Three No-Limit Plays You Should Try Today

I thought this stuff is pretty standard already though

Ed, all noteworthy and valid suggestions. I personally play a very aggressive game and many of these techniques are old hat to me. But I am also having a difficult time adjusting to the crazy action at places such as Vegas and Atlantic City. Its seems many of the crazy mofos at the table just call down a lot more. The other day I had some crazy call me down with a Q high 3 kicker. Fortunately I was on a semi-bluff with Q10 that turned into a missed flush on the end. But I made a “value bet” bluff on the end. I guess these plays make sense but I am starting to wonder with so many people willing to call down perhaps it is the better part of valor to just avoid the bluff altogether.

Formerly aggressive player now pondering the virtues of shyness.

With unthinking players or when the the action is just too crazy please make the case for aggression. I am seeing it as less and less useful.

So I decided to defend the first Ax suited BB with an all-in semi kinda thing. On the very first hand of the evening:

The small blind raises, i reraise, he reraises, I push, he calls.

Shows AA.

Gee..

2weiX,

I don’t think that’s what Ed had in mind.

Could someone further explain the all-in Semibluff?

Specifically this part:
“Don’t try it if your raise will be more than twice the size of the pot.”

@threads

Yes, I figured that. It was an experiment that could have worked beautifully. Except he had Aces.

@2weiX:

I agree with threads13 that that’s not what Ed was referring to, not in this post. (See also the recent post about preflop 4-betting; perhaps you meant to post on that one.) In this particular instance, you’d have to have a sense of how wide a range your opponent would 3-bet but fold to your 4-bet. For an unknown I’d assume this is a very very narrow range, perhaps jacks, tens, and AQ. Your preflop semibluff was probably low-percentage, because most predictable opponents 3-betting there are announcing their willingness to play for stacks.

@Dr. Pepsi:

There’s $40 in the pot on the flop, and we’re facing a $30 bet. Therefore, a pot-sized raise involves:

- Calling the $30, so now there’s $40+30+30 = $100 in the pot before the raise.
- Raising another $100 on top, making it $130.

Of course you don’t do that in two separate actions. You’d have to be able to do the math in your head, and just announce a raise to $130 to go. But because of that math, it would be called a pot-sized raise.

A 2xpot-sized raise would be the same, except you’re raising twice the pot ($200) on top:

- Call the $30 making the pot $100.
- Raise $200 on top.

Therefore you make it $230 to go. Ed is saying you shouldn’t be making all-in semibluffs for more than that, because you’re risking much more than you stand to win.

I agree with the all in semi-bluff and the double barrel bluff. Both of those examples should be useful to players who are not already performing these moves.

Ed, I have a question for you concerning example number 2, river value bet. I don’t see any reason to check the turn. In that example I think a turn bet would be called for. Would you explain the reasoning for the turn check?

good stuff…

the all-in semi-bluff is great for tourneys. i think that’s how guys get huge stacks (hansen, minieri…. greenstein says he likes it too).

the semi-bluff though is when you have a flush draw. the AXs vs.AA pre-flop is not a semi-bluff, as per responder.

double-barrelled bluff is good too, but that second bet has to be large though.

value bet at end… i’m going to reread that. you do have to be careful about only getting called/raised with better hand. i don’t think a horrible hand calls those river bets. but i will reread the section….

great stuff!!