All-In
I’m no maniac, but I have discovered that in many situations when I’m about to fold a weak hand that is beat, if I shove instead I get folds consistently. So far, it’s been by feel, but I wonder if there’s away to harness this idea.
Obviously you can do it wrong. I’m not talking about a hopeless bluff because you can’t win any other way - that will probably get called. But there’s times when they will never call & that’s what I’m trying to zero in on.
The population has been trained to fold to all-in bets, because ‘they’ve always got it’
Anyone have an all-in bluffing strategy & what do you look for? It’s risky putting your stack at risk, do you think this is a dumb idea?
So far I have kinda stumbled into this play mostly with success in recognizing a good situation, but I think I could do it much more often. A lot depends on what V is willing to fold. I’m not even sure how to do the math on something like this.
When you’re about to lose a pot and win instead it’s huge. Please share your thoughts
4 Replies
A lot of it is situational. A classic example would be when the third flush card hits and you have the naked Ace of that suit, blocking the nuts. But it needs to make sense: would your line throughout the hand be consistent with having the nut (or other) flush?
It is also opponent dependent. If your opponent is unlikely to consider whether your line makes sense then it's just a random stab in the dark, and while these will get through sometimes (and feel good when they do) in the long run you want to be value heavy against many opponents because they will make calling mistakes more often than folding mistakes.
Whether you have any showdown value is obviously another consideration. Would it be a higher EV play to call or check back?
Think range advantage. When utg raises and you defend button, a flop like 876r is going to be much better for you, making a hand like 65s a decent bluff candidate if you think they’re capable of folding overpairs. Only way to learn if they are is to try 😃. This is easily balanced with straights, sets, and 2 pairs.
I love doing this with daytime nitregs, they like to fold queens face up to assure us it’s a winning strategy.
It helps to be decent at hand-reading / range analysis. When you say you're doing it according to "feel", I hope that actually means you're channeling some instincts about whether your opponents seem weak or strong based on the action and any live reads or tells.
It's impossible to distill all the applicable advice that would be relevant into a brief forum post. But I think the summary would be to bluff when opponents seem weak, and give up when they seem strong.
Maybe as an addendum - don't try to make low-stakes players fold even when they really should. Just because it's obvious an opponent has an over-pair and not a flush doesn't mean you can bluff them off their AA or KK when the flush draw comes in on the river.
Agree doc
For me
It’s like a little voice (instinct I think) within me shouting shove as I seriously consider each of my options. Usually a clear fold situation and I ignore the voice. But when I have decided to instead listen to that voice it brings folds. Maybe I sense weakness from the given actions and don’t know why consciously.
And All-In Bets
Get more folds than anything other move!
Something about being willing to bet it all gives pause to all stack sizes. Sometimes the odds are too bad to call. Other times the concern another bigger stack might jump in causes the fold. This is all imo but don’t just shove with value.
