Hi all,

I see this happen all the time - there is an all in preflop or postflop and a small or nonexistent side pot and one of the active players with money behind bets without a good hand to create a side pot, in effect bluffing into a dry side pot.

Is there a valid strategic reason behind bluffing into dry side pots? How should we adjust our response when so many villains are playing this way?

Thanks,
DT

Build a pot that I can then bluff to win. Also if I think I'm ahead of the all in player but not the other player in the hand

It's super rare that its correct to do either of those but they do come up sometimes

Bluffing into a dry side pot would be betting on the river with just a bluff when there's an empty side pot. You can build up a side pot so that you're not bluffing into a dry one.

What drowski said about beating the all in and not the 3rd player. For example you 3b with AQ and shorty shoves a little more without looking and the pfr also calls. Betting him out would be very beneficial.

So..."all the time"?

"So many villains are playing this way?"

You shouldn't be seeing it THAT much. Maybe if you're playing super low stakes against total rec-fish. But not against a player pool with average decent regs.

As others said, in theory, bluffing into or creating a dry side pot isn't really a thing, in theory, but there are some exceptions that do come up, mostly conforming to the situation described - we think we're ahead of the player who is all-in, but we want to fold out the player who is not all in.

Situation could be that the AI player has a set, and we've got a pair + the 4th nut flush draw, but the other opponent likely has a higher flush draw, so we want to drive him out. Otherwise, we're drawing dead, and can't win no matter what the run out.

It could also be that we think we're losing to the all-in player, but we can get value from the player who isn't all-in. I've run three-street bluffs on guys I know will call me light, to recoup from the side-pot what I know I'm losing in the main pot to the guy who jammed bottom set over my c-bet on a monotone flop.

Had one hand - AhQx on a XXXhhh flop. I c-bet, short-stacked rec-fish kid jammed (never a bluff), frequent nemesis calls, I over-call, barreled turn on a brick to create a side pot, and barreled river to win the side pot. Basically broke even.

I had one last week - short-stacked player opened to $15, I 3B to $50 with JTs, and got two cold-calls, before the initial raiser 4B jammed for another $100 on top. I couldn't flat call for another $100, giving my other two opponents good pot odds to come along, and I didn't feel like folding, so I 5B re-jammed for $500, creating a side-pot.

Reasoning was just what you'd expect - JTs isn't going to be in great shape against 4 opponents, but can't be too much of a dog against a short-stacked opponent's jamming range, if we're heads-up. If my other two opponents fold to my jam, which they should do almost all the time, I isolate with $100 in dead money in the pot, potentially winning $250, and limiting my loss to $150.

Reveal - one of my other two opponents tanked for a solid minute before flicking in the call, sitting on $400, almost making me vomit all over the table. I completely miss. The AI player scooped the main pot with 99 (so, yeah, I was flipping with him), and the other opponent scooped the side pot, doubling up through me with AJs, winning with ace-high.

I wanted to lay down in traffic.

Players like that just get excited when pots become more multiway and they get more and more call happy and more inelastic. I see it a lot. A guy will limp and then cold call after a raise and 3bet for another 70 or 80 w some trash but they wont call that same hand vs a single raise if noone else has called. Like if it was just you and him i guarantee he wouldve folded the AJ if you somehow jammed pre.

If it was heads-up, I wouldn't have jammed on this guy. I've played with him before. He's a bit of a rec-fish, and doesn't like to fold once he raises or calls a raise. If he raised, I'd only continue with AA/KK/AKs.

I knew when he cold-called my 3B he couldn't be that strong, and figured he'd insta-fold when I 5B-jammed. The longer he tanked, the more sure I was that my read was right, and that he was going to fold. I was kind of shocked when he called. AJs is rarely going to be good facing a 4B and 5B re-jam.

I should have just folded to the 4B jam for $150. I let a reg grinder on my left sweat my hand, and he said he liked my play - understood what I was doing and why, with the $100 over-lay I was getting to felt the short stack guy.