Bluff raising the river in limit hold’em
It is often said that there is very little scope for bluffing in Limit Texas Hold em but yet this is simply not true. There is less scope for bluffing in limit hold’em simply because the betting is structured and so your opponents are always getting decent pot odds to call with even weak hands. Bluffing is easier in no-limit because you have the opportunity to hit your opponent with a sizable amount of money to call when you raise. But in limit hold’em then you can even bluff raise the river profitably in many situations.
Let us have a look at an example, it has been folded around to your opponent who raises from the cut-off and the button and small blind fold. Your hand is J-10 and the flop comes 9-8-4 rainbow and you decide to play your draw passively. You check call the flop and the turn brings the 2c and you check call again. The stakes are $2-$4 and so this betting sequence has placed $21 in the pot. The river card is another deuce and you check with the intention of check raise bluffing.
Your opponent bets $4 after you check and this puts $25 into the pot. Calling isn’t profitable as any pair, ace high, king high or queen high beats you. The pre-flop call was correct getting 3.5-1 pot odds. On the flop after you checked and your opponent bet then with $11 in the pot and only $2 needed to call with a straight draw and overcards then your play was solid again although you maybe could have check-raised bluffed the flop. When your opponent bets the turn then you are still marginal but fine to call as well as you will probably extract some more money on the river.
If you raise the river then this risks $8 for the chance to win the $25 that is already in there and so your pot odds are about 3-1. This means that you only need this bluff to work 25% of the time for it to break even. You should make this percentage because your opponent could have open raised with hands like K-10, Q-10 etc that would find it difficult to call a river check-raise bluff. So there are definite chances to bluff in limit but you have to be very observant so that you can spot them when they arrive.
When you are multi-tabling poker games then you can easily miss chances like this but this is really where the profit comes from in limit hold’em. The game is all about winning pots and when you can win pots in this way then you are really executing major coups in limit hold’em. This is because it is far easier to see the river and showdowns in this form of poker than it is in no-limit because the betting is structured. So when you can deny your opponent from calling the river with what would be the strongest hand then this is what really adds to your bottom line.