if I said he was a regular that I also thought he was probably a winner at these stakes. It’s all relative of course, but overall I’d say anyone who can win at any kind of rate in the $0.50-$1 6-max game on Full Tilt is a decent poker player.