17 Apr 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players barreling blockers bluff bluff catching exploit semi-bluff Poker is a very complex game. Situations when you have to bluff to win a hand are much more common than when you were dealt value and now you don't really risk anything except winning your opponent's entire stack. However, poker is not only an attack with your own initiative, but also a game of defense. This includes catching bluffs - after all, opponents are also mostly dealt not nut hands, but ones with which they also have to bluff to win the hand. Today you will get 10 tips from Jonathan «JCardShark» Little on how to bluff and catch bluffs much more effectively. The rest of the text is in his words. Tip #1. Choose your hands for bluffing correctly on the flop Most players only make a big bluff when they think they can't win any other way. Or when they feel their opponent is weak and that he's not ready to go to the showdown (SD) in a big pot with the current hand. The correct approach to bluffing is based on a logical choice of combinations for bluffing. I am known as an adept of learning the game through a solver and exploits from it. So, the solver will choose certain hands for bluffing in certain situations more often than other hands - both when playing with an optimal opponent (himself), and against overlocked frequencies (an opponent with given properties). Because the properties of these hands favor a high +EV from bluffing with them. And these properties (bonuses) of good bluffing hands are: Good extra equity (e.g. draws) and/or Good blockers (e.g. nut backdoor flush draw). First, a few words about equity hands (draw hands) If you bet and get called, you will still hit your out at some point and win a big pot. For example, you open and your opponent calls. The flop comes . If your specific hand is , you have a ton of equity (OESD + 2 overcards) against your opponent's range even though your current hand rank is only 8-high. If you bet it, it will be a semi-bluff c-bet with a hand with zero SDV, but with a ton of equity to improve. And such hands love to go into barreling, because they knock out a lot of hands stronger than themselves (even a J-high hand will win on SD more often than it will lose if you check to it), plus, in some cases, such hands hit their outs and can cooler the opponent's conditional TPTK for a stack or half a stack. Now a few words about hands with blockers The best combinations for bluffs contain cards that block the opponents' 1st nuts - for example, BDFD with of the main suit. Let's say you bet on the turn, where lie, and the opponent calls you. When the third comes on the river, and you have , - a blocker that makes it impossible for the opponent to have a nut flush, - then this card becomes the best card for a big bluff. Especially against a thinking opponent who takes into account the ranges and the fact that you are not capped on the 1st nuts and really can show it at showdown, but the opponent cannot. Now it is the opponent's problem that your nut flushes could complete the three-diamond river. And believe me, you will receive a greatly increased number of folds here even from fish. And there’s nothing to say about adequate regulars who go to SD in huge pots only with near-nuts hands. Let's summarize this point Bluff with hands that are most suitable for this: With hands that have extra equity, At the same time as the lowest possible SDV, And that have blockers to the peak of the opponent's range. And do not bluff based on mood and the thought that otherwise you will not be able to win. Sometimes you will lose big hands, where bluffing would bring a bigger loss than checking (which costs 0 EV) and giving up all your investments made during the hand. Tip #2. Bluff the turn with an extra equity This is another component of effective bluffs and a good red line as a component of the green line. When you bet a suited hand with two , or on the flop and get called, the best turns to continue bluffing are those that increase your equity , or , because another card of the right suit comes and as a result you have a normal flush draw, then you should continue to bet with your flush draw. In 18% of the time you will actually make your flush with a card of the same suit, in another fraction of the time you will knock out your opponent for another reason, and sometimes you will give up. If the turn card is of the wrong suit - which does not give you +18% extra equity - then you should not continue bluffing on this blank run: there is no «insurance» for hitting, nor a reason to take a lot from the opponent in his eyes. It will often be more profitable to hold off with a bad hand for bluffing than to continue an attack that is not supported by anything significant except the desire to bluff. River Play Options After Check-Checking the Turn If your opponent makes a probet and you have trash, then the solution is simple: fold. If you hit a pair, then evaluate its equity against his probable range. But given that many float flops even OOR without a ready hand, then the equity and SDV of the pair formed on the river will sometimes be enough to call the opponent's probet. If your opponent checks again, then in most cases there will be something weak, and this set of hands can sometimes be knocked out with a repeat bet - now on the river. In poker, there are almost no 100% guarantees, but the bet-check-bet line still brings a certain +EV against weak lines. If you c-bet a FD-turn with a normal FD and hit a real flush on the river, then now your opponent will be less likely to expect you to hit the nuts and therefore will pay more willingly. And finally, remember about blockers. When you have a card that blocks the top of your opponent's range, you can still profitably bluff even against a tight range of a bunch of SDV hands, but far from nut ones. For example, on a 3-diamond river, the presence of blocks all possible flushes with an Ace - and flushes from combinations with an ace, as is known, make up the largest share of all flushes. And of course, for a careful and thinking opponent, his complete lack of and your presence of a lot of first nuts will definitely be an argument for him for pressing the Fold button. Same with straight draws Flush draws are strong, but very noticeable. Straight draw hands are much less noticeable. And because of their reduced visibility, they can take away much larger volumes of chips when they get into straights. Let's say you c-bet on the flop . - The opponent calls, as expected. - Does the turn come to or ? - A great opportunity to gain a little more +EV through the second barrel. The reasons are as follows: The nut gutshot came out, an overcard to the pairs from the flop came out. You yourself still have 2 live overcards to the top pair (6 outs). And the total number of outs to improve before the river = 6 + 4 = 10 outs. That is, good reserve equity + high fold equity against the opponent's range of low pairs, pocket pairs and some A-high-BDFD. If you miss, sometimes you can still bluff your opponent on the river. . . And almost all of these outs can be used to fire a third barrel to get value from your opponent. It's clear about the straight - there's nothing to think about, but not everyone will believe in a random hit on the river to the top pair. And when Hero bets 2/3-3/4 into on the river, not only the fish calling station will not believe him. But if the turn is a blank or a card that clearly fits the opponent's range, then there is nothing wrong with giving up this fairly cheap hand. Tip #3. Be prepared to fire all three barrels Value hands in a triple barrel on the river should be balanced with bluff hands if you want to reduce your readability and increase your opponents' willingness to pay. This means that you will have to fire all three barrels not only with the long-awaited nuts and ... watch your opponent fold. River bluffs should block your opponent's auto-calls/raises, i.e. the nuts at the peak of his range. Therefore, the best combinations of cards on the river will be those that block the nut flushes and straights of your opponent (when they are possible). For example, the flop is . The best hands for the third barrel on the river will be those that contain , because your opponent cannot have the nut flushes and will be very puzzled by the possibility of you having them. In such conditions, the third barrel will almost always bring +EV. Because it blocks all the main autocalls/raises of the opponent, which he could have if he really had . And a flush draw through is always the largest share of all flush draws from preflop. If you have not an ace of clubs in your hand, but , then it will also work, because although it does not block nut flushes, it blocks the second largest share of flushes of the opponent, while continuing to strongly strain flushes with the highest card and especially all the lower. Well, and the worst blocker to the flushes of the opponent will be , because it blocks only combos and (and much less often ), because in this case the probability of the opponent having high flushes unblocked by your hand increases significantly, and he will call/raise you much more often. Bluffing with good blockers brings a ton of extra profit, but you will still lose big pots with them sometimes. Tip #4. Don't bluff those who are eager to call you down Fish and especially calling stations. Semi-regs who are determined to open you up at almost any cost. Just regs on tilt who are tired of folding. - All of these opponents are currently inclined to go to showdown and measure their combinations with you. Against those who are dying to call you, turn off the bluff option on the river, and before the river, bluff only with the best draws that have maximum outs and, accordingly, live equity to hit and punish this opponent. There is no profit in forcing an opponent who is angry with you or someone who does not care about the story you are telling with your bets to fold. If he has a pair and wants to call you and hurt you, then it is better not to give him this pleasure. Factor that reduces your bluffs to zero: most (or all) logical draws on the river missed. The author of this article (who actually wrote it with his own hands) was repeatedly called on a bare ace in a 3-bet pot, losing ~150 bb net. Hero showed opponents much better hands. To make more money in poker, you should play your game more often, and not the game of an opponent who is not going to change it. And if you stubbornly bluff into calling stations (whoever it is at that moment), then they will win, and you will burn the money you won with great difficulty. And it is not a fact that they will not change their game later ... Tip #5. Bluff on scary runouts more often A scary runout is a card that gives a lot of boost to your range, which makes many of your opponent's hands severely devalued in his eyes. When the flop/turn/river has such a card (or cards) that the best hands from the previous street have clearly become not so valuable for the opponent, then this is a great opportunity to put/increase pressure on the opponent's range. As for the river game, - after the opponent check-called on the flop and turn, ask yourself how good his TPGK-Overpairs are on the coming river. If they are pretty good and valuable, then it is better not to bluff-down, give up a small pot and not lose a big one. And if there has come out such a river that TPGK-OP have become significantly devalued, then it is worth putting pressure on the opponent with another serious-looking bet. The same goes for any previous street relative to the next one. Imagine 3-betting (or ) in the SB against a regular in EP, and the flop came 2+ overcards: . How do you feel and what are your plans for the hand? Tip #6. Consider the quality of blockers in your hand As you already learned, the best blockers to your opponent's continuation range are those that block the maximum number of his autocalls (1-2 nuts). Accordingly, the worst bluffs are those cards that block your opponent's autofolds. An «easy» fold can be a hand like A-high, K-high, the top end of a missed straight draw), because on the flop and turn your opponent often calls with them, but on the river, having never made it, he has no other options but to throw out his trash. Therefore, when the cards in your hand contain these designated cards or others that reduce your opponent's easy fold range, then, accordingly, - in contrast, - the probability that your opponent has a much better hand than the target increases. So when your hand prevents your opponent from having nuts, bluffing is +EV, and when it blocks his folds, it is -EV. Also, if you end up with an A-high hand, it is not so rare that it can win on SD itself. Tip #7: Bluffcatch in Good Situations Now we move on to catching other people's bluffs. The best situations for catching bluffs are those in which a bunch of natural draws never reached the target: when there could have been a flush or/and straight draws by the river, but some blank came out on the river, so all the logical draws remained garbage, with which the opponent may find motivation to bluff you. For example, the board came out with cards like . - On this river, it will be profitable to call the opponent very wide, because he could have barreled with a ton of draws before the river, but on the river they all missed, and often the opponent sits with some T-high hand, with which he will not be able to win and recoup the investment except through bluffing. And many people will still bluff with draws. When a bunch of draws missed on the river, and the opponent is clearly capable of bluffing on the river, then you can call him down to K-high in your hand. And it's a completely different matter to react to a triple barrel on a dry board like . There were no obvious draws on the flop and/or turn with which one could bluff-down on the river. This means that the opponent's triple barrel range is concentrated around value hands like TPGK+. Therefore, on such a board, you shouldn't even think about calling the opponent with a hand lower than the designated TPGK. - If we are talking about some standard regular, who is tight and, mainly, honest. Sometimes there will be some cases when people turn they low-SDV-hands into bluffs and even clearly trash hands, but the frequency of their presence will be very far from that which bluffcatches on such dry textures would be justified. Moreover, even if this chance procs this time, you will still need a hand that will beat not only outright trash, but also some made pairs turned into bluffs. When you call OOP against two bets of your opponent on such a dry board with one high card, even many fish will imagine that you now have a top pair from , which is not afraid of this board and which will therefore more often strive for a showdown. This means that the opponent will much less often try to bluff this hand and, accordingly, much more often put the 2nd and especially the 3rd barrels for value with a top pair and a good kicker (and hands higher). Tip #8. Call with the right hands The logic of choosing hands for bluff catching is built similarly to the logic of choosing hands for dobluffing and is based on the blocking properties of your cards. Ideally, the two cards dealt to you should block the opponent's nuts as much as possible and not block his bluffs as much as possible. A good bluff-catcher usually blocks the top of the range and unblocks all missed draws in the opponent's range. On the flop and turn the opponent barreled with something and now makes a third bet on some blank river. So the part of his range that consists of OESD misses will contain hands and . So I want my hand to not contain cards of these ranks. So if my current hand is 66, 55 or 44, then it will maximally block the missed draws in the opponent's bluffing range. He can / will also bluff with hands and , so if my hand contains cards of these ranks, then this slightly blocks the opponent's bluffs, as opposed to increasing the chance of him having a hand much stronger than mine. If I have a hand like TT or 99, it will also essentially prevent my opponent from having missed draws, but these hands have a good SDV as overpairs. In addition, draws through have an even lower SDV than , and therefore tend to bluff even more often. But even though these are overpairs, I prefer to call my opponent when my hand is , which does not overlap with any of my opponent's draws, but still has the highest SDV among non-made hands. Example of hand selection for catching missed flush draws The worst hand for catching bluffs when the river never completed a flush draw is ... the second nut flush draw in your hand. First, the fact that you have 2 cards of the same suit as the missed flush draw seriously reduces the likelihood that your opponent will have another flush draw. And flush draws with these particular cards disappear from his range completely. And, let's say, flush draws through , which are the second most combos from preflop, are completely absent from his range. Second, today many learning players already know that it is better to avoid bluffing down when they have a flush draw in their hand for the reason above. You might think that since your opponent will often have Q-high-FD, which has little SDV, he will be more inclined to bluff with it, and since your K-high-FD beats your opponent's FD, there is a reason to call on the river. But no, forget about this logic. - It will bring you losses in money and morale. It is better to call potential bluffs-downs with A-high of a different suit than the FD that never reached, as well as with pairs that do not contain this suit. Tip #9. Do not overfold on connected boards When the board has coordination - cards of similar rank - there will be a lot of possible straight-draws on it, with which the opponent can be aggressive. When a connected board comes out, look for a reason to call down the opponent with a hand that beats all the draws that didn't complete. If we are talking about the flop or turn, then the presence of additional equity from strong overcards or BDFD will help. That's why when there was coordination like on the flop, and then 2 more blanks came out, then the opponent's next bet will often include draws from or similar hands. And against such hands, even Q-high will win at showdown - which you could sometimes see in calldowns at high stakes. Of course, you need information that your opponent is capable, knows how and is ready to bluff on the river, and there is always a chance to run into a better hand, but If you follow this idea, then some additional +EV will gradually be added to the graph in the long run. Tip #10. Make wide calldowns against maniacs A maniac is a super-aggressive fish or even a semi-reg who bluffs tirelessly left and right, who has wide ranges and off-the-scale aggression stats on the streets. Sometimes this state is due to tilt, but many have this property by nature. Against maniacs, look for reasons to call very wide and with very weak, it would seem, hands. Do not get me wrong: I am not saying that you need to proportionally go crazy and open 3 barrels with Q-high, but you will have to expand your ranges with a readiness to repel attacks of maniacs much wider than usual, if you want to win against them, and not systematically lose. That is, you will have to expand the zone of acceptable risks and losses. Against ultra-aggressive players, both the dispersion of results and the potential profit from them will be maximum. Maniacs can bluff not only with full trash, but also with low pairs, turning them into a bluff - take this into account when choosing hands for a call. In addition, boards are different: if there are 3 or, especially, all 4 cards to a straight on the board, then it is hopeless to call down a maniac with a SDV hand like a middle pair or some A-high. On such a structure, he will simply hit a doper+, because his wide range contains many combinations that have now hit (including pairs whose kickers formed that straight). But if there is nothing particularly scary on the board, then even A-high becomes an acceptable hand for beating off a maniac fish. GTO justification for turning pairs into bluffs In the GTO world, turning bottom pairs into bluffs actually has its own justification, and on rivers the solver can bluff them further. The explanation for this is quite simple on all trading streets: Flop. Bottom pair has low SDV, huge vulnerability, wins a lot from knocking out equity hands, and also has its own nut equity in the form of 5 outs on a doper or trips, which also has good implied odds, because few people will believe in trips from a pair of the bottom card of the aggressor. And it also partially blocks the opponent's dopers and sets. => With a scary card on the flop, there is +EV in continuing the attack. Turn. The reasons are the same: even lower SDV after a continuation bet (since the opponent mainly continued with better pairs and draws), still a big vulnerability to the opponent's outs, the bottom pair still wins a lot from knocking out equity hands (even though they lost half of the equity, but the other half remained), and all the same 5 nut outs to cooler the opponent for the stack or a large chunk of it. And it continues to partially block the opponent's dopers and sets. => With a scary card on the turn there is +EV in continuing the attack. River. Usually the bottom pair will remain the bottom pair with a near-zero SDV, but its blocking properties against the opponent's bottom nuts have not gone anywhere. And when another overcard comes out or some draw closes, you can charge a big bet again, and against many careful opponents this will give a profit in the long run. So, many maniacs feel this on an intuitive level. As a rule, not in such terms and schemes, but in general terms it is clear to their imagination. Which is what they use. And now - what to do with this against maniacs Since maniacs are capable of this (but not always), then you should tend to call them more often on the river with ready pairs, and not with conditional A-high, that is, choose pairs that (a) beat most of the maniac's low pairs and (b) partially unblock these lower pairs. Since 5 outs to get to the nuts with the bottom pair is not 8+ with full-fledged draws, then they will get there quite rarely. So here you will have to suck it up and press the Call button more often, when the properties of your current hand maximally reduce the number of nuts and top pairs for the maniac, and minimally intersect with his missed draws. Bonus: How to play against super-aggressive maniacs in general and how to generate that huge +EV from playing with them? Maniacs are the most delicious representatives of the poker world, who have the biggest lose rates over the long term. But making money from them is not as easy and simple as from simple, passive and understandable fish. Maniacs themselves will often give you a good thrashing, constantly knocking you out of the pot or sometimes showing the most ridiculous hits in two pairs from complete garbage, with which they made a donk-potbet and 2 more big barrels. These players will always give you action and will play as aggressively as possible: raising, 3-betting, 4-betting and so on - there are plenty of ways to put in your 2 cents in poker. That's what we'll talk about here. Maniacs come in many different varieties: some bluff desperately and have a blast at the poker table for the rest of their lives, some simply overestimate their combinations, and some can be aggressive when appropriate and justified, but still too often. One way or another, most of them are used to thinking that others are characterized by excessive folds to aggression - you just need to put pressure on them harder. And with their style, which most cannot counter, they are only more and more convinced of this. If they have any draw / low pair / God forbid, top pair+ on the flop, they will probably raise or donk-potbet with all this good stuff. And they will often put pressure on you with bluff pushes - either preflop or on the river - each maniac is unique in their own way. Maniacs put way too much money into pots postflop with hands that are objectively unworthy of such investments against a much more reasonable Hero's range, and they are generally unwilling to give up pots. They are overly emotional about any action you take that means you are not giving up. If you raise them, they will often take it personally and start to go even crazier afterwards. I personally love throwing a bone to maniacs in the sense that I show them how I'm supposedly trying to bluff them, and thus provoke them even more. As a result, they think that I've become completely insolent and start fighting me as a personal enemy. Which results in another loss of stack for them. How to win the most against them? #1. Set as many traps for them as possible If you usually have normal fold/raise and call ranges against the same, - normal, - opponents, then with maniacs everything can turn upside down. And if you did not (check-)raise on the flop often before one of you two sat down at the table, then when receiving such aggression they may well fold their entire bluff, from which you could otherwise collect a lot. Do not knock out their bluff with your (check-)raises without a good reason! Therefore, when you received a conditional Top Pair, then drag it to showdown passively, drag out time for, supposedly, thinking and confidently play it through 3 check-calls. - Even if these are overbets! You should brace yourself and call their big bets with something that has good equity + a reserve for continuation and worsening of the board. So, on pot bets you should continue with something that has about ... 40% equity against what you think he is betting with. Let their wide attack range remain like that. This is much more plus than giving him a (semi-)bluff raise in position and knocking him out of the hand. If he badbeats you for an entire stack and leave the table / lose it on someone else the next hand - what can you do. In the long run against the sum of all maniacs, a confident call-down will be the most profitable decision if the maniac has started telling his story. #2. Trick them into (check-)raising when you have a decent hand This is done by betting small into maniacs, which they perceive as weakness and start going nuts in response to it. This can be done at any stack size. However, since you are more of a cash game player, we will consider an example with a 100bb stack. Preflop: Maniac raises from CO - you call from BB with . Flop: or drawier texture. You have a whole set here. - Donk-bet against the maniac 2 bb into a pot of 6-8 bb. Often he will regard this either as weakness like a weak pair, or as a whole challenge and will start going crazy. Now take a pause to «think», look sad if you are playing live and just call his raise - of any size. Turn: Any at all. - Start with a check. - The maniac will usually continue to press you with all the trash he has. - Same pause / sad look and call. River: On the vast majority of run-outs you will also need to call his huge bet / All-In, or (check-)shove yourself. On dangerous run-outs, just call - despite the possibly completed draws. Even on 3-flush or 4-straight rivers there will still be many bluffs. With 4-flush rivers it is more difficult, but they will come very infrequently. However, on those textures you may now find a fold. #3. Buckle up and accept variance early Considering the wide ranges of maniacs, their stubbornness and occasional variance outbursts, you should immediately accept that you can lose your stack in the next hand with a maniac because he got lucky again. Playing with maniacs is truly a rollercoaster and a risk. However, this risk is accompanied by the maximum +EV over the long term of playing with such opponents. It is the maniacs who will lose you the most money in the long run, given all the troubles they can cause you in a single session. An alternative way If you are not ready to tolerate being run over and bad beat, then do not play with maniacs at all. And also if you do not like watching how after that the maniac loses your stack to some nit, who will barely be able to get it back without a big cooler in your favor. And that's all for today.
