Can someone enlighten me into the pro's and cons of turning your hand into a bluff in NLHE.
I cant seem to grasp the finer points of this concept.

alternately are their any decent threads on this that anybody knows of

thanks in advance

a bet that u think will get the villian to fold a better hand?

When you think you have some but little showdown equity but can make your opponent fold.

Like c/r 99 on QT6 board, you might well have the best hand, but you are unlikely to get to showdown, and folding out AK is a decent result against an aggressive opponent, so you turn it into a bluff. (I'm not saying this is a great play, just giving an example)

Despite people telling you not to bluff in the micros there are situations where you should do it. You can't just do it anywhere you feel like though or you will lose a lot of money to calling stations and agro fish.

Good places to bluff at 25NL and below

- Continuation bets can be bluffs if you miss the flop and have no draws. When you have position and get checked to, if the board looks dry and doesn't hit much of your villains range Cbet. Don't call check raises of course and shut down if he starts to value bet you.

- Donk bets that don't make sense. Most of the time in the micros donk bet just means he hit his hand but if he bets something small you should probably raise him even if you're not holding much. The reason for this is because it happens so often just folding every time probably isn't good.

- When you have position on the river against a villain that you are fairly sure missed his draw especially if he's a calling station. Even if you didn't hit your draw or are holding a weak hand you should put in a modest amount that you think he'll fold to.

- Semi bluffing. You are holding an unmade hand with a lot of outs and the villain has given you the impression that he's holding a weak hand. It will be enough to beat you if you don't hit your draws. You can raise here to represent something that beats him and maybe take down the pot without having to hit your outs. If you get called you have outs still. Pokerstove is useful so you know exactly what kind of hands you should be doing this with.

- Bluffing out of position. Its dangerous to do this so it requires you have a read on your villain. You flop a hand with a lot of draws against a very aggressive fish who Cbets close to 100%. You don't think he's holding anything. You can check raise here as a semi bluff and probably pick up a decent pot.

I probably missed a few other spots. And I'm looking for critiques too .

I wasn't aware advice was made for critiquing. It's either good or bad. Also, OP is talking about a specific move.

I was also under the impression that "Turning your hand in to a bluff" is basically what Dwan pulled on Antonius in that last cash game on PAD, where Dwan had a made hand and over bet the pot on the river by 3x causing Antonius to call with a lesser hand because of the "odd" bet.

No thats a value bet.

'Turning a hand into a bluff' is turning a hand you were value betting (or could be value betting badly I suppose) into bluff.

So if value bet bottom pair on the flop and turn, but the fact that he has called two streets means his range is stronger than you initially thought (so includes more hands better than yours)so you bet the river as a bluff instead of checking back so the hands that he is winning with but no willing to call another a bet with don't win the hand.

urm, hope that makes sense.

This concept really focuses on the river.

It's almost always a "con" for a beginner or at microstakes.

If you have a decent but not great hand with showdown value, just go ahead and show it down. If you bet, Villain will tend to call with better hands and fold worse hands, which is the opposite of what you want.

If, however, you have some reason to think you can get Villain off a better hand (e.g., he's a showdown nit who tends to fold everything but the nuts), you can bluff with a hand that you would normally just show down. Villain will have to fold some quite strong hands for this move to be immediately +EV.

There are also some metagame reasons for turning your hand into a bluff, because you can then make thinner value bets later since Villain will be more eager to look you up. This concept is called "range merging".

So you can set up future "range merges" by "turning your hand into a bluff".

This stuff becomes important at the nosebleeds where the player pool is very small and the players are sophisticated eg many of Dwan's moves.

But it will all be completely lost on your average Villain, so just play ABC on the river and you will do fine.

Pros: he could fold a better hand and you win the pot.
cons: his range is better than you thought and he calls and you lose, or his range was much worse than you thought and you try to bluff, but he raises you off the best hand.

This is the best explanation I've read. You won't go wrong here

I would say use of this is a rare occurance in most games. Best is when you know you are probably behind opponents range but if you raise they will most likely fold as you represent that they are beat.

It would also be good vs opponents that value bet thin.

Example:

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($91.35)
UTG ($136.50)
MP ($59)
Hero (CO) ($50.75)
Button ($66.20)
SB ($57.95)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, Q
UTG bets $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, 3 folds

Flop: ($4.75) 2, J, A (2 players)
UTG bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($9.75) K (2 players)
UTG bets $6, Hero calls $6

River: ($21.75) 7 (2 players)
UTG bets $14, Hero raises $40.25 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: $49.75

Results:
Hero had A, Q (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $73.60

In this hand opponent is a nittish player who by the river I think has a better hand than myself but he rarely has a flush so by shoving I can still win the pot.

You need monstrously good reads to pull off something like that though.

Nothing is ever that black or white in poker. You'll always find someone who does it differently or does it better.

I always thought of it as making a play that reduces your opponent's range when he calls to the hands that beat you. For example, if you 3-bet an UTG raiser preflop with a hand like TT, you are folding out everything worse and are stuck playing against a range that has you beat. Sure the play might be profitable in that Villain may be folding to 85% of 3-bets, but if you are playing purely for FE, you could do that with 72o as well - you didn't need to waste the value of TT.

The same holds true when you have hands with some showdown value, say top pair, and you go for a c/r or a big raise against a player who is c-betting 100% of his range. Again, you may get a lot of folds, making the play profitable in a vacuum, but you may have greater EV if you keep his range wide and keep letting him barrell away at you. By folding out his air, you are isolating himself against the top of his range. If you were really bluffing (say you have 2nd pair plus one or two backdoor draws), you would be making a decent semi-bluff and would have an easy time getting away from the hand if Villain shoves, or if you miss your draws and Villain bets later in the hand. But with top pair, you are mostly putting yourself in a tough spot, tying yourself to a pot that you may well have to give up on because you are narrowing Villains' range.

So to me, turning your hand into a bluff has a negative connotation. You are playing a hand in a way that gives you the tough decisions, not the other way around. OOP, and when the pot is large, it is not so much of an issue, since taking down the dead money is a worthwhile goal in and of itself. But in a single raised pot, especially in position, there is often a better way to handle hands with showdown value than by playing them purely for FE.

Yes in the examples you have given it would be definitely bad as you are making the opponent fold a better hand.

You obviously in poker always want to keep worse hands in to get as much money from them as possible.

However, there are definitely times where the actions of the player leads you to believe that they have a better hand than you and that you can make them fold.

Say MP raises pre and you call with 88.

Flop: Qc7d6c; He bets and you call.

Turn: 2d; He bets and you call.

River: 5c; He bets and you raise.


You called the flop and turn cause you feel you have the best hand a good amount of the time. This is not true on the river but you decide to turn your hand into a bluff and raise trying to get him to fold KQ, AQ, KK, AA or w/e. Not considering whether that's a good idea here against most opponents that is an example of turning your hand into a bluff.

Meanwhile raising this flop would also be turning your hand into a bluff but that's just like always a bad play.