Using the Reraise Bluff in No Limit Hold'em
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
By Staff
PartTime Poker
I'm sure everyone has seen an idiot or two in their poker career that will reraise you all in and then show jack high after you fold. In general, these people will never get far in tournaments because they tend to bluff too often and don't know when to bluff. However, reraise bluffing does work in many occasions. You just need to know when you should try to pull something like this off and consider the consequences. This technique is usually good for MTT or SNGs, although if there is a rather large sized pot in a cash game, don't be afraid to reraise bluff. Furthermore, I would advise not to try this unless you are a middle stack. If you have more than 30 times the big blind or under 10, you should probably not be playing so aggressive. It is probably not worth all your chips if you're low and definitely not worth risking your dominate chip stack by reraise bluffing in these situations. Also, this move is much more effective if you have a tight image.
So why should you reraise bluff? Because when you reraise, it means someone raised so the pot you are picking up has to be at least a decent size. Furthermore, not betting out first allows you to gain more information on your opponents.
RERAISING PREFLOP
Normally when you make a play like this, you want to do it when your opponent is bluffing as well and is extremely likely to fold to a raise. If you think someone is stealing blinds preflop (usually a button or cut off raiser with everyone behind him folding), don't be afraid to reraise them from the small or big blind. Even if they call, you can bet out on the flop and they will most likely fold if they didn't catch (which is more likely than them catching). Good hands for doing this with are low suited connectors because even if he calls you probably have two live cards and could easily suck out.
RERAISING ON THE FLOP
A lot of flops are good for reraise bluffing and a lot of flops aren't. Flops with a low pair or three cards under 10 are good. Keep in mind your opponents might call if they don't think you have anything so be sure you can think of a plausible hand you could be reraising with. If you called a big bet preflop and reraise on flop 237, people usually suspect something. Also, when you reraise on the flop, you usually want to have some sort of drawing hand, something like an outside straight draw or even just two overs might be good enough. This way if your bluff goes wrong you still have a chance of catching something. Besides this, it is a good idea to check in an early position and then wait and see what your opponents do. If someone makes a small weak bet after raising big preflop, it is a good bet that they are trying to protect their good hand but haven't caught anything. If a strong bet is made, you want to fold.
WHO TO RERAISE
The type of people you should be reraise bluffing are the tight aggressive ones that you know will raise with a weak hand or bluff easily. However, you should not get confused between loose and aggressive players. If you see a player is calling everything even with mid pair, it is probably a good idea not to reraise bluff him, even if you feel he doesn't have a hand.
HOW MUCH TO RERAISE
A lot of the time, a min raise will work, but this is only if your opponent is bluffing and is also a weak player. However, it is also a foolish idea to reraise very large amounts (like all your chips). Instead, you must take into account the situation and the player. A good general sized reraise would be maybe 1.5 times the initial raise or if the pot is big, half the pot. You should also consider how much you're willing to risk in this reraise. If someone raises 300 into a pot of 1200, it seems like a good time to reraise, but if you only have 2000 chips left, you might consider just folding unless you are sure you can push him out.
WHAT IF THEY CALL?
If they call the reraise, it is a safe bet that they have a hand. However, it is also possible they have a draw. Here you'd have to size up your opponent and really think if they would have called with a weak hand. Usually, the amount of time they take to decide to call can be an indicator as to how strong their hand is: the longer they take, the more unsure they are. A good guideline here is your opponents chip stack. If he is a middle stack like you should be, he probably has a strong hand. If he's high, he could be on a draw and is also probably unwilling to risk losing a large portion of his chip stack. If he's low, then you don't have to worry too much about losing much more if you continue bluffing. However, the safest bet is to check the turn and see how your opponent acts, especially if you have some kind of draw. If he checks, then he is scared and you might be able to bet again on the river (if the turn and river are favorable), but if he bets, you should probably fold.
Hopefully you learned a couple of things from this article and I hope you'll be reraising a lot of players out of their money soon.
