Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinGChapman
I've been debating this with my home game friends. In a hand where you decide to make a river bluff, what is your strategy (if you even think about it) about timing tells for your muck when you get re-raised or called?
Say you have KQss. You raise from early position and get called by the button. On a flop of AT6ss, you check/call the button's half-pot c-bet. Turn is 2d. You check and the button checks back. River is 6c. You decide that the button's betting pattern suggests a weak ace or maybe a ten and you decide to bluff the river with a 3/4 pot bet.
Button raises.
You will fold. But, how fast you fold is a tell. If you immediately toss your cards you are conceding that you were bluffing, even if you don't show the cards. If you think about it for 30 seconds and then reluctantly slide your cards over the line, you are giving the impression: "OK, if you have it, then you're good, and if you're bluffing me, then nice bluff."
I say that it matters. I want to take my time and make the guy think that I think he successfully bluffed me -- and that he could successfully bluff me in the future. I also want to tell all the players at the table that I had a legitimate hand and that I'm making a conservative fold in order to induce them all to try to bluff me on future hands. I'm going to use that to allow me to (a) bluff more; and (b) make thin calls if I think somebody is trying to bluff me on in a later hand.
Some of my buddies think that it's better to telegraph that you were bluffing and quickly muck to demonstrate that you are CAPABLE of running a bluff in that spot so that you get more calls in later hands when you have the nuts.
What do you think?
I never want to encourage bluff raises on rivers in any game I've ever played. River raises are so unbalanced that it is easy to fold with all but the nuts. That means any bluffs they have will print against me. Why should I encourage that?
If you are playing some huge game with all regs who are GTO sound, go ahead and try to balance your timing tells. If not, just fold smoothly, and move on to the next hand.