Leave yourself outs

Leave yourself outs

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Shady9977 Nibs: 514 Member Since: Feb 6th 2008

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         Bluffing is a part of the game. Using the “all-in factor” is important in order to steal pots and blinds in order to maintain a decent chip stack… especially if you don’t catch any good hands for awhile. One of the important things about bluffing, however, is that you MUST leave yourself outs. Not having outs is a bad way to play the game.

       Here’s a bluff without outs that I witnessed the other night…Samuell was holding: J-T suitted. Hel was on the button and made a pre-flop raise. Not a bad play with this hand and positioning… I would probably do the same. John, who was in the big blind, was the only player to call the $15 pre-flop raise. The flop hits: A 3 7. John was first to act and he checked to Samuelll… probably because he anticipated another bet from the raiser. Sure enough, Samuell bets $40 on a stone cold bluff. There aren’t any hearts on the board and he doesn’t have a pair or anything. But it’s still not that bad of a play on his part… he’s simply following up his pre-flop raise with a post-flop bet. He’s hoping John doesn’t have the Ace and will fold.

       Instead of folding, however, John looked down at his cards for a second time and then matched Samuell’s bet with a call. And THIS is where Samuelll should have seen the red flag waving in the air and should have backed off. He made a pre-flop raise with a hidden hand and didn’t hit anything on the flop. He took a stab after the flop and didn’t get it. Now it’s time to minimize his losses
and live to see another hand. The turn card comes: 3. This is obviously no help to Samuell. John checks again. This is where Samuell screwed up. Instead of checking and seeing the river card for free, Samuell bluffs at the pot hoping to buy it. He goes all-in. The problem is, Samuell didn’t have any outs. No draws or anything. If John calls his bet, Samuell is dead… Period.

      Sure enough, John calls and throws over A-Q… giving him top pair with a Queen kicker. And Samuell is embarrassed to even show his hand. He’s drawing dead to a pair. He’s got no outs… a ZERO percent chance of winning the hand. Even if he just had a GUTSHOT straight draw he’d be better off than he is now. As soon as John called the post-flop bet of $40, Samuell should have backed off and gave up on the hand. But instead he ended up losing $200 because he bluffed without outs. The key is bluffing is to do it when you’re CONFIDENT your opponent won’t call. So one might argue that it DOESN’T MATTER if you have outs or not.

This picture is to relax a little. ( for Viceroid " do you like it?")

         But it DOES matter. It matters because sometimes you WILL get caught on a bluff. And it’s always better to have as many outs as possible. If there are three cards left in the deck that can help you and the turn and river cards are remaining, you have a 12.49% chance of completing your hand. If there are five cards in the deck, you’ve got over a 20% chance. Over the course of your poker career you will get caught bluffing… many times, no matter how well you time your bluffs. And if you can WIN one out of ten, or one of five times, then you’re saving yourself a lot of chips over the long haul. It’s yet another way to increase your “poker profitability”.

Comments (2)

Posted on Jul 28th 2008 by Josh1313 Excellent post and advice. Something that everyone should be aware of and avoid putting themselves in bad situations.

Posted on Jul 29th 2008 by PI_Viceroid I like the girls of course I do....lmao U CANT BUY ME WITH THAT..haahaha anyway good post byes