In order to become a successful player, you need to add some deception into your play so that other players can’t predict your actions too well. If you check every time you have a weak hand or you bet/raise whenever your cards are strong, the smart players will notice and use this as an edge against you, preventing you from winning when you should take the pot.
Here are some deceptive maneuvers you should add to keep your game unpredictable:
Check-Raise
If you have strong cards, when the action turns to you, sometimes check and then raise when your turn to act arrives again. Let’s say you are in an early position and hold the Ace of Hearts and Queen of Spades. The flop is Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts, and 6 of Spades. If you check and the next three players in middle positions also check, but the late position player places a wager, you can raise their bet. The reason for the check-raise deception is that you will make it too costly for players that are drawing hands to stay in. Any players holding straight draws or overcards simply won’t call. When you use the check-raise in the early position, it gives you the initiative in that hand of cards. Of course, they still may call, and if they do, at least you have gotten useful facts about what cards they may be holding and you have increased the size of the pot, which may still be yours in the end.
Free Card
If you are in the late position, raise with a drawing hand on the flop on occasion. This tends to make the other players check to you on the turn, letting you either check if you hand isn’t great or bet if the cards hit. You’ll save money if your hand doesn’t improve and make more when you do get the great cards. Watch out because this can backfire when you get re-raised on the flop! If that happens, it will cost you but it is still a good way to learn about the other player’s cards and perhaps a draw will improve your hand.
Semi-bluffing
A semi-bluff is betting or raising when your hand is not that great but you have lots of outs that could allow you to outdraw the other players if you get called or raised. However, you are really wanting to win the pot right then with the semi-bluff. Let’s say you are in the late position with a Ten of Hearts and Queen of Hearts. The flop reveals Queen of Spades, 6 of Hearts and 4 of Hearts. This means you have nine outs that will draw to a flush. If there are three players in the hand and they all check to you, you can bet without holding a hand that is a sure winner because of the large number of outs and their check means they are probably not holding any great cards, maybe pocket pairs or a pair of 6’s or 4’s. If you do get your bet called, there are still nine outs which will give you the flush you want and perhaps as many as six more outs to win if you hit the right cards, making it about 15 outs total. After all, you can always take a free card to see if you get one of those outs.
Slow-play
Sometimes when you hold a strong hand, slow-play it. What this means is checking or calling on a betting round but bet or raise on later rounds. When playing Texas Holdem, this is a very common playing technique on the flop because it keeps players in the pot and a raise on the turn or river cards will happen when it costs more to stay in. Watch out that this doesn’t backfire on your, however, when other players take free cards and actually beat your cards! Sometimes players slow-play too much and lose pots they could have won. However, it does allow you to switch up your play to remain unpredictable. There are, however, a few times that slow-play is not recommended. These are: when a free card is likely to beat you, when there are too many other players in the hand, when the pot is really large, and when a free card will fail to give your opponent a second-best hand.
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