Feb 12, 2019 Live Poker 131 Threads. Bluff Catcher Selection. POSTED Feb 12, 2019 How to pick the right times to call without leveling ourselves. From The Ground. A bluff catcher is a hand that isn't necessarily strong, but strong enough to call an opponent and beat them if you believe they're bluffing. It's a hand that's not good enough to value bet, as you'll have to fold if raised as it isn't good enough to beat your opponents value-betting range.

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Since it is a better bluff-catcher than my other AT combinations, I want to call with it over the others whenever possible. Thus, I should call 100% of the time that I have A spade T and use a random number generator to call 5% of the time that I have any other AT combination, so that I am still catching bluffs 30% of the time but paying off.

Each week, the Talking Poker series will highlight a particular poker term. We’ll give you a clear, to-the-point definition of the term and an example of the strategic concept to which it refers, so that you can start using the term and implementing the related strategy into your game. This week we look at what is meant when a hand is described as a bluff catcher and related strategy.

Definition

Simply put, a bluff catcher is a hand that can only win by calling a player who has bluffed. The term is generally only used to refer to the last round of betting, such as on the river in hold’em. The strength of a bluff catcher can vary — from the near-nuts down to just ace- or king-high — depending on the cards and how the action has proceeded.

Often when a player calls with a “bluff catcher,” the call is described as a “hero call” — that is, a tough call that requires extra courage to make.

Example

In a $1/$2 no-limit hold’em cash game, Player A, a very loose player who has been playing many hands and bluffing a lot, open-raises from the button for $7. Player B calls from the big blind with .

The flop comes , giving Player B a pair of eights and a flush draw, and he check-calls a continuation bet of $8. Both players then check the turn. The river brings the and after the big blind checks, Player A bets $20, about two-thirds of the pot.

Player B’s hand is not strong enough to bet, but he strongly suspects Player A not to have an ace or king, nor anything else that would beat eights and fives. Player B’s hand is a bluff catcher.

Strategic Considerations

A hand only becomes a bluff catcher after the action has proceeded in such a way so as to suggest a player’s final-round bet could be a bluff, thereby making the potential caller’s hand strong enough to win by calling. Generally speaking, calling with a bluff catcher should only happen rarely and only if the sequence of betting and your read of your opponent strongly indicates that player to be bluffing.

Bluff catchers usually should be folded against tight or passive opponents. Meanwhile, against especially loose or aggressive players, calling river bets with bluff catchers like second- or third-pair or even ace-high might well be profitable. However, be aware that at lower stakes especially, many players are often less inclined to bluff, which means talking yourself into making such “hero calls” with bluff catchers can be very costly.

Another way to think of the bluff catcher is as a kind of “value call” (as opposed to a value bet) when playing from out of position against a single, loose opponent prone to bluffing at rivers.

Say you’ve reached the river with a hand not strong enough to value bet — e.g., you hold , the board shows , and after checking your opponent has bet. Your opponent has played the hand in a way that suggests he’s made his river bet not for value but because he cannot win the hand unless you fold. That is, you’re reasonably certain he hasn’t got a queen, a trey, or a pocket pair higher than nines, and more likely has a busted straight or flush draw. Your check allows him to bluff at the pot, and you call and collect with your bluff catcher.

Watch and Learn

Earlier this week, Sarah Herring spoke with WSOP-bracelet holder Jason Duval about an especially interesting hand he played during the early levels of Day 1 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event that illustrated him facing a river bet and holding a bluff catcher.

The hand found Duval reaching the river versus Bartolomeo-Fulvio Tato holding while the board showed . After turning two pair Duval had rivered a flush — although not quite the best possible one — but was facing an all-in shove by Tato of 15,000 or about twice the size of the pot.

As Duval explains, despite holding a strong hand, he was forced to accept that his flush had essentially become a “bluff catcher.” Hear Duval’s explanation of why he came to that conclusion and what happened next:

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A certain, relatively small category of no-limit hold'em players never bluff. It's true. Whether because they are afraid to get caught or just have some sort of mental block preventing them from betting without a good hand, a certain, small percentage of players genuinely never bluff.

However, the majority of hold'em players do bluff. Most of these players understand that in order to win at no-limit hold'em, you can't simply wait for good hands and expect always to profit from them when they finally come around. Bluffing enables you to win hands without having the best cards. Bluffing also enables you to create an image that increases the chances you will get called when you are betting with the best hand.

Meanwhile discovering how to sniff out bluffs and make correct calls is also a desirable skill for no-limit hold'em players. In fact, figuring out the art of 'bluff catching' might be one of the most challenging lessons to learn, especially for new players.

An Example Bluff... Viewed from Both Sides

Learning how to bluff well is not a simple task, but players generally get practice bluffing early on in their poker development — sometimes out of necessity.

Finding yourself deep in a postflop situation without a good hand, you realize a bluff is your only way of winning a hand and fire away. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and by trial-and-error you learn what tends to work when bluffing and what does not.

Hopefully (eventually) you learn how to make your bluffs believable, with smart bet sizing and/or giving the appearance of logical 'lines' or sequences of action leading up to your bluffs. The well-made bluff comes after having established credibility, usually through 'telling' a believable 'story' that starts with your image and extends through the actions in a particular hand.

Let's walk through an example.

Having shown yourself to be a tight-aggressive player, you decide to raise from the button with and get a caller in the big blind.

You continue with a bet after the flop and are called. Then after the turn your opponent bets, you decide to raise with your big draws, and you get called again. The river is the , and when your opponent checks you don't wait long before confidently firing a two-thirds pot-sized bet as a bluff.

It's a credible story. You appear very likely to have the strong hand you're representing, and not just the ace-high you actually have.

Now imagine yourself on the other side of this situation. Say you're the one in the big blind with . You check-call the flop with second pair, then decide to lead on the turn only to get raised. You warily call that raise then check fifth street, then watch your opponent fire a big river bet.

Whether or not you are able to build up the nerve to call the bet, you should understand that holding on a board is what is called a 'bluff catcher.' That's a hand which by definition (probably) can only beat a bluff.

A player with a medium-strength hand on this river — hands like like , , — probably will check behind. Even players with stronger hands like two pair or a set might check, fearing the third diamond might have made you the flush you appeared to be chasing by calling the turn check-raise.

That leaves very strong hands (like a diamond flush) or bluffs (like busted straight or flush draws) as hands with which the player would bet. As you have a bluff catcher, you can call if you believe the bluff to be more likely than the very strong hand.

Three Necessary Criteria for Bluff Catching

Looking at this example, we can isolate the necessary elements that need to be in place in order to call a bluff with such a 'bluff catcher' hand:

1. your opponent has to be capable of bluffing
2. your opponent's bet size makes it inviting to call
3. you have to have a hand that can actually beat a bluff

First off, your opponent has to be capable of bluffing. If the player falls into that small category of never-bluffers, or even if the player has demonstrated extreme tightness and a seeming unwillingness to get out of line, you needn't bother talking yourself into making a thin call with a subpar hand. He's not firing that river with something your second pair, weak kicker can beat.

Typically you're going to target loose-aggressive players who are more than willing to bet and raise with subpar hands — or nothing at all — when calling with a bluff catcher.

Secondly, you need to consider carefully the amount of the bluff and whether your opponent's bet size makes it inviting to call.

Bluff Catcher Poker Game

If you have some history with the opponent and have recognized any patterns with bets or bluffs, use that information to help you evaluate the bet amount. If the player routinely bets big amounts (i.e., a large percentage of the pot) with strong hands, a big bet will be less inviting to call, but if the player likes to make smallish value bets and then bets big, that might indicate a bluff.

You can also use pot odds to help make this decision. In our sample hand above a player made a river bet of two-thirds the pot — let's say a bet of $60 into a $90 pot. That would mean you have to call $60 to win $150, which is pot odds of 2.5-to-1.

If you estimate your opponent is bluffing more than once every 2.5 times this situation arises, a call would be profitable from a mathetmatical point of view. (See '10 Hold'em Tips: Pot Odds Basics' for more on this topic.)

Finally, you can be almost 100% sure your opponent is bluffing, but you have to have a hand that can actually beat a bluff in order to call.

Bluff catchers tend to be weak pairs (if you think your opponent has no better than ace-high), or even sometimes ace-high (if you think your opponent has king-high or worse). But if the board shows and you have , even if you know your opponent is bluffing you can't reasonably call. (You could bluff raise in such a spot, however.)

Bluff Catcher Poker Player

Bottom line — if the 'story' your opponent is trying to tell isn't adding up and you suspect a bluff, and the situation meets all of the criteria for bluff catching, consider making that call.

Be smart, though, and not overly paranoid that everyone is bluffing you on those rivers. The fact is, whether playing live or online poker, most players bluff very little. With many opponents you're going to find their bets and raises — especially the big ones — often are not bluffs but made for value.

Also in this series...

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