Make Them Believeby Gus Hansen | Published: Feb 28, '08 |
 
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I am going to continue where I finished last week - pondering about bluffing. Sitting on the plane to Vegas, quietly preparing for the NBC Heads-Up Championship, one word is stuck in my mind - bluffing.
Maybe it is just a natural feeling looking forward to hopefully six successful heads-up battles?
Bluffing is a key component to a winning poker strategy, and therefore I am constantly trying to add more and more bluffing features into my game. Some might think that I already bluff too much, but truth be told I still need to work on my bluffing frequencies in some specific situations.
The fact that trickery and deception play a significantly larger role in short-handed poker makes the matter even more imminent. In heads-up play you are constantly on the move, and being able to pull the trigger in all sorts of situations with or without a hand is of utmost importance.
Hopefully I can demonstrate that kind of forceful behavior throughout the weekend/next couple of days.
"I will not go quietly into the night" is just another way of saying "I hate to lose in the first round for the 3rd straight year."
Over all I feel that I'm a much better poker player than last year, and I'd like to see some results confirming my opinion. Another sub-par performance in the championship will have me sink into heads-up obscurity, whereas a well-timed win this weekend would lift me back up into the higher echelon.
Let's take a look at one of my bluffs from last week's EPT in Copenhagen:
The blinds are 100/200 with no antes. Position 1 limps, position 4 limps, I limp in position 6, the button (position 7) limps, small blind folds and the big blind decides to make a statement.
A raise to 1,200 is enough to get rid of the first two limpers, but as we all know, I'm a little bit more stubborn.
I'm holding
and although I know, I have the worst hand for sure, I still like this spot:
2,100 in the pot, 1,000 more to call, in position with a suited connector - what more can I ask for…?
The button also calls behind, and we are off to a 3-handed flop.
The flop comes
and the big blind bets 2,500.
I now have a pair of 4's and absolutely nothing else. Is my tiny pair good enough to fight against an out-of-position raiser, who has fired not one but two bullets - not to mention there is a guy behind me who is still to act?
The vast majority of the time the answer is a resounding NO, but I weigh the "fainting" pros and the overwhelming cons and decide to call anyway. The button folds, and we are down to heads-up.
The turn is the
and the big blind checks. It is obvious that he is starting to look a little uncomfortable about the direction this is heading. That was the sign I was waiting for.
It looks like I just made my flush or was slow playing a set on the flop - at least that is what I want him to believe. Whatever he thinks, this is the perfect time to execute.
I bet 5,800, contemplating to continue with an all-in river-bluff, should he make the call. I'm fairly certain, I will get away with this move, unless he is holding a big pair with a heart - and judging from the expression on his face, that doesn't seem to be the case.
He gives it the mandatory two-minute-study, but no matter how much he tosses and turns, he doesn't come up with a good enough reason to make the call.
My friends at the rail later overheard a conversation between my opponent and his comrades. It turns out he had
A big laydown.
What was more important though: He believed the story I was trying to tell.
Whether it was the slowplay-a-set-story or the flush-story, his pair of Aces was no match for either of them.
So remember this next time you try to pull of a big bluff:
"Make it a story to believe!"
Till next week "Keep Bluffing"
Gus
Maybe it is just a natural feeling looking forward to hopefully six successful heads-up battles?
Bluffing is a key component to a winning poker strategy, and therefore I am constantly trying to add more and more bluffing features into my game. Some might think that I already bluff too much, but truth be told I still need to work on my bluffing frequencies in some specific situations.
The fact that trickery and deception play a significantly larger role in short-handed poker makes the matter even more imminent. In heads-up play you are constantly on the move, and being able to pull the trigger in all sorts of situations with or without a hand is of utmost importance.
Hopefully I can demonstrate that kind of forceful behavior throughout the weekend/next couple of days.
"I will not go quietly into the night" is just another way of saying "I hate to lose in the first round for the 3rd straight year."
Over all I feel that I'm a much better poker player than last year, and I'd like to see some results confirming my opinion. Another sub-par performance in the championship will have me sink into heads-up obscurity, whereas a well-timed win this weekend would lift me back up into the higher echelon.
Let's take a look at one of my bluffs from last week's EPT in Copenhagen:
The blinds are 100/200 with no antes. Position 1 limps, position 4 limps, I limp in position 6, the button (position 7) limps, small blind folds and the big blind decides to make a statement.
A raise to 1,200 is enough to get rid of the first two limpers, but as we all know, I'm a little bit more stubborn.
I'm holding
and although I know, I have the worst hand for sure, I still like this spot:
2,100 in the pot, 1,000 more to call, in position with a suited connector - what more can I ask for…?
The button also calls behind, and we are off to a 3-handed flop.
The flop comes
and the big blind bets 2,500.
I now have a pair of 4's and absolutely nothing else. Is my tiny pair good enough to fight against an out-of-position raiser, who has fired not one but two bullets - not to mention there is a guy behind me who is still to act?
The vast majority of the time the answer is a resounding NO, but I weigh the "fainting" pros and the overwhelming cons and decide to call anyway. The button folds, and we are down to heads-up.
The turn is the
and the big blind checks. It is obvious that he is starting to look a little uncomfortable about the direction this is heading. That was the sign I was waiting for.
It looks like I just made my flush or was slow playing a set on the flop - at least that is what I want him to believe. Whatever he thinks, this is the perfect time to execute.
I bet 5,800, contemplating to continue with an all-in river-bluff, should he make the call. I'm fairly certain, I will get away with this move, unless he is holding a big pair with a heart - and judging from the expression on his face, that doesn't seem to be the case.
He gives it the mandatory two-minute-study, but no matter how much he tosses and turns, he doesn't come up with a good enough reason to make the call.
My friends at the rail later overheard a conversation between my opponent and his comrades. It turns out he had
A big laydown.
What was more important though: He believed the story I was trying to tell.
Whether it was the slowplay-a-set-story or the flush-story, his pair of Aces was no match for either of them.
So remember this next time you try to pull of a big bluff:
"Make it a story to believe!"
Till next week "Keep Bluffing"
Gus