Bluffing on the River
This is the story of how I bluffed on the river, with three-way action, despite being all in pre-flop. It was the Foxwoods 5k event, and I found myself nursing a short stack, with around 112 players left. The chip leader at my table raised. The guy on the button to my right, who was pretty tight, went into the tank. I read him as having a weak ace and it seemed like he wanted to muck. He finally decided to call, however; I think because he suspected the chip leader was just playing any two cards. I had 10♦8♦ in the big blind, and I pushed all in, knowing both of them would call — the raise was like 800, and I had 2,500. The flop came K-8-2, giving me a pair of eights. Now the initial raiser checked, as did the other guy, so I knew my eights were good.
The turn card was an ace, and I’m like, “Oh, there it goes… I need to get lucky on the river now.”
The initial raiser bet again. The button thought for a while, and the reason was that my pre-flop read was right — he had a weak ace, and he was saying to himself, “Well, this guy wouldn’t bet if he didn’t have an ace, and if he does, he’s got my ace beat.” But then he thought, “This guy’s a little bit crazy; I’ll call because it’s only a small side pot.” And now, all of a sudden, something came over me. I thought, “Hey, wait a second. The chip leader guy has played so poorly, he may actually be bluffing! And he may continue his bluff on the river just to win the side pot, since the button showed weakness on his call.”
The river comes a deuce, which doesn’t help my hand. Now, most players, when they are all in with a pair of eights and they know that one of the other two players has an ace, would just start packing their bags. Me, I stayed there intentionally, with my hands on my cards like I wanted to turn them over. The guy on the button was to my right; I’m pretending that I can’t wait to turn my hand over so he thinks that I’m winning the pot. I’m just praying that the guy who bet first would bet again, and he did.
The button looked at him, then looked at me and thought, “Well, Chad’s not getting up, so he’s got a hand. There’s no reason to call; I can’t win the main pot.” So he mucked his ace. As I suspected, the guy who bet was bluffing, and I wound up winning the main pot.
I think it’s an important lesson for all tournament players: Even in a situation where you think there’s no way you can win, when you’re all in and you know you’re in trouble, you should never give up. In this situation, I actually bluffed out the ace without having any chips.
