Free Poker Strategy

Stone Cold Bluffing is never a poker situation that is ideal, especially if you are shortstacked, and you should not undertake such a move purely for the enjoyment of making a dangerous move work.

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If you find yourself raising in late position with a fairly weak hand like (A,2) and your opponent calls a preflop, you can raise on a flop such as (2,4,9). There is a reasonably strong chance your opponent has a hand such as (K,Q) or (A,J) and has missed altogether.

You would expect a poker preflop reraise from hands such as (A,K) and perhaps (A,Q) so I think we could usually count these out. Even if your opponent has a small pocket pair that has missed, they will very likely fold the flop. If they don’t, an (A) or (2) can still give you a probable winning hand. Knowing individual players can help here, as you must beware of players who have the skill to reraise with nothing in this position, and those that wouldn’t even attempt it.

For the above reasons, it is often more beneficial to make probing bets when you have some part of the board cards, but that is not to say there is no place in poker for stone cold bluffs. If you do feel in a position to make these type of bluffs, you have to be very accurate with your reading. Making a big bluff against a strong hand when you are drawing dead is certainly no profitable way to play. So you have to feel very assured your opponent cannot call before making these strong plays.

Sometimes you can make a smaller stone cold bluff on the flop after missing, remember it doesn’t have to be a huge bet. If you think about it, you wouldn’t make a huge bet on the flop if you had flopped a very strong hand for fear of forcing your opponent out, so there is no need to bet big when you are bluffing the flop either. Remember there is a story to tell when bluffing. Try to make controlled bluffs on the flop or turn, as information gathering excersises whilst there are still cards in the deck that will probably win you the hand.