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EXPERT VIEW - Layne Flack, Huck Seed, and Bluffing
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28 March 2006
I am a big fan of the Full Tilt Poker "Tips from the Pros" weekly email. It`s a good reason to sign up with Full Tilt, which is a very solid online poker room in any case. Every week one of the many top players who endorse the website will be asked to write down a nugget of poker wisdom, and there has been a lot of food for thought in my Inbox this year.
The past two weeks have seen articles by Huck Seed and Layne Flack, two pros that I respect because they both have a maverick, devil-may-care table image but clearly approach poker from an analytical perspective. Flack is known as an incredibly aggressive player, and he can suffer from the odd meltdown in terms of throwing off vast quantities of chips, but he always seems to have those chips at some point in a tournament. He accumulates plenty of big wins, and one of his best weapons is his acute understanding of bluffing. Flack is expert at bluffing his way to a pot, and at inducing bluffs when he has a hand. The latter technique earns him some huge pots, and it`s his reputation as a loose player that helps in this regard.
Huck Seed won the World Series of Poker Main Event (Flack is a multiple WSOP bracelet winner in his own right), and his thoughts on bluffing were very intriguing. He argued that representing a bluff on the river when you actually hold a strong hand can pay serious dividends. You do this by over-betting the pot, as though the last thing you want is a call. My only concern is that readers who play in $10 Sit `N Gos will try to employ this strategy and find that their opponents are nowhere near advanced enough to understand what`s happening. Seed`s thoughts rely on the fact that your opponent is a thoughtful and solid player. If your opponents are not thinking at all (and many of them are a long way from being sentient when it comes to poker) then this strategy will be wasted on them.
As you progress in stakes levels, however, Seed`s views on representing a bluff when you actually hold the winning hand are very persuasive. Flack makes a similar point in his article. If you flop a flush he advises you to bet out at it because a lot of players will feel that you are trying to steal if the board is all of one suit. Again table image is so important here. If you`re a rock and bet out no one will call you. If you`re Layne Flack, and you`ve bet out at the last three pots with nothing then you?re going to find some action. Bear that in mind.
I`ve watched Phil Ivey induce bluffs as well in similar spots. He likes to bet the flop and then check the turn, a classic sign of weakness. He represents that he was trying to steal and when it didn`t work he slows down on the turn. This in turn induces a bet on the river from his opponent, at which point he brings down the hammer with a huge re-raise. His opponent is now forced to reconsider, but for many mediocre players that check on the turn is impossible to ignore and they gladly call.
I still feel that while you play at intermediate and novice levels, especially in online poker, you need to value bet a lot of the time and try to avoid overly tricky styles of play. But this level of poker strategy is vital once you get to the $100 SNG level and higher, or play no-limit cash games where the buy-in is $400 or more.
Posted by: Marc Weinberg at 12:08
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