Bluffing in Ten-Handed Games
By Matt Lessinger
I started playing online poker in 1999. Even though I lived in Las Vegas at the time, the online games were so loose and action-packed that there was hardly any reason to leave the house. I had some f my greatest success in those early days. It was an era of loose games on the computer and relatively tight games in brick-and-mortar (B&M) cardrooms.
In the past year or two a clear shift has occurred, and the typical online game has become much tighter and tougher than it used to be. I think the convenience of playing online has led many professionals or otherwise solid players to "work" from home. At the same time, the flow of weaker players has dried up somewhat, either because many of them went broke, or they realized they were overmatched.
All in all, that's not great news. But there are just too many great things about online poker to give it up. When you combine the large number of hands per hour, the ability to play multiple tables, the absence of dealer mistakes, the money saved on overhead, and the overall convenience, it takes more than a tough playing environment to make most avid players quit.
So if you're going to continue playing online, and you're seeking long-term success, you must continually adjust to the current state of the game. Right now, that means you have to recognize the increased tightness of your typical online opponent. In turn, that means you should probably incorporate more bluffing into your strategy than you did in the past. Of course, it depends largely on the texture of your game.
When Playing Ten-handed Games...
I've noticed that many players fall into autopilot mode. They look at their hand preflop, quickly deem it playable or unplayable, and then click the autofold button if they decide it's the latter. Determining whether a player is autofolding is simply a matter of watching how quickly his cards get folded. If they are gone instantly once the action reaches him, rather than having it take a second or two, then you can assume he autofolded.
An abundance of these players had led to tighter games, with a surprising number of hands not even reaching the flop. Otherwise, it's usually two to four people seeing the flop. Rarely do you get the kind of game I see regularly in B&M cardrooms, in which anywhere from three to ten players will be in for the flop.
Then, after the flop, many online opponents make another snap judgment. If the flop hits them in any way, then they'll consider playing further. But if they miss, they'll click autofold and tune back in once the next hand is dealt.
This is predominantly an online phenomenon. It happens either because a player is multitabling, and wants to devote his attention to the table where he has his best prospects of winning a pot. Or else a player is multitasking, watching TV or doing something else while playing, and wants to do other things when he's not involved in a hand.
For you, this should lead to an increased bluff frequency on two fronts. Pre-flop, if the action is folded to you on the button or in the small blind, you should consider raising with any two. Hopefully you've been paying attention to whether or not the players on your left are autofolders. If they are, then they usually won't even notice who is raising them. They will have already clicked autofold and turned their attention elsewhere. That means you can pick on them repeatedly without fear of retribution. It also means that raising with any two will show a positive expectation, since a typical tight autofolder will deem less than one-third of his hands to be playable at a full ten-handed table.
Post-flop, you should also step up your bluffing frequency. Again, you can help your cause by paying attention to who the autofolders are. Once you identify them, you will realize that they act the same way post-flop that they did pre-flop. Namely, they pay more attention to their own cards than to the player betting into them. If you have one or more of them in the pot with you, and there are four or less players seeing the flop, you should consider betting the flop quite often.
Two other things will help your cause ֠your position and the texture of the flop. If the action has been checked to you in late position, you should be more willing to take a shot at a bluff. Also, look to steal on a flop that probably missed your opponents. Rainbow flops with a pair such as 7c-7d-2h or 8s-3d-3c are especially favorable. Many players will look at that flop, determine that they "missed," and then click autofold and be mentally prepared to move on to the next hand. Maybe someone got a piece of the flop and is going to contest you, but it will take only one small bet to find out.
You don't even need a flop to be that perfect. Unless a player had a big pocket pair and is not looking for improvement from the flop, he is going to miss the flop roughly two-thirds of the time. You want to tread lightly with flops such as Qc-10h-7c, which are more likely to have given someone either a pair or some kind of a draw. But with flops that don't present obvious draws, your chances of getting called go down significantly.
Also, don't be afraid if an ace falls. The ace is just as scary to your opponents as it is to you, and many tight players will autofold on an ace-high flop if they don't have one. It is also extremely likely that if you do get called, your opponent has one. Again, when you are among autofolders, the cost of finding out is often just one small bet, which is nice and cheap. In turn, that means you need a lower percentage of your bluffs to succeed in order to show a profit. As long as you don't overdo it, you should take advantage of those opportunities as often as possible.
You may be worried that someone will put you on a steal, and somehow take a stand against you, but that is much more likely to happen in a B&M game. Online players come in and out of games quite frequently, and you really have to be playing way too many hands before the typical player starts taking notice of you. I'm not suggesting you should bluff at every pot. All it takes is for a couple of them to work each hour, and your win rate will go way up.
Bluffing is also a useful tool in games with less than ten players, but I will save that topic for my next article. I will be discussing six-handed games, and the adjustments you must make in your bluffing strategies against players with short-handed experience. I hope to see you then.
Matt Lessinger is a longtime professional poker player and writer, and is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker.
