I am an mtt player, so I wasn't sure what forum this would be most suited to, but I think this is something that is relevant for discussion across the board in poker. Something I would like to achieve is a list of heuristics (rules of thumb) for choosing good spots to bluff at. I realise that many bluffs are dependent on the character of your opponent but it seems reasonable to me that we can take this factor out of the equation and still come up with a decent list.

I will give an example.

(1)Preflop: Reraise late position raises into unopened pots light.

Reraising someone light when they raise in the cutoff or from the button into an unopened pot is often a good spot to bluff. Yes if they are tight players, it is less prudent to do so than if they are loose players, but it is still more prudent to reraise a tight player when they have raised from the button than when they have done under the gun, in the same way as it is more prudent to do so when a loose player does this.


One more example to get the ball rolling:

(2)Turn or River: When checked to in position, raise if there are 4 cards to a flush on the board.

This is generally a good situation to represent a flush, and your opponent will have a difficult time calling if he does not have a flush himself.


I realise the vast majority of members of 2p2 would already know this as second nature (especially the first example). I hope in this thread poker players who are much more adept than me can post additional heuristics for bluffing. I am sure there are many heuristics that better players than me use, that I am not aware of.

The reason I want to remove player styles from the equation is that in mtts, often it is the case that I have no idea as to the style of my opponent, and don't have the luxury of additional reads beyond what is directly in front of me. I imagine the same problem would apply to multitabling cash tables if you don't use a HUD. It is fine to incorporate stack sizes into the heuristics but not player styles.

If possible try to keep the heuristics as concise as possible, specify what street you are discussing if necessary, and then illustrate it with an example/justification. Also please criticize others heuristics if you disagree with them.

I cross posted this to the mtt strategy forum, I hope that is ok.

Something else that comes to mind. While I say to state the principles as concisely as possible, of course it is the case that some heuristics are complex and require numerous parameters/sentences to state. These are the ones I am more interested as often the single sentence heuristics are common knowledge and second nature to us all.

From Theory of Poker, although ignoring optimal bet sizing:

when I bet my $100, creating a $300 pot, my opponent was getting 3-to-1 odds from the pot. Therefore my optimum strategy was . . . [to make] the odds against my bluffng 3-to-1.

So in a polarized range, you should be value betting 3 times, and bluffing once, when you are betting 100 dollars and creating a 300 dollar pot.

A distinction should be made between tight and loose opening ranges. and tight and loose respond to 3-bet ranges. Some players are tight in that they never play out of position to 3-bets except with very strong hands, while some are loose but always call your 3-bet OOP. I would recommend 3-betting the former but not the latter, at least not that widely, and mostly with fairly decent hands.

Get an idea of how your opponent responds to 3-bets in general.

When many hands in your range are ahead of your opponent's range, but the particular hand that you are holding is not.

This would be true in most optimal or near-optimal strategies, as in assuming your opponent is playing close to optimally, but sometimes there are hugely exploitative spots where your opponent is not adjusting to you at all correctly and you can do it much wider than this suggests.

Doesn't that just say "bluff sometimes but not too often"?

Raising a Turn lead on a 4Flush board after check, check as the PFR is not a "good place" to bluff, no one, and I mean no one is going to believe Ax checked that board and Ax would raise that turn, in which case the PFC can re-bluff 100% of the time with a tremendous success rate because the "key card" is absent from your range.

IMO, Clarkmeister's Theorum, bet River as PFR OOP when the 4Flush falls is more or less the optimal bluffing spot.

In position, bluffing when the A turns or JT completes the nuts is standard. Bluffing ZXXX, where Z = Non-Ace and X = 5, 4, 3 or 2 (3 to a wheel) is effective because AK-6 will semi-bluff their gutter 99% of the time. Bluffing JxxT or TXXJ, where X = 6 or less is also effective because AK and AQ continue to double barrel and JT is the conical suited connector. Bluffing XXX, where X = A, K, Q, J and T with 1 pair + gut shot is almost always better than calling because the opponent's range is SO polarized. Bluffing mono tone or paired boards is good vs non-thinking opponents, most people just call a Small Pair + Small Flush draw when they should be raising or check/raising. Bluffing 3 to a straight is good as well, because the number of 2 pair and monster draw combinations is almost always too high for an over pair to ever stack off.

Pretty much it's all about manipulating your perceived range, representing one hand in your range while you're holding another with good equity if called.