Message Board : What about The Scandinavian Min-Raise Bluff?

Natchez,

let's suppose you hit trips or 2 pairs on the flop: Would you min-raise & shove also? In order to disguise your bluff I guess you would have to play your strong hands in the same way as your bluff. But if you do I'm not sure if you are LOSING value on your strong hands. So my guess is that we should not look at the bluff as an isolated move (that might have some positive value in itself), but also at the counterbalancing move, when you are NOT bluffing.

Let's see what the others have to say!

Greyzy

I play primarily cash games and not tournaments, but I would restrict this tool to situations when the stacks are getting small/the M's are getting to 10 or lower.  In all other situations there are better ways to take advantage of position than arbitrarily determining you're going to push all in on the turn come hell or high water.  To say this raise is going to be all in completely ignores stack sizes in relation to the pot.  You don't want to stake your tournament life to get $1000 in chips when you are risking $20000.

In most situations I can think of, it is better to call the c-bet and make a stiff raise (2/3 pot or higher) on the turn if checked to, particularly if a good scare card comes.  Additionally, I'll make this play with strong hands as well both to maximize value and make people think I'm raising for value consistently.  The mix of bluff to value depends on my table image and how willing other players are to call with marginal holdings.

As far as the min-raise goes… when the stacks are medium sized or deeper and someone makes a min raise against me on the flop, my first thought is “dumb bet, he's probably a weak player.”  I then start considering reasons why he's making that bet, most likely culprits are bluff, marginal holding, or weird variation on a slow play.  I almost always call or reraise, depending on my holding and the situation.  I don't often lead out on the turn but often will, however if my opponent precipitously pushes all in on me on the turn I will frequently fold if this is the first time I've seen him do it and if the pot odds aren't right.

However, I will remember that play and mark that player as someone who is likely prone to make big, expensive mistakes.  I'll observe his play more closely.  I'll seek out situations where I can play against him with position, particularly if I can get in cheap preflop to exploit his expensive postflop errors.  And I doubt I'm the only player who thinks this way.

So what I'm saying is in most situations the risk/reward for this play doesn't match up.  Towards the end of tournaments when the M's drop, you may want to consider it, but I wouldn't try it as a bluff very frequently even then (you're likely to get reraised all in on the flop if you do in these situations).  Additionally, the first time you pull it off with deeper stacks you will probably get away with it; but you'll signal the skilled players that you've got some possible postflop play to exploit and they will look for position to put pressure on you in marginal situations.

Cheers,

- HJ