Following on from the previous article where I gave a situation in which you could steal a big pot against the right type of player without once looking at your cards, below is another situation in which showing perceived hand strength will pay off handsomely.
Flop - Tc 5s 3h. The villain makes a continuation bet with $40 into a $65 pot (5/10NL) and you raise to $110, the villain calls
On this very dry flop, with few draws, the fact that you are raising in position should fire warning bells through the initial raisers ears. The cards are not there for you to be raising in the hope of a draw on the river, so in the villains eyes you must have something. Most of the time, the other player will fold any overcards they hold like KQ that have missed the flop, meaning you will take the flop down. In this case however the villain calls.
Turn 9h- Villain checks to us and we bet $160 into a $220 pot. The villain folds
A lot of the time in this situation the villain will either check raise if he believes his overpair is good for value, or if he is holding a top pair or set because he is out of position and will not get any more value from his cards on the river if we check behind after he checks.
Our raise puts pressure on him, meaning he will usually either fold or raise depending on his perception of the player and also on what hand he thinks we are holding. Either one is good for us - a fold means we win the pot, and a raise saves us money from a river bluff if he has a hand strong enough to call with.
If he elects to simply call, then you will have to really hope an Ace comes on the river to scare the villain even more, as the likelihood of him calling two streets with a naked Ace is low. Another good scare card if it went to the river would be something like the 9h which would open up the possibility of a back door flush draw/2 pair (9T) etc. This would make it very hard for the villain to call our raise. Luckily in this instance things don’t go this far and the villain folds to our bet on the turn.
Again as I already stated previously you should not try and use tactics like this on every single hand as you will quickly be worked out. Instead try playing like this in around 1 in every 10 hands and only against players who you feel this will work on. Successfully practicing this technique will allow you to implement successful floats and bluffs, in your regular game, not just using the strength of your cards to win pots, but more psychologically.
James 'james666' Sudworth is a part of the Team PKR Pro group of poker players who recently represented PKR at the 2009 WSOP. To find out more about him and to read more articles written by James, please click here
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