A very advanced NL hold em play

[Jezza]

"The Delayed Bluff". This is a tough and very advanced play that few players use, but when it is executed at the right time you can get some very sweet results with it. I used to use this occasionly, but only when I had good notes on a player with regards to continuation bets (I will explain that jargon later), however thomas keller wrote a great article on this in a back issue of cardplayer which really refined my use of this play. I will now share my thoughts on it on PL... This play is for use short handed or heads up, it can also be used in the later stages of tournaments when usually someone will raise preflop and get 1 caller, leaving the rest of the play headsup - the stacks in play must be deep on both sides. You will have probably noticed that when an aggressive player raises preflop a lot have a tendancy to to fire again on the flop, regardless of if they hit or not. This is called a "continuation" bet or CB for short and is usually a strong play as it disguises your hand if you always do it. It is a VERY helpful thing to note on someone, if you ever see the fact that they have raised preflop and then bet the flop with nothing in their hand having hit then stick a little CB in their note box for future reference on this play... If a player never makes a CB unless they hit it is also a good thing to note for obvious reasons! Of course a lot of the time, especially in tournaments, you wont know for sure if your opponent makes CBs or not, if this is the case then I would suggest if your opponent has been aggressive in general he is probably capable of it. Ok onto the play. Say you are playing late in a tournament and an aggressive mid pos player has opened for a decent raise, you have position (very important to this play) on him, both your stacks are deep, and you decide to call him with a suited connector, say 67of hearts. The flop comes J 4 2 rainbow - a total miss for you :(. Your opponent now fires a decent bet in again and of course 99% of players would fold here but this is where this play steps in ;) You flat call him. Not because you think you are winning or have a decent draw - it is plainly obvious you dont! But because you know there is a very good chance he is just bluffing with a CB and you can take the pot off him later. The turn is another 2 (a total blank) and lo and behold your opponent checks knowing he has been caught. You put in a decent bet and take down the pot mucking your cards :). This is a dangerous, advanced and risky play to use but I have made an awful lot of money using it on heads up cash games and hey we wouldnt be playing poker if we didnt like to gamble now and again would we :) It is important to note you must not use this play when there is an obvious draw on the board. A decent player will put you square on the draw and fire again on the turn forcing you to fold. 567 with two spades is a very bad flop to attempt this on. Q 8 2 rainbow is much better! Also like I said before, it really helps to know your opponent is capable of CB's.... Jez

[GreenPlasticWateringCan]

Re: A very advanced NL hold em play Nice strategy Jez. Cheers for that :ok. I'm playing the $750 freeroll on Betfred now (sitting nicely in 5th place with 24 players left at the 2nd break). The funny thing about your post is that I read it just after I had done the same thing you mentioned (Bet on the flop despite not hitting anything, been called by the one guy I was in the pot with, and then checked on the turn). As soon as I did it I knew it was poor play and a sign of weakness, and I think he went all in after the river and I folded. I did have some outs (had a straight draw) so one of the reasons for checking after the turn was to hopefully get to see the river for free (which I did, although it didn't help). When my oponent went all in I had a feeling that like me he didn't have anything good, or possibly anything at all, but I guess that shows how important it is to be aggressive. I decided to fold as that would leave me still in a good position in terms of the tournament, and I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. I've been typing this whilst playing and i'm now 3rd with 14 players left, so looking good for a high finish hopefully :hope