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When to turn a made Hand into a bluff

• 30.06.2025 7:02 pm
• Helen
• 0 Comments

We all understand that turning an already made hand into a bluff by accident can be a very critical blunder.

If a bad hand can never call and a good hand can never fold, then you have successfully made a huge blunder!

Nonetheless in most cases, a better hand will fold and you can take your value range and turn it into a bluff.

Generally, you take a hand that has got some showdown value and you give it some more value as a bluff.

Let us look at an example

$1/$2 no limit game: effective stacks $300.

You are dealt . Your better opponent raises to $8 and you call on a button. The flop that comes is . Your challenger bets $14.  Then the turns comes as  . When your opponent bets $30,you bet another time.

The river comes as and your challenger bets $70. You raise to $248 all-in and later your challenger folds.

You used a hand that had showdown value and made it a bluff so that you may get a fold from a better hand. (This happens to be a pair of kings).

In a situation like this changing your hand to a bluff works well since your eights do not have a lot of value. (Showdown value). You can only beat a stone-cold bluff.

Calling on a spot like this against the range of your opponent is not good. If you study your opponent's third barrel range, you will find that it is a bit wider than the hands that can make a bet and call a toss gainfully.

The challenger can barrel using the missed draws, he can value bet the good kings, he can value-town with aces and he can also fire with a jack. Of all these hands, the three jacks are the only ones that can gainfully call your toss.

The best part about a situation like this is that you cannot bluff several times in this spot when your opponent is looking at you. You made a flat call on the flop and you also made a flat call on the turn.

Normally, that shows a made hand and opponents will not want you to change the made hand into a bluff right away. Your range right in front of him seems very strong, and when the second jack falls, you can rep that jack.

This is why it is a gainful play. Your opponents do not have any idea if you are going to do this. You are making a bluff in a place where you can have the made hands. It makes your bluff that realistic.

The main component in changing your made hands to bluff is that the strength of your hand cannot be strong so as you may have more equity in showdown. Your hand must gain equity when you change it into a bluff.

If it meets that standard, and you are playing against someone who has the ability to read hands, then you have a big spot to do so. Your opponent will not have any idea of you destroying the hand using a showdown value by bluffing the hand.