Ruthless and risky : Lessons from a failed bluff

The thing about poker is that you have to do many things simultaneously well. You have to be able to make a good hand yet fold it to a better one. You have to be able to take a bad hand to call a bluff. You have to be able to take a great hand and throw the knockout punch. Each of these situations comes with a certain sense of urgency because in poker, the opportunities to throw a knockout punch is very rare and if you don't knock them out when u get a chance, then you might have to wait hours for ur next chance. Finally, despite there being very few chances to knock someone out (stack them completely), you are always and constantly under the threat of being knocked out.

Poker is like boxing. Good boxers throw jabs and block the opposing player's aggression. They jab until they can manever themselves into a situation where they can throw that knockout punch. And they know, if they miss that knockout punch a) they have to manever forever to have it again, or b) they manage to needlessly expose themselves and get knocked out.

Nonetheless, yesterday was one time in which I felt I played very well. Not perfect. But damn good. I managed to stack someone everytime I thought I had the hand to do so. I got value for my marginal single pair hands. I saved bets when I had a strong but second best hand.

One of the hands I'm most proud of is actually one of my failed bluffs. They say good players must always take calculated risk and here was one (most would find extremely risky):

I raised in late position w/ K8o when I saw one of my favorite fish limp in. Everyone folded to him and he called. flop came Qd 9d 6s. Now I made a c-bet representing a Q. I looked at him the whole time. He stared at the board the whole time. Even as he was calling, he kept staring at the board like he was dying to know what the next card was. At this point, I knew he had a flush draw. The thing is, I had nothing. Turn came a blank, 4c. Now he checks it to me and I'm thinking, i can a)check it down and then bet when the flush misses to take the pot or i can take the riskier but far more profitable approach.

I did b) I bet an amount that I thought he would call planning to take it away from him on river when he misses flush or give up if he hits it. Since I knew on the turn he had less than a quarter chance to hit his flush, I knew that that $200 i bet, i would win back with 80% probablity and if he hit, i wouldn't pay him off.

So I bet $200 into a $200 pot. River came a Ah. Now I made a huge bet - $500. I felt that there's no way he could call. I could have two pair, a set, or AK. I built the pot, gambling that he wouldn't hit his flush (and he wouldn't over 80% of time) and end up letting me take it down. He thought for less than 5 seconds, then called. Opps, now im fuked. He showed AdJd - missed his flush - but caught a SINGLE ace w/ a weak kicker and called a nearly pot size river bet against someone that was betting out the whole time. Despite that, I knew against any reasonable player, my bluff would have succeeded and I'm proud of myself for having the courage and conviction to take advantage of my read for potential greater profits.

Its in such a way I feel very much like I've improved a lot. After I realized he played a single ace that strong, i ended up getting every dime back from him on the last hand of the game where I flopped a set of Ts on a flop of 9 T A rainbow. I knew he had an A so i proceeded to bet double the pot on the flop and he pushed all in to have me insta-call him and get stacked for over a grand. I remembered his weakness of overvaluing a single pair, and I exploited that to the maximum. Ruthless? Perhaps. But that's good poker and I'm damn proud of it.